Property Taxes Are Wrong (single, difference, purchase, cost)

[larrysda]

Originally Posted by bUU

Now we actually pay our soldiers a living wage, and provide them services to ensure that their deployments don't prevent their property taxes from being paid.

My example was to highlight how badly property taxes have been used for over a century to confiscate homes and homes are the primary entity to the "pursuit of happiness" guaranteed by America. A small correction here and there does not alleviate the danger of losing one's home to the government. That danger should be gone...period!

[le roi]

Originally Posted by larrysda

National Sales Tax will provide more $'s to the government than income tax and everyone who purchases anything will pay "their fair share" as today's rhetoric goes.

So what makes Sales Taxes any more "fair" than property taxes? What role does the government have coming between my daily transactions?

[bUU]

Originally Posted by larrysda

My example was to highlight how badly property taxes have been used for over a century...

But the result was that your comment gave me the opportunity to show how the kind of progressive changes I alluded to eliminate the concerns you tried to raise.

[Driller1]

Originally Posted by larrysda

Before Prop. 13 was passed in California, a tremendous percentage of senior citizens who had worked all their lives and bought/built their homes and most had paid off their mortgages were taxed out of those home by willy-nilly counties just raising property taxes when they wanted more money in the county coffers. So they worked all their lives to be kicked out of their homes, many of whom had lived their for many years and were very comfortable to spend the rest of their lives in a home they thought would house them as life slows down.

Prop. 13 stopped that. That's just one more example of why homes should not be under taxing jurisdiction of any government level. Most states do not have a Proposition 13 and so many of their senior citizens end up being taxed right out of their homes when they are retired and their incomes drop dramatically. If their homes were protected that drop in income would not jeopardize their lives...one just adjusts to all other expenses when home is not a financial burden any more as it should be after working to make it free and clear.

Interesting......was younger people voting to raise taxes???

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by InformedConsent

Exactly. A childless couple in a $2 million home uses FAR less in local government services (public schools, park district facilities, library facilities, etc.) than a family of 6 (2 parents, 4 kids) in a $500,000 home, so WHY is the childless couple paying 4 times as much in local property tax? It's completely senseless, punishes the earners/investors, and rewards those who expect "the village" to subsidize their lifestyle.

^^^^^^

this post is rich in the context of the data you post on income taxes paid by income group, which seemingly suggest that low-income childless adults are receiving vast government cash and benefit transfers rather than being net taxpayers, by casually lumping them in with parents who receive vast government transfers.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by Driller1

One thing "good" (if that is possible) about property taxes is from time to time we get to directly vote on if they should be raised or, not.

School and road tax are millages we vote on.

And one bad thing about property taxes is that class warfare supporters can use these tax elections to unequally and unfairly tax our homes and residences. In this case, the class warfare supporters are liberal and conservative, and mostly middle or upper income.

Michigan has a 'nonhomestead tax' for schools which is four times the rate on owner-occupied homes. This tax is regularly voted locally as a millage.

Homeowners view this tax is free money for schools, and vote accordingly, since this tax costs them nothing. And there is nothing opponents of this tax can do to stop it.

[bUU]

(Except sell the property.)

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by larrysda

First, one's home is priceless and should never be jeopardized by government. It is a primary necessity of life.

I don't believe in income tax. That is repressive to stimulating the economy. National Sales Tax will provide more $'s to the government than income tax and everyone who purchases anything will pay "their fair share" as today's rhetoric goes.

Government can tax many other areas.

Finally, all levels of government should get out of most of the areas into which they stick their noses. Most of government spending is to "buy votes."

Welfare is an area that should ONLY be on a local level...never county, state or federal. Welfare is the biggest expenditure by government to buy votes there is.

All current National Sales Tax proposals redistribute vast sums upward, from those who cannot buy a home ("involuntary renters"), to those who own their home (incumbent homeowners). Housing is excessively regulated in this country; as a result, home ownership is not scalable, thereby leaving behind overtaxed lower-income people as involuntary renters. Some of us consider NST unacceptable in this context, and it would be more palatable in the presence of scalability which could be obtained with reduced regulation.

[lvoc]

Originally Posted by bUU

(Except sell the property.)

And buy the property for less...tax differentials inevitably are reflected in the market value of the property.

The problem addressed by 13 was not increasing tax rates...it was increasing taxes driven by surging home prices. If anything the tax rates would go down a bit in the high rinsing home value periods.

[freemkt]

Originally Posted by bUU

(Except sell the property.)

??? I am an opponent of this egregiously unfair tax which is levied on my rented home but not on thhe owner-occupied home next door. And I certainly cannot sell the property.