ME Taxes (Portland, Freeport: sales, appliances, house)

[lbcherokee]

I can't find a recent msg on taxes in ME so I'll start a new one. We're planning to move to ME from MD if we can sell the house. I checked all the sites that give info on taxes state by state & ME didn't look too bad compared to MD. We pay more in state taxes than we do Fed. However, what I did last yr may help some people figure it out - maybe not. I downloaded a ME state tax form for 2006 & filled it out using the info I had for our MD form. Since we're over 65 & my hubby is a military vet, we have a few breaks in MD. Bottom line - our 2006 state taxes in ME would have been lower than our 2006 state taxes in MD. I should also say that we did not itemize deductions in 2006 even tho we own a house because the standard deduction is actually higher than our itemized deductions were. I'd be interested in input from seniors who have moved to ME from high tax states to see what they actually found.

[Maineah]

Wait until you get up here. You'll see what we mean by high taxes. It's not the income taxes we're talking about when we complain about high taxes it's all of the other taxes we pay up here. Everything you can think of is taxed up here. Excise tax on your car is not paid once in Maine it is an annual tax! You pay a disposal tax on appliances, tires, and flourescent lights now. Property taxes are through the roof. My inlaws pay over $10,000 a year tax for an old family camp on the water in South Freeport. Many of the people who had camps on the water had to sell as the property tax rose far beyond their ability to pay. Other taxes are disguised as fees. Registrations for everything from your cat to your snowmobile, licenses for everything you do. Hunting, bow hunting black powder hunting,Moose permit applications, fishing,salmon stamps,duck stamps, pheasant stamps ,turkey permits, clamming,
canoeing, milfoil prevention,boating, ATV's, snowmobiles,trailers, transfer station permits, boat launching. If you want to sell a few plants on the side of the road there' is a fee for that. I'm surprised they don't tax me for having a garden and tapping my maple trees. Shhh...better not give them any ideas.

[McMar]

Maineah - good info, thanks. So you get taxed on owning a canoe? Or launching your boat? Is this like a personal property tax on the boat or canoe? Is this an annual fee or a one time fee?

How the heck does the state tax for milfoil prevention? Is this an additional property tax line item for lakefront property?

[Bydand]

I've never paid a dime to the State for my Canoe other than the sales tax when I bought it 20 years ago. I can't say for downstate around Portland but I have never seen a fee for launching a boat either. You do not have to register your canoe if you don't use a motor with it.

Milfoil is a mandatory sticker you need to get every year for I think $10 or $15.

[island mermaid]

Originally Posted by McMar

Maineah - good info, thanks. So you get taxed on owning a canoe? Or launching your boat? Is this like a personal property tax on the boat or canoe? Is this an annual fee or a one time fee?

How the heck does the state tax for milfoil prevention? Is this an additional property tax line item for lakefront property?

You have to register your watercraft, you'll pay the tax on it then at your local town office. The milfoil tax used to be $20 a couple yrs ago, only paid when you register your boat. For it you'll get a little sticker to put next to your registration numbers on your boat.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

That's only powered watercraft. Sailboats, canaoes and kayaks need no registration or milfoil sticker - yet.

[Bydand]

Milfoil sticker is $10 for residents, and $20 for non residents. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife - Lake and River Protection Stickers

[forest beekeeper]

We file Maine state income taxes, though we have not had any tax obligation so far. So we have not actually paid any income taxes in Maine.

Moving to Maine you will need to re-register your vehicles in Maine. Our experience has been that registering our vehicles in Maine has proven much cheaper than most other states that we have lived in. Also you only pay to register the vehicle. In Maine you do not buy the tags, then pay taxes on the tags, then pay taxes on the vehicle, then pay a fee to 'register' the tags to the vehicle, like you do in some other states.

Here they have named vehicle property taxes as 'Excise' tax.

Also in our experience property taxes in Maine are far lower than anywhere else that we have lived.

A Maine hunting license and a fishing license are also fairly cheap.

[maine4.us]

Taxes, Taxes. Unfortunately, the cities/towns in Maine are so much more responsible for everything, their tax rates are high. When you add in the small numbers of people in a city/town that have to pay for basic services, you have to have a high tax rate. As far as state taxes are concerned, they are as all states, they want the money, period.
I did a lot of calculations on my taxes in Maine as concerned with the same taxes (almost) in Florida and Maine comes out ahead every time. I live in an area with over 100K people, yet I receive no more services than I would in Maine. My taxes here are $1300 and my taxes in Maine with only 1700 people contributing are only $1100. So, who is the most prudent stewart of tax money? Maine comes out every time. Granted the property valuations are somewhat different, but, $ for $ Maine provides more bang for the buck. Don't get me wrong, I don't like taxes, but unfortunately, they are a fact of life. If you want, schools, roads, police and fire protection, water and sewer, you are going to have to pay. If Maine had the number of people here in Florida, and they kept their pencils sharpened, you could show Florida a thing or two. Our sales tax, pretty well puts us on par with Maine income tax. I do have issues with state income tax, especially if the income is generated from outside the state. I suspect Maine only collects real pennies on the dollar of their state income tax.

[WhoFanMe]

I'm not sure if anybody has managed the transfer tax that is paid when property is bought or sold in Maine. The tax is $4.40 for each thousand dollars of the purchase price, or $1100 on a $250,000 purchase. It is usually split down the middle, although some banks that have acquired property (REO) refuse to pay it and force the buyers to pay both halves. Some buyers negotiate for seller-paid closing costs, which can include this. Some in the legislature had proposed increasing the fee on a sliding scale basis from $6 per thousand up to $15 per thousand, but the bill was defeated last year.