House taxes?

[Bret]

My county was very behind on taxes last year. We just got our bill for 2007, which is 2006 taxes. The whole year, due the end of this month. Now, we bought the house in Oct 2006. This is my first home ownership experience, so I have no clue, but why would we owe for the WHOLE year? Shouldn't it just be those three months? We don't have it taken with the mortgage, that's expensive enough as it is.

We are going to call the county, but I figure someone here might know.

Oh yeah, and they claim our house increased in value $60k, even though there have been no changes. Which means our estimated taxes went from $2k to $4k. Hahahaha.... that's certainly not getting paid by 1/31 if they make us pay the whole thing.

 

[Soapmaker Man]

Ouch, that hurts! :shock:

 

[Lane]

Whoa! When we bought our house, it was at the end of the year and the same thing happened to us. I think it is because you can claim you own a home for the entire year, thus, use it as a deduction, SO they want to make sure you pay those taxes on property you are going to claim...Your property taxes are 100% tax deductable.

HOW can they say your property value jumped like that??? If you were trying to sell, that would be great...but I don't see HOW they can say you aquired such a jump like that...

 

[Barb]

here in our county we get billed twice a year,

the larger portion comes in late august and is due october 1st, the second part comes in the first part of december and isn't due till feb 1st of the next year, but we pay ours in december so it all gets on our income tax for the current year.

if you are now paying 2006 taxes and you purchased your house in 2006 they are most likely making the large increase to compensate for the purchase price. especially if your purchase price was alot more then the current assesment they had on the books for your home. it also can be based on the surrounding homes and their values as well. i would go to the local court house for you county and ask to see what they have based your value on.

i know when we purchased our home 20 some years ago, the current market price was way more then what the assesment was, so our went up mucho grande that first year, plus they had us as having 2 bathrooms, which we didn't, the basement being finished, it wasn't, paneling in all the rooms, we had dry wall thru out. so it wouldn't hurt for a bit of leg work on your part to check out the details.

plus they don't have to have a reason to raise your taxes it the government, they pretty much do what they want,

welcome to home ownership.
barb

 

[Bret]

Your property taxes are 100% tax deductable.

That's great... IF we can pay them

here in our county we get billed twice a year

Yeah. We're supposed to as well. NONE of our county got a bill in 2007, they were that behind.

if you are now paying 2006 taxes and you purchased your house in 2006 they are most likely making the large increase to compensate for the purchase price. especially if your purchase price was alot more then the current assesment they had on the books for your home. it also can be based on the surrounding homes and their values as well. i would go to the local court house for you county and ask to see what they have based your value on.

Our purchase price was less than the assessment, if I remember correctly. And, the people we bought it from had only been there 10 months, so... I don't know.

 

[earthygirl]

I pay mine with my monthly payment. keep it in escrow(sp) I lucked out this year. my taxes went down. almost 300. property value is the same though.

 

[Lane]

welcome to home ownership.
barb

Exactly... It's a pain. :evil:

 

[Tabitha]

Make an appointment w/ you acessor & dipute the increase. If you can, show them how property value has dropped due to foreclosures in your area. They almost always lower it when you show up in person. They are counting on you not disputing it. You may have to sit for 6 hours but if you save 500 dollars it will well be worth it!