You might want to put your property into a trust or LLC after the pied-à-terre tax rollout

Key Points:

• The recent public release of over 680,000 New York property records, including modest homes, has highlighted how accessible property data is and raised concerns about privacy and inadvertent doxxing.
• Homeowners across income levels are increasingly seeking legal estate planning tools like LLCs and trusts to protect assets, limit liability, avoid probate, and organize estates, not just to reduce taxes.
• Placing property in an LLC or trust can protect personal assets from lawsuits related to property liability, such as slip-and-fall incidents, by limiting exposure to the entity's assets rather than the owner's personal wealth.
• However, New York City's "look-through" rule treats the beneficial owner of an entity as liable for the pied-à-terre surcharge, meaning transferring property into an LLC or trust does not exempt owners from this tax.
• Experts suggest a structural fix of using standalone entities solely for public assessor records to enhance privacy without requiring full estate plan restructuring, a strategy increasingly considered by middle-income homeowners after the publicity around the property list.