Buying a property that sits astride the city line! (St. Louis: real estate, home)

[dzial67]

We're buying a property in Maplewood that sits astride the border line between the city and the county.

We already know that the utilities are split, some are city and some are county. The property taxes are county.

We're trying to find out how our income tax will be assessed - will there be city tax to pay?

Does anyone else have this situation and have they had any problems as a consequence?

Thanks for any advice.

[billiken]

I'm going to guess that since you pay county property tax, you won't be subject to city income tax unless you work in the city. This is something I would definitely call the city about, though.

[BoomBoxing]

I'm pretty sure major utilities are shared between city and county such as MSD, Laclede Gas and AmerenUE. If you are paying taxes to the county and Maplewood then I would guess your income tax would be assessed as if you are in the county. In other words, no 1% earnings tax unless you work in the city.

The easiest way to tell is to see if your zip code is city or county. Unless your company's HR department is hopelessly incompetent (and I've worked places where it is), you will not pay the 1% earnings tax if you work in St. Louis county and have a St. Louis county zip code as your home address.

[CarrieNeno]

If your address is technically in StL County and you pay County property tax... you should pay county income tax unless you WORK in the city and live in the county. Then you will be responsbile for city tax, as well.

The listing agent should have this information. Ask your agent to ask for you! In addition, here is a public link to county records: Real Estate Information And City: Assessor's Property Lookup (http://stlcin.missouri.org/assessor/lookup.cfm - broken link) to verify where the address actually sits. The info on the MLS is not always correct.

[marigolds6]

Are you sure you are only paying property taxes to the county and Maplewood? Technically a property line cannot cross the border between the county and city and must be split into two parcels, each taxed separately. I'm sure there are probably properties out there which break that rule.
The improvements are then taxed based on which parcel holds more than 50% of the square footage. Tax is paid on the land in each jurisdiction separately though.
In the case where the improvements fall in the county, the county property would be residential owner occupied. The city property would be vacant residential. If this is the case for you, then technically you only live on your county property and do not live on your city property, only own it.

[1greatcity]

Your property may straddle two cities (as does the WalMart in St Ann/ Bridgeton), but a person cannot be counted as a resident of both St Louis City and County. So your property "officially" lies in one jurisdiction or the other. You can easily determine which one by typing in the address here Assessor's Property Lookup (http://stlcin.missouri.org/assessor/lookup.cfm - broken link) . If it's not in the city, it's in the county.