NEW YORK — Mayor Eric Adams’ most recent tax forms, which he released to the press Thursday night, appear to contradict financial disclosures he made to the city’s Conflicts of Interest Board for the 2021 calendar year.
Adams earned $231,977 in taxable income in 2021. According to his 2021 federal income tax return to the Internal Revenue Service, he overpaid $338 on his federal tax returns, an amount he requested a $245 refund for.
He also appears to have received a refund of $1,118 on state and city taxes, his state return shows.
Aside from those relatively modest windfalls, the mayor’s latest tax returns show he did not claim income on his cookbook, "Healthy at Last," which he published in October 2020 — even though separate forms he filed with board for 2021 indicate he claimed between $5,000 and $50,000 worth of income off a book advance. On his previous annual disclosure report, for 2020, Adams claimed the same income range for the same book, also labeled as a “book advance.”
When asked about the discrepancy between Adams’ tax and COIB forms, mayor spokesman Fabien Levy said Adams never took money off the book’s royalties. Levy added that a royalty check for the book went directly to Adams’ ghostwriter.
When asked why the mayor would claim income on his COIB form that he didn’t receive, Levy said that Adams did so out of an abundance of caution.
It’s unclear whether Adams received two book advances for "Healthy at Last" or if, on his 2021 COIB form, he incorrectly labeled the income from the book as a book advance, rather than as royalties. Levy did not have an immediate explanation on the matter.
During his run for mayor in 2021, Adams’ taxes became the subject of controversy when Politico revealed that he failed to properly disclose rental income he received on tax returns.
Another controversy during his City Hall run was over where he resided. During the race, Adams, who previously served as Brooklyn borough president, slept some nights at Borough Hall.
The mayor now lives at Gracie Mansion. And while he lists his home address on his income tax forms as being in Bedford Stuyvesant, Adams also owns another property in Brooklyn and co-owns one in Fort Lee, NJ with his partner Tracey Collins, according to his latest COIB form.
On Adams’ 2021 federal tax returns, under the “itemized deductions” header, the mayor claimed a deduction on his “home mortgage.”
But from the tax form, it’s not completely clear which property he’s referring to.
Levy claimed the property in question is the one in Bedford Stuyvesant, and that, regarding the mortgage interest of $5,165 he paid out in 2021, one-third of that is for his unit in the building and two-thirds are for rental units there.
According to city Building Department records, that property has two “active” complaints on file — one for illegal plumbing work and the other for what’s labeled: “ILLEGAL CONVERSION: RESIDENTIAL SPACE.” The most recently recorded entry on the illegal conversion shows that an inspection was attempted, but that there was “no response.”
During the mayor’s race, after it became public that Adams hadn’t properly reported rental income on his tax returns, his campaign team blamed his former accountant, Clarence Harley. The news outlet, The City, subsequently revealed that Harley was terminated from a job in 2017 for alleged financial improprieties.
The accountant who filled out Adams’ 2021 tax forms is listed on the returns as Edgar James.
When asked how the mayor came to hire James, Adams’ spokesman Levy declined to say.
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