USA Property tax

[LarryUK]

 

I was just reading an article about US property tax.  Could someone confirm this for me.  You pay about 2-3% of the value of your property each year in tax?  What income tax do you pay? It seems a lot of money. 

Here in the UK we have Council tax. But it's in bands and the top rate is nothing compared to yours. 

No politics etc. Just a chat about how much we pay to live against you.  

 

 

[Big Bill]

I live in New Jersey. 

(...Bill drops mic and walks out of thread...)

[LarryUK]

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/council-tax/bands-and-charges

These are the London Council tax charges. Your house could be £100m and you'd only pay £2,773. The rich in the UK just pocket so much money. 

[Hall]

wry smile insert

[Big Bill]

23 minutes ago, FZ Fan said:

I was born there. It's my parents fault. Thankfully when I was a year old we moved to California and I grew up there. Best pizza I ever ate was in Jersey.

Yes, I don' care where I go, you cannot beat the pizza here in Jersey. However, I was born and raised in Detroit and they have the best deep dish pizza I ever ate, cheese is nice and caramelized that its a major part of the crust . They just call them " squares" there.

[zigzag]

My understanding is that, overall, taxes in the UK are higher.  The tax code in the US is complicated. The percentages of income tax vary according to the amount of income. We pay state and federal income taxes, taxes for Medicare and Social Security, property tax, state sales tax, some very wealthy pay estate tax, and taxes are paid on stuff like gas, booze and cigarettes. I can't remember if there is a luxury tax. Corporations/businesses pay a tax based on profits/income. In all cases, there are incentives and write-offs. It pays to have a good accountant who can find loopholes and write-offs.

The amount of property tax is determined locally, and in most localities, funding for public schools accounts for at least 50% of property taxes. 

There are also capital gains taxes paid on sales of investments like real estate and profits on investments like stocks. 

Edited June 5, 2019 by zigzag

[Black Dog]

In my county it's 1.05% of property value.

[Dub-T-123]

1 hour ago, Big Bill said:

Yes, I don' care where I go, you cannot beat the pizza here in Jersey. However, I was born and raised in Detroit and they have the best deep dish pizza I ever ate, cheese is nice and caramelized that its a major part of the crust . They just call them " squares" there.

 

Do you have a square to spare?

[brad1]

13 minutes ago, Dub-T-123 said:

 

Do you have a square to spare?

Good one!😃

[LarryUK]

10 hours ago, Big Bill said:

Yes, I don' care where I go, you cannot beat the pizza here in Jersey. However, I was born and raised in Detroit and they have the best deep dish pizza I ever ate, cheese is nice and caramelized that its a major part of the crust . They just call them " squares" there.

I was listening to a programme the other day about pizza. It was saying that the pizza we have is wrong and the pastry party should be light and fluffy. Then the topping is different to how we have it.  I suppose it's a cultural food, just like stew. Stew is the same as curry really and must differ all around the world. 

['Scales]

11 hours ago, FZ Fan said:

I was born there. It's my parents fault. Thankfully when I was a year old we moved to California and I grew up there. Best pizza I ever ate was in Jersey.

 

Man, in the recent USAtoday rankings of best to worst states (with 1 being best) Virginia was 7th and West Virginia 47th! You must be on the right side of the line.

havent heard much from Sparky recently, but according to the rankings he might be busy begging or being shot at or somesuch....

[kidblast]

We're in Massachusetts, the land of liberals and taxes...

[badbluesplayer]

Our property taxes here in TN are about half a percent of the value of your land and house per year.  About 500 dollars per year for every 100,000 dollars of real estate.  Maybe a little more.  No state income taxes, 10% sales tax.

We have a national income tax.   The rate is progressive, so everybody pays a certain percentage of the first, say $100,000 of income.  Then, if you make another, say $100,000, you pay a higher percentage of the second 100,000 in taxes.  I think you guys have progressive income taxes too, right?  The actual rates and income ranges that apply are kind of complicated:

 

Rate	For Unmarried Individuals, Taxable Income Over	For Married Individuals Filing Joint Returns, Taxable Income Over	For Heads of Households, Taxable Income Over
10%	$0	$0	$0
12%	$9,700	$19,400	$13,850
22%	$39,475	$78,950	$52,850
24%	$84,200	$168,400	$84,200
32%	$160,725	$321,450	$160,700
35%	$204,100	$408,200	$204,100
37%	$510,300	$612,350	$510,300

 

We have social security and medicare payroll taxes that are split between the employer and employee that are about 15% of wages.  The taxes are levied on the first  $130,000 of yearly income of each employee.  This money goes toward your social security - a national pension system - and medicare, which is medical insurance for retired folks.

[Cougar]

I moved in with my wife 20 years ago and rented out my place in California.  We were paying about $6,000 in property taxes every year on the California property. 

We finally decided to sell the California place.  (Nice not to have to pay that property tax every year!)  Of course, it was worth a lot more now than it was when I acquired it.  All of that increase is capital gains.  Capital gains are taxed at 15% for the feds, and California wants another 12%.  That's 27% right off the top!

So we worked a "1031 Exchange."  If you take the money from the sale and put it into another rental, that shields whatever money you put into the new rental from capital gains tax.  Otherwise we would have had to pay upwards of $400,000!  As it was, we didn't put all the sales money into a new rental and still had to pay six figures in capital gains tax.  I really hated writing out that check, especially when the president of the country apparently doesn't pay any tax.....

Edited June 5, 2019 by Cougar

[merciful-evans]

7 hours ago, LarryUK said:

I was listening to a programme the other day about pizza. It was saying that the pizza we have is wrong and the pastry party should be light and fluffy. Then the topping is different to how we have it.  I suppose it's a cultural food, just like stew. Stew is the same as curry really and must differ all around the world. 

Like Stew?  Larry, where have you been since 1966? Have you never had Indian food cooked in a tandoor, lamb in a yogurt marinade?  Or a Kerala dry fish curry?

My Great Grandfather was a Cavalryman in India and he returned home with a taste for curry. Back then British curry was like stew. They just added inferior curry powder and meat to stewed apples & tomatoes. You couldn’t get the fresh spices (ginger, cardamom, fenugreek etc) nor mangos or guavas back then. Danm, even I never saw a chilli pepper til my 20s!

  

There’s nothing wrong with stew, but curry should be nothing like stew either.

umm... sorry to break topic, but I'm in shock.

[pippy]

2 hours ago, badbluesplayer said:

...I think you guys have progressive income taxes too, right?...

 

Yes. Here are the tax-bands in the UK;

As a rough guide £150,000 equates to roughly $190,000.

As can be seen if an individual earns less than £12,500 (approx. $16,000) they pay no Income Tax to HMRC (Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs ). From that point tax is paid on a sliding scale and in each band. For instance  all income between 12,500 and £50k is paid at 20%. Once income is greater than £50,001 the percentage changes to 40% but only for the income between £50,001 and £150,000 etc...

We also have a flat-rate of 20% 'Value Added Tax' which goes on top of all goods and applies to almost everything one buys with the exception of Education and Insurance. 'normal' shops indicate post-VAT prices so, in 'real-life', no-one gets a nasty surprise at the till but care needs to be taken when buying on-line as sometimes dealers advertise pre-VAT prices.

Pip.

[gnappi]

Property taxes in Florida depend greatly on where you live, and how many idiotic things voters approve.  

[LarryUK]

15 hours ago, merciful-evans said:

Like Stew?  Larry, where have you been since 1966? Have you never had Indian food cooked in a tandoor, lamb in a yogurt marinade?  Or a Kerala dry fish curry?

 

 

 

 

My Great Grandfather was a Cavalryman in India and he returned home with a taste for curry. Back then British curry was like stew. They just added inferior curry powder and meat to stewed apples & tomatoes. You couldn’t get the fresh spices (ginger, cardamom, fenugreek etc) nor mangos or guavas back then. Danm, even I never saw a chilli pepper til my 20s!

 

  

 

 

There’s nothing wrong with stew, but curry should be nothing like stew either.

 

 

umm... sorry to break topic, but I'm in shock.

My point on food is that wherever you come from there is a 'pot' meal that is cheap and filling. My Dad was a Geordie (from Newcastle for US viewers) and moved to Birmingham for work. We had stew, pigs feet etc. I still love those foods. But if you go to another country they have variations on stew. In India, curry is a pot of food and the spices cover up the poor taste. But the general pot of food is the same. I like dumplings in my stew and they are copied around the world too. 

 

[merciful-evans]

14 minutes ago, LarryUK said:

My point on food is that wherever you come from there is a 'pot' meal that is cheap and filling. My Dad was a Geordie (from Newcastle for US viewers) and moved to Birmingham for work. We had stew, pigs feet etc. I still love those foods. But if you go to another country they have variations on stew. In India, curry is a pot of food and the spices cover up the poor taste. But the general pot of food is the same. I like dumplings in my stew and they are copied around the world too. 

 

 

That's also a view I last heard in the 1960s Larry. 

We have different POVs mate. 🙂

[01GT eibach]

As a general rule, property taxes are 1-3% of the value's "assessed value".   This assessed value is usually determined after purchase and is usually somewhat lower than its "real" value.   So, for example,  a $400,000 house may be assessed at $300,000; and if the local tax rate is 1%, then you pay $3000 each year in property taxes.  States like Colorado (where I live, NOT coincidentally) and Arizona have low property taxes (1%).  States like Texas and many parts of Pennsylvania pay 3% -- so the taxes on that same $300,000-valued house would be $9000/year for them.  

This is one of numerous reasons why I live in Colorado:  low home prices (relatively), low property taxes, low utility costs (very low actually), low gas prices ($2.69/gal for reg-unleaded right now), low food costs (a gallon of milk costs $1.99), low gas prices, etc.  That, and it is a beautiful, nice place to live ... at least I think so.

[sparquelito]

I live and work in northern Alabama. 

We pay the standard Federal Income Tax, State Income Taxes, a State sales tax on locally-purchased goods and groceries, and some of the lowest Property Taxes in the nation. 

All in all, compared to what I have experienced overseas, as well as while residing in Kansas, Texas, and (God help us), Hawaii, we don't do all that badly here. 

😏

[Retired]

On 6/4/2019 at 4:17 PM, zigzag said:

My understanding is that, overall, taxes in the UK are higher.  The tax code in the US is complicated. The percentages of income tax vary according to the amount of income. We pay state and federal income taxes, taxes for Medicare and Social Security, property tax, state sales tax, some very wealthy pay estate tax, and taxes are paid on stuff like gas, booze and cigarettes. I can't remember if there is a luxury tax. Corporations/businesses pay a tax based on profits/income. In all cases, there are incentives and write-offs. It pays to have a good accountant who can find loopholes and write-offs.

The amount of property tax is determined locally, and in most localities, funding for public schools accounts for at least 50% of property taxes. 

There are also capital gains taxes paid on sales of investments like real estate and profits on investments like stocks. 

Yep and our property taxes are high every year. We pay thousands as now we can't deduct anything. Not even the other 2 places we own and one home where my wife lets her Aunt live in free, She cant afford now. She only has to pay the taxes each year to live there.  This year they raised them another $4,000.00 on her.  She's retired and is in her 80's and on medicare  with miniumum social security. 

[Dub-T-123]

22 hours ago, FZ Fan said:

Sold my house in 2000 in Cali when I got transferred from Petaluma to Puerto Rico. I knew I could never afford to go back and live in Cali ever again.

 

You could always do it if you wanted to. I’m not making a ton of money relatively speaking and I’m able to live comfortably here

 

If you’re ever really thinking about doing it, I could definitely set you up with a nice job as an electrician here in Orange County at the beach 

 

From what I understand you’re more than qualified for most any electrical job out here, shouldn’t be difficult at all to find work right now

[rct]

I thought about getting a job, sometime last week I think.  For a minute.  A cup of coffee and planning dinner got me off the ledge.

rct

[IanHenry]

19 hours ago, rct said:

I thought about getting a job, sometime last week I think.  For a minute.  A cup of coffee and planning dinner got me off the ledge.

rct

Steady on Rct, don't do anything rash😲

 

 

Ian