Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Because you and trobe deserve to have things free or cheap at someone elses expense.
We were talking about paying property taxes, which I do, or exploiting loopholes, which I don't. You might want to stay on the subject. BTW, I've paid school taxes my entire adult life. Never had a kid. But I think we should have an educated populace, so I've never begrudged paying them. However, I think in the past few years I want my money back on that educated populace investment.
Last edited by trobesmom; 03-05-2020 at 02:45 PM..
If someone or an entity, business, whatever uses the govts own tax laws to minimize tax liabilty, is it exploiting a loophole?
If you follow statist logic to its natural conclusion you are cheating the system by not making the most money possible solely for the honor of paying more in taxes.
No, that's how we pay for our city/town/village roads, fire, police, schools etc. all pretty important stuff.
I have more respect and appreciation for my local community's teachers, water department employees and law enforcement agents than any national politician or bureaucrat.
I also like the absolute simplicity and relative predictability of property taxes. And many States also have rules to make them "progressive" in some way, like discounts for main residence and senior discounts.
If anything, I would do away with income taxes, a complicated mess that has relatively little to do with federal government revenue. As some consolation, I live in a no state income tax state, and I gladly pay higher than national average property tax rates.
Sales taxes are okay too, and there are ways to make them "progressive"; in fact, many States already have rules in that direction such as no sales tax on food, in some States clothing, some States have sales tax holidays for school and hurricane supplies. I know some European countries have "progressive" VAT, i.e. the more luxurious the item the higher the VAT rate. Sure, we could argue about relative luxury, but it really wouldn't be that hard to come to a consensus.
Yes, at least for the part where it goes to the schools. It seems most of the property tax goes to the schools and less goes to infrastructures. I don't think everyone should be paying taxes on what they don't use. They should also eliminate Federal income tax. Instead, I can back a use tax, like sales tax since it is items being taxed to whoever uses the items being sold and not to everyone else who doesn't need that said item.
Property taxes, the single largest revenue source for local governments, are ratified, collected and spent almost entirely at the municipal level.
As a result, the United States is a patchwork of property tax codes and depending on where you live, property taxes can be either a trivial expense or a major financial burden.
Generally, property taxes are collected as a set share of the value of a given home or parcel of land. Depending on local laws, home or property values are assessed periodically based on estimated sale prices or they are valued using the sale price at the last acquisition of the property.
Though not all parts of the country use tax revenue the same way, property taxes generally fund fire and police departments, schools and road maintenance, including snow removal, cleaning and repair.
On average, state and local governments in the United States collected $1,518 in property taxes per person during the 2015 fiscal year. However, in some parts of the country, per capita property tax collections were more than double that amount.
Quote:
Originally Posted by ottomobeale
Not necessarily true.
See TX and HI.
There property tax is often in lieu of income tax. Yes I am aware the correlation is not perfect.
It’s more than just the effective Tax Rate . Population, income, property value all play a part. Texas and Hawaii are nowhere near the top.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lifeexplorer
Explain to me why only the people with properties must be forced to at gunpoint to pay for your roads but not those who don’t own properties but still use the roads?
“Forced at Gunpoint”. Where in the world do you live that collects local property ta es by gunpoint?
It’s already been noted that if you live in any housing at all or own any land and/or building on that land ...property taxes are paid. Renters pay them, it’s folded in the rent.
Explain to me why only the people with properties must be forced to at gunpoint to pay for your roads but not those who don’t own properties but still use the roads?
Almost everybody lives somewhere. Just because someone doesn't own property does not mean they don't pay property taxes. They just pay more rent to the landlord to cover the cost of property tax. Whoever owns that property has to pay that tax and if they rent it you can be sure that renter is paying the tax for them. Everybody always pays unless you wish to live on the street.
Does it seem fair that to keep your house, farm, property,you must first pay an allowance to the govt, much of it to pay for services you didnt use or ask for and if you are late or fail to pay it can be taken from you?
So much of them are being wasted on unsustainable government worker pensions, I'd say yes. Ditch property taxes until the government worker Unions are banished once, and for all. They are the Fox in the Henhouse.
And, County worker Cadillac health plans
And, carry-over sick and vacation days year after year
And, County workers getting 4+ weeks of vacation that can be carried over and paid out at the highest pay rate rather than the pay reat at he time they were banked.
And, the use of County owned cars.
And, hidden County Exec employment contracts w/ lucrative severance packages.
And, the School Boards Taj Mahal offices, and bloated Administration.
I could write a book on how County governments are raping property tax payers.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
