Taylor Swift’s reported wedding venue — her famed Rhode Island Holiday House — is facing a hefty new tax.
Rhode Island’s General Assembly passed its 2026 budget in June that includes a new property levy called the “Non-Owner Occupied Property Tax Act” — or, as it's being nicknamed, the “Taylor Swift Tax.”
According to the act's purpose section, non-owner occupied properties "do not always contribute a fair share of the costs of providing the foregoing essential state, city or town services financed in part by real estate tax revenues, which revenues are solely based on the assessed value of properties.”
The new property tax will be levied on “non-owner occupied” properties valued over $1 million. This means properties that an owner doesn’t occupy for the majority of the year (like second homes or vacation homes) in Rhode Island will face a hefty additional tax. Properties of this sort that are rented for more than 183 days a year are exempt from the new tax.
Any excess value over the $1 million threshold will be taxed at a rate of $2.50 per $500.
“More than half of Rhode Island homes worth more than $1 million from 2019 to 2024 were bought by buyers from out of state," Rhode Island Senator Meghan Kallman told Newsweek. "These homes are purchased by high net worth individuals who can afford multiple properties but do not contribute as directly to the local economy as full-time residents."
The tax goes into effect next summer — when Swift is reportedly tying the knot with Travis Kelce at her newly-taxed Holiday House.
A source told Page Six that Swift and Kelce plan to get married next summer in Rhode Island. A day later, a source told the Daily Mail that the engaged couple plan to do so at her mansion.
Swift bought her Rhode Island home in 2013 for $17.75 million, according to Architectural Digest. Now, the house is reportedly valued above $20 million. Plus, the Grammy award winning singer is reportedly renovating the home for an estimated $1.7 million, according to multiple reports.
For an estate worth $5 million, owners would pay $20,000 in extra taxes annually, according to the Rhode Island Department of Revenue. Swift would pay between triple to quadruple that amount for her Holiday House, depending on the official home's value. "Who knows, if she never showed up, what could've been."
The Real Estate Institute of Rhode Island said the act targets “wealthy, seasonal homeowners” in coastal towns, like Watch Hill, where Swift owns property.
Other states are moving to implement similar taxes on wealthy individuals' estates.
Next year, Montana is decreasing taxes on primary residences and long-term rentals. On the other hand, second homes, short-term rentals, and vacant residential lots will be subject to a flat tax rate of 1.9% — a rate only primary residencies and long-term rentals valued at $1.512 million or higher are subject to.