The "flip tax" is also called the "transfer tax." It started in the 1970s, with the co-op apartment boom. People who sold or "flipped" their co-ops would have to pay a certain amount to the co-op's reserve fund. It's a way to raise money for the co-op without raising maintenance.

3 May 1981, New York Times, "Co-ops Levy 'Flip Tax' On Sales of Apartments" by Kevin L. Goldman, pg. R1:
It is not entirely a new idea, but the "flip tax," or the transfer tax as it is also known, is becoming more common among rental buildings converting to cooperative apartments. Buildings that have been cooperative for decades are also studying instituting taxes as an alternative to continuing to raise the monthly maintenance fees for shareholders.

20 November 1983, New York Times, pg. R6:
Picking a Co-op Resale "Flip" Tax
By GEORGE W. GOODMAN

A MIXED pattern of practices has emerged in the city's privately owned cooperatives on the issue of how much, if anything, apartment owners should pay to their building's reserve fund when they sell their units.

Such payments are sometimes called "flip taxes," a term dating from the onset of the conversion boom five years ago. "In many buildings, speculators rushed in to buy units, then immediately resold them," said Jeffrey F. Kahn, a partner in the law firm of Eisenstat, Schneider & Kahn, and an expert on resale fees. "They exploited the buildings by literally flipping ownership, disrupting stability before walking away with profits, leaving nothing behind."

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