Re: Taxes
Date: April 17, 2005 07:34PM
jgumby Wrote:
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> So, until you can convince enough people that it
> will be grand to pay more income tax, why not work
> on finding ways to decrease the county's spending?
> All of that money you're paying in property tax
> has to go _somewhere_, so put a stop on the drain
> at the source. And then, once things are on track
> financially, you can start looking at lowering the
> tax rates.
That's the whole libertarian (lower-case l) bent- get the government out of everything that it doesn't need to be in.
An income tax is preferable to a property tax. If you are taxed on what property you own, that means that if you don't pay the government, they can seize your property. Therefore, you don't actually *own* it.
Notice how with the car tax, they didn't actually decrease the tax rate- they're giving "relief" instead. You still owe the government the full amount, but they're giving you a reprieve. That's a real nice way of doing business.
> Oh, and a little anectdote: A few months ago, I
> was standing in line, waiting to pay the bill for
> my car tax (they get really annoyed when you're
> late, for some reason.) The lady in front of me
> was irate. "Why has my tax gone up so much? It
> was only $xxx last year!" The women helping her
> politely pointed out that her property had been
> re-assessed that year, so her taxes went up
> accordingly. Why do I bring this up? Just
> because your tax bill has gone up 200% in the last
> six years, it's not all due to increased tax
> rates. And somehow, I don't think you'll be
> complaining too much when you decide to sell your
> house (at a tidy profit) and move to Outer
> Suburbia.
You don't seem to understand that even though they didn't increase the tax rate, it's still a tax increase. Either they tax each piece of land (by lot or square footage) or they adjust the tax rate down to account for an increase in assessments- otherwise, rising assessments are a tax increase. If you own a piece of property, made no improvements on it, and the tax rate wasn't adjusted, then any increase in your tax liability to the government is a tax increase.
And though you say the lady is bitching, you have to think about unrealized gains.
Consider this:
I bought $10,000 in stocks at the beginning of the year. At the end of the year, they were worth $20,000. Should I pay taxes on them?
If you say yes, just realize you'd be screwing a huge amount of lower and middle class families that save for the future. For long term investments, investing well becomes a punishment rather than an incentive if you have to pay taxes on unrealized gains. Why should it be that way with property taxes?