Three offices across New YorkTax planning and accounting for people who run things.

Service area

Accountants in Scarsdale

Equity compensation, the SALT cap and inbound international executives, about ten miles from our Riverdale office.

Nearest office
Riverdale Office
Hours
Sun–Fri, 11am–8pm ET

Scarsdale is a coterminous town and village, which is unusual enough that the municipality refers to itself as the Town/Village of Scarsdale. The commercial core is the Tudor revival village center around the Metro-North station at Spencer Place and Chase Road, with the Golden Horseshoe as the secondary center.

The numbers are at the edge of what the Census will report. Population 18,194, median home value $1,800,700, owner occupancy 92.3%, persons per household 3.22 and 91.2% of adults holding a bachelor’s degree or higher. Median household income is reported as $250,000 or more, which is the ceiling the Census uses rather than an actual figure.

Local tax

Complex returns, and a SALT problem with no easy answer

With a median home value of $1.8 million and Westchester property tax rates, Scarsdale households are about as constrained by the state and local tax deduction cap as anywhere in the country. For employees there is very little to do about it directly. For business owners and partners, New York’s pass through entity tax is worth modeling properly, because it moves state tax from the capped personal deduction to the entity level.

The returns here are complex for a specific reason: an executive and professional population means equity compensation. Restricted stock units, incentive stock options and non qualified options each behave differently, and the alternative minimum tax still has teeth on ISO exercises. Add the 3.8% net investment income tax, capital gains, partnership K-1s from city law and finance firms, 529 plans and the kiddie tax with a household size of 3.22, and charitable bunching through donor advised funds.

A quarter of residents are foreign born in a highly educated, affluent village, which produces an unusual niche: inbound executives and assignees with foreign pensions, PFICs, treaty positions and Forms 8938 and FBAR behind them.

No local income tax at all, unlike Yonkers four miles away. MCTMT Zone 2 at 0.34%, and the self employment threshold rising from $50,000 to $150,000 for 2026 takes a lot of Scarsdale consultants and board members out of it entirely.

One planning point people miss: the Unincorporated Business Tax follows the business, not the residence. A Scarsdale consultant with a Manhattan office or Manhattan clients can owe New York City UBT while owing no city resident income tax.

Figures above are drawn from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, the New York City Department of Finance, the US Census Bureau, New York City Small Business Services and the relevant town and village codes, and were current in October 2026. Local rules change, so confirm anything you plan to act on.

Services

What we do in Scarsdale

Questions

Frequently asked questions

Can anything be done about the SALT cap?

If you are purely an employee, realistically no. If you own a business or hold a partnership interest, the New York pass through entity tax is the main route and it is worth modeling on your own numbers, because the benefit varies a great deal depending on the entity and the income mix.

My compensation is mostly RSUs and options. What should I be watching?

The timing of income recognition and whether withholding covers it, which it frequently does not at supplemental rates. For incentive stock options the alternative minimum tax on exercise is the one that produces unpleasant surprises, and the fix is to model the exercise before you do it rather than after.

I live in Scarsdale but my clients are in Manhattan. Do I owe New York City anything?

Possibly the Unincorporated Business Tax, even though you owe no city resident income tax. UBT applies to an unincorporated business carried on within the city regardless of where the owner lives. It catches more Westchester consultants than you would think.

I moved here from abroad. Is my foreign pension a problem?

Not a problem, but it is a reporting obligation and often a treaty question. Foreign pensions, foreign accounts and foreign mutual funds, which are usually PFICs, each have their own forms and the penalties are weighted toward non filing rather than non payment.

Nearby

Also served from Riverdale Office

Talk to someone who knows Scarsdale

Call (929) 262-6375 or book online. Remote works just as well if coming in is awkward.