| Tuesday is Tax Day, perhaps the only day of the year when life isn’t easier for those who own multiple homes. In 2012, The New Yorker published “Tax Me If You Can,” in which the writer James B. Stewart examines the lengths to which some rich people will go in order to avoid paying taxes—particularly the New York residency tax, which is levied on those who spend at least half the year in the state. As Stewart observes, the law incentivizes certain members of the uber-wealthy to claim that they don’t live in New York, even when they own lavish residences and work in the state. As Stewart reports, New York’s Tax Division audits thousands of nonresident returns each year, sometimes pursuing payments from those it determines are residents, whatever they may claim. Past targets include the life-style guru Martha Stewart, the billionaire wealth manager Julian H. Robertson, Jr., and the prominent defense attorney Thomas Puccio, who left a paper trail less persuasive than you might expect from a lawyer. Another pro tip: if you’re going to say that you don’t live in New York, be careful how you describe your East Hampton property in your self-titled magazine. A lawyer with extremely prosperous clients says, of the tax code, “We don’t want to chase people away.” On the other hand, he acknowledges, “Let’s face it, it’s only the rich who can afford New York City pieds-à-terre.” | 
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