Property Taxes (Chester: home, income, law)

[Valerie C]

Thanks rmcewan, hopefully that's the case... It's still WRONG imo, but I'll have to look into it further, probably with an accountant next month. I was seeing red when I heard that Mass would be taxing my income... talk about taxation without representation!!

And welcome back Tootsie, we haven't seen you in awhile

Originally Posted by rmcewan

Hum,
More accurately: your spouses income will be used to calculate your tax RATE, but only the money EARNED IN Mass is actually taxed. Same in Maine I think.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by Valerie C

... talk about taxation without representation!!

Many people that live in NJ and work in NYC have that same issue. PA and NJ have an agreement so that if you live in PA you can pay only the PA income tax rate, not the higher NJ rate. NH and MA don't have a similar agreement?

[unknown stuntman]

Yes Maine is no different than from Mass when it comes to taxing total income. NY City slaps you with an additional usage tax besides taxing your income. Yes, "usage": not only do they tax your income to begin with coming from CT or NJ, but even if you live in New York state and outside the 5 boroughs, you get honored with a separate surcharge that comes out of your paycheck for the distinction of stepping foot into the city to make your living: another novel concept implemented by the the current fascist and spendaholic mayor, Michael Bloomberg.

[Valerie C]

Not that I am aware of MamaBee, but I'm trying to get a handle on this tax thing, and soon. I've heard a couple of different scenarios...

if you live in NH and work in MA, you pay MA tax...
if you live in MA and work in NH, you pay MA tax...
if you live in NH and work in MA and your spouse works in NH, you BOTH pay MA tax...

Rmcewan, your post made me feel better until I remembered that MA is a flat tax of 5.3 (unless you chose to pay the a higher rate of 5.85--why anyone would do that is beyond me...)

Did you mean that both our incomes would be used to calculate our Fed. tax rate?

My head hurts...
I'm outtta here to go drive in the snow for a home inspection, yippee!
Nothing like watching the inspector check a roof in the snow...


ONE MORE THING before I go...
Maybe we need to add a special TAX for MASSACHUSETTS people to pay when they come up for tax free shopping. Show your NH ID to avoid the tax. Hate to punish the poor people of MA for living in that state and their stupid laws, but if they can tax people who don't even WORK in their state...

I'm mostly kidding, well maybe, anyway...

[TootsieWootsie]

No State income tax EXCEPT you are taxed 5% on the earnings of your money, which means interest and dividends (for those of us who have stocks, bonds, mutual funds and so forth). It still ain't bad, kids.

Valerie C: I have been off this board more since I pretty much have decided, yes! NH is my new home when I leave here. I am pretty sold on the area overall as it meets almost all of my criteria when I move. So, now it is just a matter of when my job eldercaring is done...and I come there. PLUS, I think my son will probably be working in or around D.C., so how convenient could you get, eh? I am pretty comfortable with this decision now.
I hope I can contact you, Valerie C, when I get there?

[buck naked]

if you earned 10K in MA and your spouse earned 10K in NH (I'm using simple numbers - I know nobody works for only 10K if they can help it) then MA decides how much of $20K is taxed. It is not simply tax the $10K.....

I made the mistake of trying to file MA taxes with only MY W2 included and got whacked with a penalty....plus the additional taxes on my spouses income.

it would be a lot simpler if we could file based only on MA income.


the first time I heard of this "taxation without representation" was 30 years ago when my friend worked with me in Concord and his wife worked at the Portsmouth Naval shipyard. He would whine about paying ME taxes on his income which was earned in NH.

it's not fair.....but how does one fight it?

[buck naked]

Q. I have some friends who are married, live in southern New Hampshire and work in Maine. Actually the wife works in Maine and the husband in Massachusetts. Some how the state of Maine taxes their combined income. I had always believed that filing separately on their federal income tax was the way around this, but Angie tells me it's not true. Does anyone out there now out there know how the state of Maine justifies this apparent ripoff and short of not working there, how to keep them only taxing the income earned in Maine?
A. -As I understand it, the state of Maine only taxes people on income earned in Maine; *but* it adds in their spouses' income when determining the bracket in which the income is taxed. This is, of course, taxation by Maine of income of non-Maine income.

http://www.ohionanosummit.net/Maine%20Income%20Tax.html


or taxation without representation.....

it's the same if you work in MA, so the couple in the question above will also pay on both incomes to MA.

[buck naked]

"NY City slaps you with an additional usage tax besides taxing your income."


NH also has a usage tax if they can catch you......I've seen state employees sitting in parking lots of supermarkets in Rochester taking down license plates of ME people that do their grocery shopping there. They will then send a usage tax bill to the plate owner for what they estimate is a fair amount.

[buck naked]

"They will then send a usage tax bill to the plate owner for what they estimate is a fair amount"


thinking about it, I'm not sure if it's ME or NH that sent the bill - I do know it was NH that was taking plate numbers. A friend of mine that lives in Berwick, ME got the bill.


somewhere Big Brother is watching.

[MamaBee]

Would it be something that the NH legislature could work on? It seems to me the state should look out and protect their citizens from another state.

Or is this something that only MA can correct? I like Valerie's suggestion, seems fair to me.