"Nations owe no NYC property tax, court says" by Associated Press | August 18, 2010
NEW YORK — The decision by the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan handed a victory to the governments of India and Mongolia, which had fought the city’s demands that they pay tens of millions of dollars in taxes for their Manhattan embassy buildings.
The three-judge panel said the State Department acted within its power in June 2009 when it established an exemption from taxes on property owned by foreign governments and used to house staff for permanent missions to the United Nations, the Organization of American States, or consular posts.
The Foreign Missions Act allows the State Department to issue tax exemptions that preempt state and municipal tax laws, the appeals court said....
Did I ever just catch a whiff of federal fascism.
The State Department issued its tax exemptions while arguing that the United States would be subject to hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes for its diplomatic properties in foreign countries if the exemptions were not allowed....
Oh.
