Property Taxes ... I'm so confused.

[teebopop]

Where DOES school funding come from then? Not that it matters because my "kids" are grown, but curious nonetheless.

[the 7 oh 4]

Originally Posted by waccamatt

Your taxes will probably be a hair under $1000 a year on that house. My house is assessed at $117K and I'm inside the Columbia city limits and my taxes are only a little over $700 a year. Don't forget you will have property taxes on your car, too.

Wow that is cheap...on a $125,000 home in Charlotte city limits you would pay about $1,600 or a little more. Didn't realize that Columbia was so cheap!

[muffinman]

Originally Posted by teebopop

Where DOES school funding come from then? Not that it matters because my "kids" are grown, but curious nonetheless.

I think the large part of it now comes from a 1 cent increase in the sales tax.

[movingdown]

Originally Posted by drcharlotte

We are brand new to the area, but did a lot of research before buying. SC property taxes are lower than NC because the school taxes are derived from the sales tax rather than the property tax. I believe this is a recent change. As far as state income taxes, I think they are similar, but am not sure on that one

We are also new here and did research before we picked SC over NC. Our accountant up north did our 2006 taxes both for SC and NC to see what we would owe. SC came out 20% less!! Between that and the lower property taxes, we moved to SC.

I understand that the operating portion of the school taxes now comes from the state. We can only be charged what the district owes in debt in our property taxes. I was surprised that this is the majority of the school budget but that is because of all of the building districts need to do.

Don't forget that the gasoline taxes are less in SC so it is cheaper also.

[teebopop]

I think you've all pretty much convinced me that SC is the place to live.

Thanks for all your input! It's greatly appreciated.