Tax bill
Chi
6 years ago
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marilyn_c
6 years agodedtired
6 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (19)Amongst my work colleagues, at least, statements like "all generalizations are false" are part of a well-known joke. We say "all generalizations are false... including this one." Since two people (at least) reacted negatively, I probably should have included both the punchline and a smiley for those who don't get my sometimes dry humor. Sorry if it seems like I was flipping anyone off. I tried to show examples of sales tax being due and collected collected when one might think it would not, as well as the other way around .. so I was really only trying to make the point about generalizations being dangerous and often inaccurate. FWIW, I believe that MT and OR are not the only states with no sales tax... I think NH an DE (and AK) similarly have no sales tax. I don't know if local jurisdictions impose a tax or not, nor do I know anything about whether the jurisdictions in any of these 5 states impose a use tax on out-of-state purchases that are brought into the state. Obviously, a person living in these states have a different set of concerns than persons who live in other states. It's also true that some states have (like NY) have what I think they call "safe harbor provisions" on their tax returns. With these, you can voluntarily pay the state essentially an "estimated" use tax based on your AGI. These may not cover everything -- in NY I think it only applies to purchases under $1k. YMMV, of course .. .and I'm not a lawyer, CPA, or employee of the Tax department. The real point I was trying to make is that folks should 'never say never' or 'never say always' when it comes to these kinds of topics, since the laws vary dramatically from state to state. Finally, re: local vs. "internet" purchases -- Weissman is correct that depending on the individual (and the manufacturer), after sales service may or may not be a consideration. The macroeconomic arguments for or against local vs long-distance purchases are interesting. The conclusion is not obvious (to me, anyhow). The impact on the local economy is more obvious. This should be an incentive for "local" vendors to provide well-trained sales folks and competitive pricing....See MoreProperty Taxes Bill Came
Comments (33)It's not too useful to know the dollar amount for your taxes, since we don't know the value of property in your area. If you have a good idea of what your property would sell for today, could you list your taxes as a percentage of the value? Our taxes are about 1% of what our house would sell for. (Both numbers have decreased since a high in late 2006.) Do you think you get value received for the taxes you pay? I can't complain. Our township and city services are very good, and our schools are very good too. The portion going to the county is pretty small. I'd be unhappy to pay high taxes and get shoddy services and poor schools for my money. RE taxes pay for our streets, water facility, garbage and recycling pickups, snowplowing, forestry, library, schools, beach, and probably a lot more that I can't think of right now!...See MoreAccess, Easements & Property Taxes
Comments (6)Thanks for the replies. Lily'smom, that is exactly what was going on. The property with the house had the garage, from another parcel, on its tax bill. The realtor found out that the garage didn't come with the house & the seller had full rights to use our driveway to access the garage. We also found out that there was another lot in front of the house that he was selling with no road frontage, it's blocked by another parcel that does have it. We saw potential future headaches with this setup & decided to pass on this. Within a few hours, we found another country home with no weird tax/property issues that holds some promise. It has been on the market for almost 4 months & was built in 2004. We hope to view this very soon & hope it'll work out. Thanks again folks for the responses....See MoreWhy Would One Make Home Improvements?
Comments (49)A county should be required to justify its current level of taxation. Some posters here have accurately stated that taxes (or other form of revenue) are required to achieve a certain level of civilization. Folks have also voiced support for funding the education of our next generation. While I agree with those positions as basic truths, I don't believe the basic truth of them can be extrapolated out beyond some point where the county is using the revenue for things that don't provide a cost-worthy benefit to those who are taxed. The reason I want to make this note is because I think we have passed that point in many areas. While my area is very much lower in taxes than some, my cost of living and salary base is also lower so it may be much more comparable than it would appear on the surface. At some basic level, taxation is needed to pay for county drainage, maintenance of county streets, and the local school district (if, a big if in my very single-non-parent case, one assumes general tax revenue should pay for elementary education). Is it OK to increase county taxes to pay for limo-style school buses? Most would say that's extravagant and goes well beyond what's reasonable or needed. I would argue that the same goes for requiring the local taxpayers to pay for educating the four (even five or six) kids lots of families choose to put through school. At some point, parents should be responsible for the costs of raising their own children. My parents scrimped and saved so one parent could be a full time parent and home-schooler while the other worked to fund the household....four of us kids. Seeing that worked, I would personally argue that it does not take taxation to fund a local school district in order to have a good education for our kids. Now, with home school groups who can share different areas of expertise and teaching abilities, it's even easier now to properly educate kids outside of the public school system. I see tax funds wasted in my county to build a generally mocked amphitheater that is seldom used, wasted on horribly planned intersections, wasted on consulting for pet projects for which there is no general consensus, and wasted on huge school improvement projects that don't improve the quality of the kid's educations. It's disheartening to see the profit I should be able to realize through renovating and enlarging my home be eaten up each time I mail a check to the county and even worse to know I get no benefit from over half that check. See, it's been three weeks since I got my tax statement and I'm still mad :>)...See Moreritamay91710
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