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TeacherType, are you thinking of moving to an area with no property taxes? If so, you've just lost your comfortable paid-off house and land that you've worked so hard for.
Also, the less house one is hogging up, the lower the property tax will be, in most instances. Let's say you sell your nice paid-off place and move to B.F. Egypt. You could only realize a profit if your next domicile were significantly smaller than whatever you're living in now. It pays to live small, literally.
Sun City/Sun City West in Arizona is on land that isn't part of a school district, so the taxes are crazy low. My grandparents were paying about $900/year on a $175k home
Sun City/Sun City West in Arizona is on land that isn't part of a school district, so the taxes are crazy low. My grandparents were paying about $900/year on a $175k home
Those taxes would be considered high in many parts of the US .
Especially since none of the tax money goes to a school district.
In many/most areas school taxes are nearly 50% of real estate tax.
Paying $900 taxes w/o school tax is certainly not.........."crazy low "
You're right, OP objected to a property tax, but neither did she say she was in favor of other tax to replace it. Being that a property tax is used to provide service(s) to/for the land rather than to the individuals owning or living there, for the most part, it would seem inherently even more unfair to substitute a regressive tax in its place.
There are 2 types of taxes, those that tax based on individuals (sales/use taxes, per person tax; and others based on ability to pay, i.e. income tax, property tax.
Property tax is among the more fair tax as it is based, supposedly, on ability to pay (without going into discussions of all the deductions offered to the wealthy/businesses, etc.). Meaning the more valuable the property, the higher the tax. A person with an income in the $20K range is not going to be living in a house valued at $500K or more, theoretically. So the lower value house has a lower tax and presumably, it is owned by a person with a lower income. To me, that's fair.
Sales tax or other per person tax does not take into account the person's ability to pay. Every person needs to eat. Taxing food is regressive in that it takes a greater percentage of the income of a person of limited means than it does from a person earning twice as much. The individual still eats about the same - or NEEDS to eat about the same; yet the richer/higher income person pays a lower percentage of his income on sales tax: thus making this kind of tax quite unfair.
And we all know that income tax as it IS, rather than how it is supposed to work, is no longer functioning the way it was intended: those who have/earn more pay more; and the inverse.
But aside from that, OP objects to paying taxes on property. There is always squatting, camping on public land, living out of a trailer/car. If you are fortunate enough to own land, you will pay, in this country, for that privilege/right. Someone is providing a service to that land and that service needs to be paid for.
You're assuming that rich people and poor people eat the exact same food. I am confident in saying that isn't the case. What next, are you going to complain about the lottery being unfair? That's simply a tax on the stupid.
3800 sq. ft. house, one block from largest lake in Mexico (killer views). Solar heated pool, separate casita. 18 foot interior stone walls; brand new kitchen.
Perhaps some extremely "rural" land in Alaska has either extremely low or no property taxes. Of course you'd need your own airplane to access it. I've heard that but not sure. Otherwise, I think Louisiana has the lowest property tax.
ALL land is sold and held in ownership as a "bundle of rights", and ALL land is generally subject to taxation and other governmental police powers such as eminent domain. Doesn't mean you don't "own" it. Just means that the government has a right to put their nose in your business, no matter what. Sucks but that's our system.
Alaskan here. Even in very remote boroughs property tax is assessed and collected, and the places it isn't have such a painfully high cost of living that it really doesn't balance out. When you can't get an apple for six months of the year and milk is $10 per gallon, the property tax break isn't worth it. That's not even to mention the cost of medical and needing helicopter insurance. The rate can actually be on the higher side.
A good portion of the actual landmass doesn't have taxes, but those aren't areas where 90% of the state's population lives and for good reason
12 pages, and not one person mentions that HOUSEBOATS don't pay property taxes? So, you buy a houseboat, pay the one-time sales taxes, then float it somewhere and live on it.
LOL Full blown nutter comment. Upkeep on a boat is worse than propery taxes. Plus I like having a sewer pipe and water when I use the restroom or need a shower. You be my guest using the head in a houseboat yr round, you're tax is dumping the head.
There are no property taxes for my house in Alaska. It's on the road system (I can drive to it), in an unorganized borough. No property taxes whatsoever. I believe unorganized boroughs in Alaska are the last place in the U.S. that don't have property taxes.
Have you tried buying a car, paid in full, then not paying the annual registration fee to the government? I'd be curious to see how long they let you remain in possession of it. Sure, if you leave it in the garage I guess you could keep it, but that kind of defeats the point of owning it in the first place.
If you live in some states such as the commonwealth of Virginia you will also pay personal property tax based on the vehicles blue book every year on top of sales tax paid at purchase. Then you have to go through a rigorous yrly inspection where on top of the fee (tax) they will find a defect such as out of adjustment in the left headlight, and another fee to correct it. Then you will have to get a yrly smog test where if you fail it will cost you hundreds more.
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