Rush Limbaugh Sells Condo, Vetoes NY Taxes
Rush Limbaugh is vetoing New York City taxes literally by selling his posh residence there.
The radio talk show king's 10-room condominium went under contract Thursday for about $11.5 million, reports The Wall Street Journal. Limbaugh purchased the property in 1994 for about $5 million, and his final asking price was $12.95 million.
The sale of the Fifth Avenue penthouse comes a year after Limbaugh began publicly complaining about the high taxes that wealthy New York residents must pay.
The state had imposed a so-called “millionaires' tax” on wealthy residents to help cut a huge budget deficit, which Limbaugh said punished "“the achievers for the mistakes ... on the part of a bunch of corrupt politicians."
Higher-incomed New York City residents can expect to pay more than half their pay in income taxes.
Already the city and state impose an additional 12 percent, on top of the highest federal tax bracket, set to hit 39 percent at the end of this year.
"I'm going to get out of there totally, because this is just absurd," Limbaugh said last year. "I'm going to look for an alternative studio somewhere outside New York, perhaps Texas.”"
On his personal and investment income Limbaugh likely had to pay New York state and city taxes for only the days he resided in the Big Apple. In recent years, however, New York tax authorities have aggressively sought to fully tax the income from media personalities who live outside the state but who broadcast via a signal from New York.
Limbaugh says he spends only about 15 days a year in New York City, where his network studios are located. He usually broadcasts his radio show from his home in Palm Beach, Fla.
The sale of Limbaugh's condo to an undisclosed buyer will cost him about $325,000 in taxes, according to the Journal.
The condo features a 30-foot-wide living room, four terraces, a view of Central Park and a private elevator entrance. It occupies a full floor and has 4,661 square feet of space.
