New York City landlords failed to report roughly $20 million in earnings from billboards attached to their buildings over a two-year period, the New York Daily News reported.
Out of the 871 city buildings with billboards on them, a staggering 82 percent did not report income from the outdoor advertising space in the tax years 2009 and 2010, according to an audit by state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli and City Comptroller John Liu seen by the Daily News.
The city’s Department of Finance has been too lax about penalizing building owners, Liu and DiNapoli added.
Billboards are such lucrative assets in the city that analysts expect some outdoor billboard advertising companies to go public, as The Real Deal reported. Indeed, the Durst Organization’s 4 Times Square is expected to rake in millions of dollars annually from Swedish retailing giant H&M’s giant billboards slated for the property. [NYDN] – Hiten Samtani