Proposed Transfer Tax on home sales

[CaliBoy]

Originally Posted by TexRob

Communication Services

Thx, Tex. This is a very good, short and succinct article. It's definitely objective and I do hope everyone reads it. Because the varying elements of it and how it affects each individually differently is the reason not everyone will be completely happy with the tax. Even the people who are, today for it. If the tax ends up being another revenue generating vehicle that is only squandered on non-relevant issues, or is spent unwisely on issues that matter, then even the supporters will turn against it. Unfortunately, once the tax is in place, I doubt there will be ever a time we'll be able to remove it.

I wonder if the powers that be could have placed a time limit on collections, and after that time evaluate the tax efficacy so that we, as a community, could easily remove it later should the money be squandered?

[giffman]

The 0.5% transfer tax is nothing compared to the 6% I had to shell out to the realtor who sold my house.

[CaliBoy]

Originally Posted by giffman

The 0.5% transfer tax is nothing compared to the 6% I had to shell out to the realtor who sold my house.

Uh, sort of like comparing the apple to the pie, giff. That .5% (or whatever it could be) would be an 'additional' expense on top of what you had to shell out to the realtor (and that tax would be on the gross amount you sell the home, not the deducted amount).

[swbtoo]

We just closed on our home in NH. Transfer fee (sales tax, in effect), was split 50-50 between buyer and seller. They are looking at increasing the tax, but it hasn't been passed yet.

It's never enough, is it, just to pass a tax. That's just a foot in the door. Once it's in place, it's soooo easy to raise it.