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Well... yeah. Schools and roads still have to be paid for and it's got to come from somewhere. There is no sales tax (except on prepared food) or income tax (except on dividends), but there are many fees and such that add up to more than you'd think.
Property taxes vary from town to town: some are high and some are pretty good. The best thing is to go to <http://www.revenue.nh.gov/municipalities/ms-new.htm> and save off the rtf file for 2006 property tax rates for each town in NH. If you keep the file, you can refer to it any time you look at a different town - it's the most recent list out there. There are a number of great websites with lots of info (city-data being one of them), but they seldom have current tax info.
That is a very helpful link for people, like me, trying to figure out where to live in NH. If anyone is interested, I have prepared a simpel Excel file from the website data so that it shows all the towns ranked, and can be sorted. Zipped and attached here.
That is a very helpful link for people, like me, trying to figure out where to live in NH. If anyone is interested, I have prepared a simpel Excel file from the website data so that it shows all the towns ranked, and can be sorted. Zipped and attached here.
kckuhns, that is a very helpful file, but I noticed that it leaves off the equalization ratio. Now, I am no tax expert, so I hope my explanation here makes sense. While it is useful to know the rate at which property is taxed per $1000 in each town, it gets a little bit like comparing apples and oranges if you just rank the towns by this figure. That's because not all towns figure the annual property tax based on 100% of the property's assessed value.
Here is an example from the Candia tax rates for 2005. The information in italics came from http://www.nhes.state.nh.us/elmi/htmlprofiles/candia.html (broken link).
2005 Total Tax Rate (per $1000 of value) $17.83
2005 Equalization Ratio 83.0
2005 Full Value Tax Rate (per $1000 of value) $14.62
So, if my computations are correct, if you were looking at a $300,000 house and not figuring in the equalization ratio, you would think that the taxes would be $5349 (300 x $17.83); while the actual taxes would be $4386 (300 x $14.62).
It's important to check out these ratios for each town, so that you are doing a real comparison--and so that you are not dismissing any great towns from your search for the wrong reasons. The easiest way I know (and others have suggested it on this forum) to see actual figures for actual properties is to check out the Northern New England Real Estate Network (nneren.com) to look at the photos and tax information they provide.
The political attitude is fiscal conservatism and socially libertarian. Otherwise, don't waste our money and stay out of our lives. It works well here. Live Free or Die is not a cutesy slogan but is an generation's old attitude that makes NH so great. We expect all new comers to buy into that philosophy.
That philosophy is one of the main reasons I've decided to move to NH! And with the town meetings and accessible state government, it may actually be possible to keep it that way, too.
As for NH property taxes, they may be higher than other states, but that is only part of the picture. When it comes to total tax burden, including income taxes, sales taxes, etc., NH has an advantage over most states. According to the Tax Foundation, NH ranks 49th in state and local tax burden. (Alaska is 50th.)
Hey, a slogan is a slogan - advertising. Hopefully people have learned that. Some are more ironic than others: NH license plates bearing the motton 'Live Free or Die' being made as a work program by people in prison! I always thought that must have been part of the punishment.
LOL.... Love the irony. However, it would be quite interesting if they took that motto literally--which would mean one of the following:
A: "I'm committed to a life of crime for whatever reason, knowing I will be tremendously unfree as a result, therefore I'm prepared to die rather than get caught---because I will LIVE FREE, or DIE trying. Heck, might as well take down a few lawmen with me."
B: "I would rather die than commit a crime knowing it would result in my freedom being taken away again Once I get out of this prison, I will LIVE FREE, or DIE, for the rest of my life. I'm never coming back here."
C: "I'm one of the small percentage of people who shouldn't be in jail at all because I perpetrated a victimless crime, and have been wrongly punished for risk-taking with my own body and mind. I would LIVE FREE or DIE if that was possible, but one cannot live truly free if one does not have sovereignty over ones own body and mind."
To pay for schools, we ought to tax [child-sized]diapers!
it makes allot more sense to tax the child-burden than tax homeowners that work their whole life to pay for their home only to be taxed out of existence + their homes.Of course we might all end up wearing adult sized diapers!
My town has no problem charging a use tax on trash bags, why not diapers, then it might all even out?
As others said, property taxes depend very much on the specific town and even then it seems a bit arbitrary because the town is basically free to assess the "value" of your home according to its own standards rather than its actual fair-market value. You might buy a house for 200k and end up paying taxes on a 300k house because that's simply what the town assessor says it's "worth." If it's on a lake or has a view, you may pay an additional "view tax."
We moved to a high-tax town because it has good schools but it would be hard to justify paying these property taxes once our kids have graduated (or if the schools don't end up working for us.) They're just really, really high.
The other thing to consider about taxes is that although there is no income tax, dividends are taxed. So everybody's tax burden is different. If your retirement income is based on dividends and you buy a house on a lake, you could end up paying pretty high taxes. It might be worth checking with a local accountant to discuss your situation before making any decisions.
Schools and roads still have to be paid for and it's got to come from somewhere.
Preferably directly from the people choosing to use those services, as would be the case if they were private schools and roads. I know those ideas are pretty radical, but you'll be hearing a lot more about them in New Hampshire thanks to the Free State Project.
We all (or almost all) drive on roads as far as I can tell. And the economy and country in general benefit from a well-educated population. When the public benefit far outweighs the private benefit, you tax. When it's the reverse, you use a user fee. In theory, anyway.
Back tot he topic at hand...The "tax" burden for those who are retired should weigh various tax factors differently than for those who work. Ex: No earned income tax is sort of irrelevant if you don't have any earned income.
Purely from a financial standpoint, certain states are well-known for being retirement-friendly because of how they tax - or don't - assets and earned/unearned income retirees. Florida and Pennsylvania come to mind. However, those claims don't necessarily consider TOTAL tax burden. For retirees, the property tax and sales tax burden is often the most important part of the equation. Kiplingers has an old article on this that might be useful.
yeahyeahyeah.. heard all about the Freestaters for quite some time. Haven't noticed squat. not particularly worrying/thinking about it.
as to the tax burden for retirees, many towns also hae a reduced rate for seniors that can be applied for. check with the individual towns. and pensions are not considered 'unearned income' so if more of your income is from pension than from dividends, the 5% isn't as big a thing.
Your only weapon against high/higher taxes is the No. 2 pencil supplied in the voting booth, as well as your attendance at your local board meetings. Of course, you'll usually be accused of being "an uninformed voter" if you disagree with most of the "we need this" mentality.
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Comparing property taxes town by town
