as many homeowners know that when you buy a home you will pay property taxes to the county you live in and seperate property taxes to the school district your home is located in. do you think its fair for older couples that dont have children to pay the full price for school taxes or do you think they should get a tax break since they dont have children attending? also when homeowners have children that have already graduated high school should they still pay the full amount or should they get a taxes cut since their children have already graduated? this is just a question not meant to start a big government fight i am just looking for opinions thats all.
122426
I think that if you don't have kids in school at all you shouldn't pay taxes. And they ought to base it on how many kids you have in school. By using the address that they give when signing up for school.
410219
No.  Sorry.  The point is that you don't pay your taxes to that other district.  Here's hoping the closest school doesn't close!
382481
Traditionally, Democrats are thought to raise taxes so they can fund their big programs, while Republicans are thought to lower taxes and have the tax savings go back into the economy, thereby supporting everyone.  Republicans would rather have the taxpayers decide how and where to spend their money; Democrats would like to spend it for them. \n\nWhat people fail to understand is that tax cuts help EVERYONE who pays taxes, not just the "rich" as the Democrats would have everyone believe. It is a fact that the lowest of the low wage earners actually pay negative income tax because of the Earned Income Credit.  This is straight from the IRS analysis of the latest stats compiled on filed returns, which was tax year 2004.  The "marriage penalty" hurts EVERYONE, especially middle class wage earners.  If the tax cuts aren't renewed, it will be back in 2010, and if you don't think it existed, just wait until you file a joint return for the first time when both spouses are employed full time and you don't have about six children.  And what of the "Death Tax"?  It too will return with a vengeance.  Democrats do not want to maintain the increased exemption.   And they want you to think only the richest of the rich incur this tax too, but that's not really true.  Your grandparents might have a farm that's mortgaged to the hilt, but an appraiser could come in and say it's worth two million and you, the heir, would be forced to sell the property or pony up the money for inheritance taxes because the "estate" account is broke, even though it was your dream to keep the farm going.\n\nI could go on and on with factual taxation issues.  Unfortunately, many of the people on this forum do not believe the facts regarding same, even though they can be verified with a little research.
200639
If you finish school before taking on the responsibility of a house you may find owning that home will be easier.  I am a mortgage loan officer and find many people are not adequatly prepared to cover the true cost of home ownership.  Expenses such as taxes, insurance, repairs and upkeep overshadow low rates and tax breaks causing many first-time homebuyers to go into foreclosure.  Remeber a house can be lost or destroyed but knowledge is yours forever. (besides if you make more money you can buy a more perfect house later)
639078
I think it depends if the mother is a single mother or not. I have been paying my single mother rent money to help out for bills, mortgage, groceries etc. But my mother never forced us (my sister and i) to pay her but just to help out a little. If the she's married and you think the mother/father could afford to support their family then i would agree with you. on the other hand, i wouldn't let my kids pay either. :-)
414841
I edit my previous response because I asked my tax professor about this situation, and he said that the retention of the life estate on the part of the parents would indeed affect the basis price in the house -- but he said the matter was complicated and not something that we would cover this year in Federal Income Tax (I suppose it may come up again in Estate Planning: Practice).  So my original answer is pretty wrong.\n\n---\nOriginal answer follows:\n\nThe tax basis for the children would be the $300k that they paid as fair market value for the house.  You could view the life estate as something granted to the parents, but I don't believe it would have a tax impact on the parents or the children.  I think if you look at it from a policy perspective, if we were to have to consider the value of the life estate to the parents, we would have to consider an intangible item of indeterminate value, and it would be a tax nightmare to try to tax the parents on the value of the life estate, and to balance the value of the life estate against the basis for the purchasing children.\n\nIt seems in the problem, though, that the better solution would be to have the parents retain the house and then grant it to the children in their estate, as the children would get the "free" step-up in basis on death -- and then thereby the children would receive the property with the FMV as the current basis, regardless of the parent's basis.\n\nWe covered this stuff earlier in this semester in Federal Tax, and I don't recall there being any special situation where the value of the life estate had to be considered in the tax situation when computing basis.
428600
We pay school fees at my public school, but they're voluntary fees and you only have to pay them if you can afford them. Most people always pay them because public schools are poor enough without loosing out on extra money. I personally believe that the government should pay more into public schools, and less into private. Our public education system is great, but it could be so much greater if the schools had more resources.\n\nAlso public education has to be free, for the simple fact that it is required by law for everyone to attend school until they are 15. If it was not free then not everyone would be able to attend.\n\nI'm not sure if this answers your question, but I tried! Hope it helps.
345193
Buying a house isn't even a good tax break any more.  Last year, we couldn't even claim our interest because we didn't pay enough.  There's a minimum on how much you can claim.  We bought our house because we retire in 2 years and know we want to stay here after that.  Buying a house is a risky move.  You might stay less than 3 years, as happens often.  We have many friends that bought houses, then couldn't sell them when the time came.  They ended up having to pay a mortgage until the house sold, plus rent on a house where they PCSed to.  Some have even lost money because the housing market went down where they lived.  One friend, their house stayed on the market so long, that they ended up having to rent it out.  That became a whole other headache.  They had PCSed, so they had to hire someone for upkeep and maintenance on the house, such as things breaking or whatever.  They had to make sure the rent was collected every month.  They ended up dumping the house for a major loss.\n\nBuying while you're still in and PCSing is a risky move.  There's some good, but there's alot of risk.
560409
You mean the place people live, but claim they live in Rancho Cucamonga? I've been there many a time.\n\nAnd your point?\n\nYou still haven't made a point to prove that this change has anything to do with your point of illegals paying taxes. Everytime you buy something you do pay taxes. But unless you are using fake documents, you are not paying income taxes, and if you have children, you are using a HUGE amount of tax dollars...more than your 8.25% (Sales tax in Los Angeles County, CA) or whatever the sales tax in your area is - could possibly pay for. If you own property, you are paying property taxes - THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR PAYING THAT, but don't you realize your presence does cause problems for others here legally? Don't you realize that there is a housing shortage and that is why there has been this URBAN SPRAWL that has spilled out into the few rural places we have left? This is not a good thing! Your presence here has driven wages down and prices up. Thanks for nothing.\n\nQUESTION: DO YOU PAY INCOME TAXES?\n\nIF YES, HOW? IF YOU ARE ILLEGAL AS YOU CLAIM, WHAT SSN ARE YOU USING? WHO DID YOU STEAL IT FROM?
595006
The tax valuation of a home, the value that the state gives you in order to decide how much you will pay in property taxes, often is inaccurate.  This value may be well below the real value of the home, so you shouldn't pay much attention to it.\n\nThe only problem would be if the state were valuing your property at more than it's really worth and taxing you based on that.
300443
Right. Property taxes are based on valuation as per the tax assessor. Remember though that the assessor looks at property value completely different than the average market home buyer. Taxes are assessed based on the valuation of land and any improvements (houses/buildings, landscaping, and utilities/services) placed on the land. Market buyers base their valuation on supply versus demand, and area market rates. In an appreciating market this works out well for the home owner, because taxes generally don't raise very much annually, and real estate appreciation will on average grow at about a 5% to 10% annual growth. Unfortunately you are currently living a depreciating market in your area, so your market value is lowering, but the property remains the same in the assessors eyes.
325777
I think it may depend on what state you live in and if kids are in the picture.My ex just took a few things and she was gone,which was her choice.I had to refiance in my name only and she had to sign off.Sometimes whoever wants the house may have to buy the other halves part from them.I guess all in all.... depends on your states laws...
527100
The sales tax is the most fair tax of all.  If you are rich, you buy more and therefore pay more taxes.  If you are poor, you don't pay as many taxes because you can't buy.  This of course relies on the current tax laws which exempt staples (food, water, etc) from sales taxes.\n\nI would support a national sales tax and have the income tax and all deductions stopped.
449053
Call the county (or State) tax department and ask if they auction  tax liens.....some do and some don't. Some auction the property for complete ownership to pay the tax lien, some don't....depends on the county/state\n\nMike\n\n====================
215155
Our property taxes are $5100 a year.  We have three taxes - school, village and county.  If we lived in the country our taxes would be less because there would be no village tax.  I live in Central NY
218833
Why not just be an adult and ask the other set of parents?  Let's try to stop putting children in the middle of our quarrels.  It sounds like there is a bit of a feud going on here, so keep it off of school property.
616271
Yes, I think that is a great idea.  Why should people who live in the midwest have to pay for some rich person's vacation home, because it was obliterated by a hurricane?  If you are going to choose to live in an area, you should be willing to accept the consequences of what comes along with it!  You can't have the best of both worlds!  Coastal areas don't pay for my snowplowing!  I definitely think some areas get LOTS more federal dollars because they live in areas that tend to have catastrophic weather more often, yet they don't pay higher taxes due to living in a higher risk area.  NOT FAIR!!