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Really? Brookline is listed at a 24.08 total tax rate in the 2012-01-05 updated 2011 rate report. That puts it 59th highest out of 260 entries so it is just under the top quintile. The median rate is 20.255. At $9,500 your tax rate says that your house has been assessed about $394,518.
Glad you asked. It would be that way if things were as they seemed. But things here in NH are definately not as they seem on the surface. For 2011, Brookline assesses the property at 119% of value (I don't have the RSA for that, but it's available if you'd like to look). So my value is really the $394K/119% or about $323K. Other towns are different rates than the 119%. The information for the specific towns is available at the state. If my house were valued at market rates - the tax rate would have to be closer to $30/1000.
[quote=lreznick;23671025]
Lots of assumptions going on there. Let's see. My CA tax withholding works out to ~7% and CA disability withholding works out to another ~1%. Then there's CA sales tax, 7.75%. What percentage of your paycheck goes to that? Can't deduct much of that.
Of course we get complexity as soon as we bring deductions into the mix. Remember that state taxes are forcibly extracted from your paycheck or demanded as quarterly estimated payments, and if you paid in too much your refund is evidence of an interest-free loan you've given to the government.[\quote]
This is what I was attempting to demonstrate with my tax example. Other states generate income with a sales &/or income tax. NH is mostly Property tax - fair or not, that's the way it is. There are a LOT of places in NH, where it would be cheaper to live in a state where there are sales/income taxes.
RE::Sales taxes - I did work for major tax preparation company back in 1996 - things have changed I'm sure (and I was not an 'expert' then either). Publication 17 (from the IRS) at that time, "you cannot be taxed twice on your money". If you wanted to save all your reciepts of sales tax, you technically could write it off on your 1040 (at least in 1996 time). Tedious - and that's what the IRS 'banks' on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lreznick
Are you letting them decide how much they want to spend and then letting them set the tax rate to get that amount? Shouldn't you vote to restrict their spending to what they took in the previous year? Shouldn't you vote to prevent them from assessing greater than the value of your purchase price with a hard limit on the amount they can raise it per year if and only if the market value as represented by sales of comparables in your neighborhood raised?
NH is still a democratic enough state, that the citizens vote for local school and town improvements, usually at a local meeting place (school, town hall, fire station?..), once per year, and hash out the details. Brookline shares grades 7 - 12 with a neighboring town, and they are larger, so we go there for voting once per year for those grades. Yes it's typically a late night. There is another night for the town schools and yet another night for the actual town (police, fire, etc) budgets. For the shared school voting night - there are about 4500 people in Brookline - more in the other town. That is total population BTW.. not sure what the voting population is - but it is waay more than the 500 voters that showed up. Of those 500 - I was trying to keep a handle on things by voting 'no' for a lot of things the school board wanted, but probably really don't need. Unfortunately (for me), most of those 500 did want the proposed (and outrageous) budget, the 25% increase for a select few teachers (off step increases), and most everything else proposed. I keep saying (half loud) that these people have more money than brains. I'm only somewhat kidding with that comment. I'd feel better about it if at least 80% of the voting (towns) population showed up and I was still out voted. I could go on - but this is getting long. My point in this is, people complain about taxes, don't show up to the meetings - and those few that do, haven't put two and two together enough to realize voting "no" will reduce their tax bill. "But it will cut services"... what services ? We have a volunteer fire dept (except the chief), volunteer ambulance crew, decent roads but not great, I take the trash to the dump (but I'm ok with all that).
[quote=mrcheapguy;23733398]Glad you asked. It would be that way if things were as they seemed. But things here in NH are definately not as they seem on the surface. For 2011, Brookline assesses the property at 119% of value (I don't have the RSA for that, but it's available if you'd like to look). So my value is really the $394K/119% or about $323K. Other towns are different rates than the 119%. The information for the specific towns is available at the state. If my house were valued at market rates - the tax rate would have to be closer to $30/1000.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lreznick
Lots of assumptions going on there. Let's see. My CA tax withholding works out to ~7% and CA disability withholding works out to another ~1%. Then there's CA sales tax, 7.75%. What percentage of your paycheck goes to that? Can't deduct much of that.
Of course we get complexity as soon as we bring deductions into the mix. Remember that state taxes are forcibly extracted from your paycheck or demanded as quarterly estimated payments, and if you paid in too much your refund is evidence of an interest-free loan you've given to the government.[\quote]
This is what I was attempting to demonstrate with my tax example. Other states generate income with a sales &/or income tax. NH is mostly Property tax - fair or not, that's the way it is. There are a LOT of places in NH, where it would be cheaper to live in a state where there are sales/income taxes. .........
I'm a native of NH, and live in SoCal now. I've looked into how much I would come out ahead moving back to NH. For my level of income, living in a similar house in a nice town with good schools, I won't fare that much better in NH. I will fare better, but it's not as much as people often think. It surprised me when I looked into this. CA is among the more expensive states. I can easily see you being correct.
Add to the list: generator. We find it makes those multi-day power outages sooo much easier to bear. It's still an irritation, of course, not being able to do laundry, use the oven, or other power-sucking devices, but nice to have heat, water, lights, laptop and a fridge full of food that doesn't spoil...
I live in an old mill with no outside space.. so when I lost power.. it was off to a hotel for me and my pet fish (I have 1 spoiled Beta fish)
I dunno; with all the numbers being floated, maybe my simple set will help. I'm in Rindge, NH. That's way South and very central, NH ... in fact, we border the Massachusetts border. My house is appraised at $259,000, best I recall, and my tax is $6,600, payable in 1/2 installments at end of June and end of year.
I'm paying less now for a much larger home than I had in New Jersey (near NYC, true). Also, my house cost less by quite a bit than my house in NJ, so the higher tax there was sensible. Part of why we moved here was to reduce our expenses over the long haul. We retired and moved to NH and it's worked out just fine, except that my wife only lived for the first 7 of my 10 year stretch.
Now, we are planning (my new wife and I) to move to an elder services community and let the house go. Of course, we have to sell our house and I am listing it for $300,000; but only time will tell if that's reasonable. Ten years ago we had a "love-at-first-sight" event with this house, and I love it still. It's just our age and a desire for security over the long haul that's dictating the move. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to find somebody else who falls in love with our pleasant, contemporary style house.
I think New Hampshire, for those not afraid of seasonal change and the occasional rigors that come with snowfall in the winter, is an absolutely wonderful, even divine, place to retire to. I highly recommend it.
Tony in Rindge, NH
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Taxes on property in NH
