Anyone else prepaying property taxes so you can still deduct them this year?

[maxaroni]

We live in Bergen County NJ. Our yearly taxes are $11,700, which is not that bad for our area. My sister lives in a different town than me in Bergen County and her taxes are $22K a year. I wish NJ was more fiscally responsible. Taxes in this state are ridiculous. We love NJ but not all the taxes we pay. Schools are great and so are services but not taxes.

Born and raised in Bergen County. NJ is expensive as it is, let alone Bergen County. We are now in Burlington County so it is better, but we still feel the pain.

 

[kandb]

And The personal exemption of 4100 per household member? Are those coming back? And if so will they have adjusted it to inflation for the seven years it is gone? For those of us with kids over 17 in college we lose their personal exemption of 4100 each to have it replaced with a $500 credit. So if that 4100 deduction came off of income taxes at 25% it saved me $1025 in taxes and replaced it with a $500 credit. Net loss of $2050 for my family. This is on top of losing $2000 in state and local tax deductions (12000-10000 cap). There goes another $500. Subtracting the amount I will save from the 3% cut in rates I only pay an extra $100 a year.
But honestly my issue is not paying more in taxes. We are relatively well off. My issue is the massive tax cuts given to corporations (who are already posting record profits) are putting the government into massively more debt.

Everyone who wants to tax the heck out of corporations, don't realize they find other places to go, where the taxes are lower(out of our country). We live in NJ, and all the towns started taxing the heck out of the corporations to keep the taxes lower for homeowners. Guess what, many have moved out to other states. I think lowering the taxes for corporations is good for America.

 

[tvguy]

I think that most DISers are in the unsweet spot for the tax reform. They make too much and too little to profit from it.

Guess that 83 cents a share dividend Disney announced yesterday is going to bump me into a higher tax bracket.

 

[usnuzuloose]

No property taxes to pay here, but will be so happy to have a lower tax to pay. Relieves some stress.

 

[wendow]

I didn't realize property taxes were so low here. But I can't find a place we can afford because of the other problems you listed...

Oh yes, we are incredibly fortunate to have such low property taxes here. Like really low! In my home state of TX, property taxes vary from 1-4%, with the avg being 2-3%. Mine in Jeffco are 0.50%. But yes, that does not erase the super high home prices. I'm seriously amazed at how home prices here have gone and I feel badly for anyone just now trying to get into the housing market here

 

[emilymad]

How do you indicate to your mortgage company that your payment is for January? Are you sending a physical check? I would want to make sure that they applied the money as our next payment and not solely towards our principle.

 

[afan]

How do you indicate to your mortgage company that your payment is for January? Are you sending a physical check? I would want to make sure that they applied the money as our next payment and not solely towards our principle.

My mortgage is due the 1st so I almost always pay using bill pay with a date between the 26th and 30th. It's like any other bill that has a due date.

 

[arminnie]

I'll be honest - I think I would pay an extra $1000 in taxes a year if I could just fill out an easy simple form and not have to keep up with a zillion records.

 

[kandb]

Oh yes, we are incredibly fortunate to have such low property taxes here. Like really low! In my home state of TX, property taxes vary from 1-4%, with the avg being 2-3%. Mine in Jeffco are 0.50%. But yes, that does not erase the super high home prices. I'm seriously amazed at how home prices here have gone and I feel badly for anyone just now trying to get into the housing market here

I am just curious what you consider high home prices where you live in Texas. Here in NJ, in the county I live in, you cannot get a decent house for under $500K and for that price, you are getting a cape cod. Colonials or larger houses are usually around $750-2million and our taxes are usually a minimum of $10K a year but the large expensive houses pay up to $25K a YEAR. I know, it's crazy.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Based on current figures we were going to pay $1,000 more when the plan was initially put forth due to the way it was being set forth. We haven't gone through the numbers yet again since adjustments were being made. For us the newly revised standard deduction was less than what we had when we could itemize because we are only a few years into our mortgage (and thus had quite a hefty mortgage loan interest). Our property taxes (due to value and mil levy adjustments) though have gone up every year since it was built in 2014.

 

[kandb]

We live in NJ but get NY news since we are very close to NYC. My husband said that they were saying on the news yesterday that it was not a definite that you could claim taxes paid this year on this years taxes? Not sure, I didn't see it but I am wondering if pre-paying taxes will even be worth it?

 

[arminnie]

I am just curious what you consider high home prices where you live in Texas. Here in NJ, in the county I live in, you cannot get a decent house for under $500K and for that price, you are getting a cape cod. Colonials or larger houses are usually around $750-2million and our taxes are usually a minimum of $10K a year but the large expensive houses pay up to $25K a YEAR. I know, it's crazy.

In Northern California a small condo 30 miles out of San Francisco is well over a million dollars. The prices are insane.

As I am now retired and no longer have to live there, I have a beautiful totally updated home on a lake/park that is twice the size for $200,000 with taxes under $2000. The previous owner also spent over $20,000 on landscaping the back yard.

 

[wendow]

I am just curious what you consider high home prices where you live in Texas. Here in NJ, in the county I live in, you cannot get a decent house for under $500K and for that price, you are getting a cape cod. Colonials or larger houses are usually around $750-2million and our taxes are usually a minimum of $10K a year but the large expensive houses pay up to $25K a YEAR. I know, it's crazy.

I don't live in TX (I'm from there). I currently live in CO. Housing prices are not as bad here in CO as it is for you there in NJ but it's definitely pretty high here (avg home in Denver is around 430k and avg salary is about 65k). Our home is a 500k home and we pay less than 3k in property taxes.

TX has great home prices but high property taxes. Many of my relatives pay 8-12k a year on 300k homes.

I knew NJ and NY had very high taxes. It is crazy and I truly feel for you guys. Are salaries higher to compensate for that? I don't know how people make it.

 

[wendow]

@kandb

I went back and read the post that I think confused you. Sorry it was unclear. I was responding to another CO gal so I'm sure some of what I said made no sense to others

 

[tvguy]

How do you indicate to your mortgage company that your payment is for January? Are you sending a physical check? I would want to make sure that they applied the money as our next payment and not solely towards our principle.

Not sure you can pre-pay your property taxes if your mortgage company is paying them. I think it only applies to folks who pay their property taxes on their own.

 

[bdcp]

Not sure you can pre-pay your property taxes if your mortgage company is paying them. I think it only applies to folks who pay their property taxes on their own.

They talked about this on the news. They said to call the mortgage company and see if it is possible. The taxes have to be paid to the county/city in order to be deductible. A mortgage company would likely sit on it or apply any excess to principle.

CBS did a story on the new tax bill and they took three different families/couples to an accountant. ALL THREE are going to see lower taxes.

As for Texas, of course you pay more in property taxes. They have to offset the lack of income tax somehow. Where we live in NoVA, we have sales tax on everything (food tax is lower than regular sales tax) and we have higher property taxes but real estate costs more.

 

[mjkacmom]

Based on current figures we were going to pay $1,000 more when the plan was initially put forth due to the way it was being set forth. We haven't gone through the numbers yet again since adjustments were being made. For us the newly revised standard deduction was less than what we had when we could itemize because we are only a few years into our mortgage (and thus had quite a hefty mortgage loan interest). Our property taxes (due to value and mil levy adjustments) though have gone up every year since it was built in 2014.

I just assumes everyone’s property taxes went up every year. We paid about $4000 a year when we bought our home 20 years ago, we are now over $12,000, and get a yearly increase.

 

[cruiser21]

I just assumes everyone’s property taxes went up every year. We paid about $4000 a year when we bought our home 20 years ago, we are now over $12,000, and get a yearly increase.

The property tax rate in AZ is around 1% or less depending on the city. We've been in our house 20 years our property tax has gone up and down with the housing market, but not by much. They were the highest during the housing bubble in 2006. State taxes are pretty low here too. The new plan should save us around 4k per year...that's according to all the tax calculators I've used.

 

[cruiser21]

Are the taxes high in relation to the value of your home?

I'm not upset about paying my property taxes or state income taxes. I'm upset about the enormous heist by the corporations and wealthy, that I get to pay for their opulent life when I'm just a normal person trying to do everything I can to save a dollar here and there. It's great that some companies are giving small increases to their employees. 1) I'm pretty sure it's peanuts compared to the millions they'll be gaining from their tax cuts. 2) I'm pretty sure it won't be a permanent thing like their tax cuts.

We are a lower end upper middle class family with 2 kids. I'm very happy to be getting a 4k tax cut per year... that's another cruise a year. The wealthy pay a lot of taxes everything is based on percentages. I in no way feel like I'm paying for their opulent life. I guess I just don't begrudge successful people. I've also never been hired by a poor person. Hopefully the corporations will expand and hirer more people with better wages. I have 2 kids that will be graduating college in the next 10 years and I'm hoping opportunities are plentiful for them.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I just assumes everyone’s property taxes went up every year. We paid about $4000 a year when we bought our home 20 years ago, we are now over $12,000, and get a yearly increase.

As the market value adjusts so does your property taxes in my area. The property taxes is based on the following in my county: "fair market value" on the 1st of January each year. (and I'm sure in the other counties in my metro it's roughly the same though I haven't gone searching for the verbage).

You could however have a situation depending on the year where your fair market value of your home went down but due to the mill levey (as well as bonds, special assessments, etc) your property tax amount went up. You could however have a situation depending on the year where your fair market value of your home went up but due to mill levy (as well as removal of payment for bonds and special assessments, etc) your property tax amount went down.

For us 2016 was the last year we had to pay a roughly $250 per year special assessment due to a road improvement project that my neighborhood is required to chip in for to widen the road and possibly install several round abouts. The closer you were to the main road that was included in the project the higher you paid. The value of our home increased $18,900 in value from 2016 to 2017 but we'll pay around $250 less than we would have simply due to we have completed all required payments of the special assessment (that was a 15 year collection period that we only had to pay 3 years worth). So for us between 2016 and 2017 we're only paying $179.92 more despite our home value increasing by $18,900 simply because of the removal for the special assessment requirement.