Deadline for Filing and Payment of the Tax is February 28th, 2023
Posted February 21, 2023
San Francisco, CA – Today, the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector announced resources to help property owners and businesses with their Commercial Vacancy Tax obligations before the February 28, 2023 deadline.
“This is a unique tax that requires thousands of property owners and businesses across San Francisco to take action and file by February 28th,” said Treasurer José Cisneros. “My office has created a multitude of resources to help people understand the tax and to make the filing process as simple as possible.”
The following resources for property and business owners can be found at sftreasurer.org/CommercialVacancy:
- Informational video explaining who must file the Commercial Vacancy Tax with accompanying presentations in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino.
- Instructional video on how to file the Commercial Vacancy Online Return.
- Step-by-Step guidance on how to confirm that the tax applies to your space and how to file.
- Interactive map illustrating the commercial corridors in the City where the tax applies.
The Commercial Vacancy Tax was approved by San Francisco voters in 2020 and became effective on January 1, 2022 after a one-year deferral due to COVID-19. The Commercial Vacancy Tax is a tax on keeping certain commercial space in San Francisco vacant for more than 182 days in a calendar year and aimed at addressing the issue of underutilized commercial properties in the City’s commercial corridors. Anyone who owns or leases a Taxable Commercial Space is required to file on or before February 28th, 2023.
"Taxable Commercial Space" means the ground floor of any building or structure, or the ground floor of any portion of a building or structure that is adjacent or tangent to a Public Right of Way, is located in one of the Named Neighborhood Commercial Districts (NCD) or Named Neighborhood Commercial Transit Districts (NCT), as they existed on March 3, 2020; and is not Residential Real Estate.
The Board of Supervisors passed legislation allowing the Office of the Treasurer & Tax Collector to disclose certain Commercial Vacancy Tax information to the public with the goal of improving compliance and providing information to help the City better understand the impact of vacancies on our commercial corridors. The following information will be collected from the Commercial Vacancy Tax Return and be made public via Data SF after the filing deadline: names of those required to file and pay the tax and whether they filed; addresses of the commercial spaces required to file; if the space was vacant during a tax year; and the Commercial Vacancy Tax rate that applies to the space for a given year.