Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island Mansion Hit With New ‘Taylor Swift Tax’

Taylor Swift’s Rhode Island beach house has hosted everything from her famous Fourth of July parties to quiet renovations that sparked fan theories about her future with Travis Kelce. (Earlier this summer, she skipped Watch Hill entirely for a half-million-dollar getaway at Montana’s Yellowstone Club.) But now her shuttered “Holiday House” is back in headlines for a different reason: Rhode Island just slapped her and her fellow mansion-owners with a brand-new levy already nicknamed the “Taylor Swift Tax.”

The proposal is simple enough — if your second home in Rhode Island is valued at over $1 million and sits empty more than half the year, you’re about to pay more. Starting in October, non-primary residences will be charged $2.50 for every $500 in assessed value above the first $1 million. In Swift’s case, her $28 million Watch Hill estate — one of her eight known homes — is already costing her around $201,000 a year in property taxes. Under the new law, that bill will jump by roughly $136,000, bringing her total tab to about $337,442 annually.

For most Rhode Islanders, $337,000 is the cost of a whole house. For Swift, it’s just the new annual bill on her vacation one. To the state, the surcharge is a way to offset looming budget cuts and reinvest in housing at a time when the luxury market thrives while working families are boxed out entirely.

Unsurprisingly, not everyone’s applauding. Brokers in Watch Hill and Newport say the tax unfairly punishes wealthy homeowners who “already contribute the most.” Donna Krueger-Simmons, a sales agent with Sotheby’s International, told CNBC, “It’s a smack in the face to people who just spend money here.” Another broker, Lori Joyal, argued that summer residents “are the economic engines for local businesses” and warned the new rules might chase them — and their credit cards — away.

It’s worth noting who counts as “punished” here. We’re not talking about families scraping by on starter homes. These are multimillion-dollar, non-primary residences — the kinds of properties so elite they get their own nicknames. Swift’s estate alone sits on five oceanfront acres and was purchased outright in 2013.

Rhode Island isn’t alone. Montana just raised its tax rates on second homes and short-term rentals after an influx of wealthy transplants priced out locals. Cape Cod is weighing a transfer tax on houses over $2 million. Los Angeles already has its so-called “mansion tax.” States are chasing the same logic: if the ultra-rich can spend eight figures on vacation homes, they can probably spare a few more to keep the lights on.

Will the Taylor Swift Tax spark a mass billionaire exodus to Connecticut? Maybe a few hedge funders will grumble their way across the state line. But for most, it’s pocket change — an irritating line item, not an eviction notice. For the rest of Rhode Island, it’s a reminder that “economic engines” don’t need defending nearly as much as families who can’t afford to fill their gas tanks.

Before you go, click here to see all the celebrities who have the most homes around the world.