The Separate Property Tax Thread

Leta

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Since we seem to beginning another Interminable March Toward the White House, there's lots of talk of taxes of late. I understand that the president/al candidates cannot and do not control local taxation issues, but all the tax talk makes me think that property taxes are really overlooked.

In my case, my property taxes are over 55% of my mortgage payment. Our insurance (which is only $35/mo) and taxes together are only $40 less than our mortgage payment every month.

Something that we have considered heavily in making our next big move are the tax rates, because it is possible for us to set up an operational homestead and eventually have no mortgage payments or utility bills- but we are always going to be stuck with property taxes.

In our case, our property tax burden far exceeds our income tax burden (though not our payroll tax burden, but that's another story...)

I feel as though our town is shooting itself in the foot with its tax rates. The townships have fire halls, snow removal, and public schools, and their tax rates are half or less of what ours are. I can't help but wonder if what we are actually paying for is a bunch of city employees, which is disheartening.
 

TanksHill

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Our property tax rate is based on home value. 1%

not quite half of my payment but close if I paid it monthly. I usually just wait until its do and scrounge the money together.

g
 

Marianne

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k15n1, I like the forms! I started to fill it out, but our situation would throw the numbers way off. We're building our home by ourselves, it's taking forever, and each year our taxes are higher based on what rooms we have finished.

Currently the county has us at 68% completed, and our taxes are approaching $4000 a year. We have 4.3 acres, a couple of outbuildings and a 3500 sq. ft. house. It's the square footage that kicks us in the rear.

Also, a tornado wiped out the main schools for the county in ONE little town a couple years ago. They're building a new high school that rivals a college campus and we're all paying dearly for it. (I'm all about education, giving kids all that they need, but they won't have 3/4 of it filled with students in the next 20 years based on current statistics. )
 

hwillm1977

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Marianne said:
k15n1, I like the forms! I started to fill it out, but our situation would throw the numbers way off. We're building our home by ourselves, it's taking forever, and each year our taxes are higher based on what rooms we have finished.

Currently the county has us at 68% completed, and our taxes are approaching $4000 a year. We have 4.3 acres, a couple of outbuildings and a 3500 sq. ft. house. It's the square footage that kicks us in the rear.
Wow... we went house shopping and looked at a farm with 48 acres, 2300 sq foot house, two large barns (one dairy) and the property taxes were 1200/year. It's based on the value of the house... since that house is valued at $100,000, it's 1.2% yearly for rural taxes here... more in the cities (closer to 2%)
 

lorihadams

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Yeah, we have a farm loan that won't lump our property taxes in with our mortgage payments so we have to pay one lump sum every year. Last year was our first payment at this house and it wasn't too bad but we have since added a 2 car garage so I don't know how much that will affect the property value next year. I think ours is close to 1% too. I kind of like that it is a separate payment cause I know exactly what my mortgage will be every month and at our last house the property taxes were estimated and lumped in and then our payment fluctuated for the next year so I never knew exactly what it was going to be.
 

Bimpnottin

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We just got reassessed - AGAIN! and we own about 3 1/4 acres and our taxes are up to $3000 a year. We put an addition on and that's killing us, but you'd think the falling down barn, the crappy shed, and the slumpy garage would offset some of that. If I could get some animals on here, then they would go way done for agricultural use, but can't afford it, yet. And it can't just be chickens...
 

Leta

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Our property taxes are in excess of 2% of our appraised value. Our market value is way below our appraised value, and the state equalized value is supposed to be half of market value... so by rights, we should be paying half of what we actually are. It's frustrating, because the bank that appraised our house seems to not realize that there is no way we could sell it for what they appraised it for.
 

terri9630

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Leta said:
Our property taxes are in excess of 2% of our appraised value. Our market value is way below our appraised value, and the state equalized value is supposed to be half of market value... so by rights, we should be paying half of what we actually are. It's frustrating, because the bank that appraised our house seems to not realize that there is no way we could sell it for what they appraised it for.
I don't know about where you are, but around here it's not a bank that does the tax aappraisals. Its the county tax accesor. We have the same problem here with our livestock taxes. People were having a fit about having their horses appraised at $3000 each when you can't give them away. They finally adjusted the values down to what the market "almost" is.
 

me&thegals

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We pay more than $4000/year now. Our home is less than 2000 sq feet (not including basement) and we have 40 acres, but it's assessed ag land. Ten acres are woodland, which hurts us tax wise. Around here, it's a private assessor who does the assessing.
 

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