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Texas has a homestead filing. It reduced taxes (somewhat) on your primary residence. But I don't think it mitigates foreclosure. Government and banks always get their money.
If you have paid off your mortgage I don't think they can "take" your property from you, in that you can first demand that they assess other sources of income for garnishment and the like. I'm no real estate attorney, but there are always taxes and the government will forever find ways to backtrack on any issue in order to make you pay them.
You don't own the physical land. When you buy real estate, you are just purchasing certain exclusive rights to a defined boundary, and even those rights aren't absolute. Those rights are defended by and maintained by civil government and the societal agreement we all live under. It is a founding principal of this country that governments are created to secure property rights.
Your property taxes are the dues you pay for the legal protections provided by the government and it's courts.
If you have paid off your mortgage I don't think they can "take" your property from you, in that you can first demand that they assess other sources of income for garnishment and the like. I'm no real estate attorney, but there are always taxes and the government will forever find ways to backtrack on any issue in order to make you pay them.
'Eminent Domain' has nothing to do with owing money or debts.
When a government agency decides that it wants your land, you lose.
In some cases, you may be paid for the land, in some cases maybe not. There is no requirement for you to be paid.
I have seen this process used, to first 'condemn' and then to physically take land from my family [actually they took it from my grandfather].
Knowing our government they figure out a way to tax the reservation. But the graveyard thing you posted earlier just might work.
Yeah, I am a crook at heart. Had a First Sergeant explain to me why and how I had larceny in my soul. Sometimes I think he was correct.
So if you do not like the graveyard thing, and are not wanting to go Native. (btw, I think I could REALLY get along with the folks on an Indian Reservation -- they seem to come real close to my thinking ) I am sorely tempted to work the exempt side of the game.
Here (here being Texas) there is a property tax exemption for Renewable Energy devices. That is the realm of things I am working in, now. Ok, that is intended for Solar Arrays, Windmills, etc. Buuuttt . . . taking that to the extreme -- why not build a building/house that IS a Renewable Energy device? I am thinking Dutch Windmill sort of thing. The whole building -- shop/office downstairs, housing upstairs -- is a Renewable Energy device. Would be great sport running the tax appraisal district through court to enforce that, huh?
On a simplier level, I have been watching our career crooks around here, also. It seems Leona Helmsey was correct -- only the little people pay taxes. She was just stupid enough to say so in public, and so went to jail. So what can learn from that? (Other than like Leona, I should keep my mouth shut.)
I have been watching our local White Men business folks (our true Criminal Class), and the top end there -- Ross Perot, Jr., or Mark Cuban, for example -- they cheat the living f out of their property taxes -- but they do it by the color of law. Pay a little to who and what they need to get exemptions and on they sail. Meanwhile little folks here get their houses sold by foreclosure auctions when they cannot pay.
So what can the Rat / Cockroach (my power animals model) learn from that? If you are going to be a crook, do it inside the law. Turns out there is a whole class of other Rats / Cockroaches who do that. Churches, Charities, and Educational operations -- worth Billions, ran by Millionaires -- all consuming big chunks of public funds and services and not paying a dime.
So I am thinking The Philip (sort of po' boy The Donald) should be running a Religious Educational Charity. With Renewable Energy device buildings, of course. I will hit them on every front. The gubermint will owe me money by the time I am done. That is . . . if, if, and only if . . . I can learn from Leona and keep my mouth shut.
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