Schools taxes, property taxes, income tax

Income tax I don't know offhand, and I'm hourly so it's always changing.. if I work a lot of OT, I get taxed at a higher bracket. Fun.

School taxes for me were $1842, city taxes were $528.

Swedishchef said:

Hey guys

After seeing/hearing what people pay in taxes while in another thread, I nearly fell off my feet. It seems that NJ pays a heap.

SO what do you guys pay as property tax and school tax? My marginal income tax rate is about 33%. I pay $500 a year in school tax and $2300 a year in property tax.

Andrew

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My sister in New Jersey pays around $6,000 in property taxes. Here in Michigan, we pay around $3,500. School taxes are usually included in the property taxes and are the largest share of those taxes. In Newfoundland, we started off paying only a $125 yearly poll tax. A few years ago, we got municipal water and got property taxes as a result. We pay about $1,000 now. That's still a bargain.

ChipTam

My property tax runs me $2,700 a year on a $260,000 Valuation. Sounds cheap to many of you I am sure, but this same house outside the metro area would probably be $900- $1000 a year.

As for income tax.... Dont get me started. The wife and I were at $26,518.32 This year I really feel like I should get a Christmas card every year from Uncle Obama and a few of the welfare queens I support.

We're at, 6,300/yr on a 610k valuation. School spending is 62% of town budget. I'm an LLC, so about 18% tax rate.

8K+ for a 450K house. vineyard cottage on the other hand 2100 for350+K. thanks to all the other part time residents.

Don't feel comfortable getting into specifics but the North Shore of Long Island is no joke, I WISH my taxes where like any of the amounts previously posted........The taxes will force us out of the area sooner or later.......Our taxes alone represent a large majority of people's yearly income.....

Local property tax is about 1% of valuation here. County figured it needed more $$$$ so hired a full time property valuation expert and got taxes increased because they said properties were under valued. Of course, that's because no one working in the county but the government workers are making what they call a living wage. Living wage was seen to be 11.15 and the average county wage is under 10 I have had a 400% increase in ten years. Moved back here as was decent community with lower taxes, that was stupid move.

$3800 in property taxes (=school tax) after slight income adjustment and on an assessment of 270K. Total annual tax burden including social security, fed, state, property, gasoline, generous estimates for sales taxes etc., excluding one-time taxes (e. g. real estate transfer tax) is 20% to 25% of our combined income; marginal tax rate of 30% notwithstanding.

I wont give you absolute numbers as folks can use that to back calculate how much I make and how much my house is worth... I dont want this to be a contest of who has more.


Income tax:

• Our federal scale is progressive... I'm in the 25% marginal bracket (highest is 39.6%) but most of my income gets taxed at lower rates due to lots of deductions (retirement funds, medical premiums, kids, house, nonworking spouse, local taxes).... I effectively pay around 11% net federal. Short term capital gain (< 1 year) are taxed at income rate, long term gains at 0,10,15 or 20% depending on income bracket. Gain on the sale of a primary home is partially exempt form tax.
  
• State tax is a flat rate of 5.15% after a few deductions. Short term capital gains taxed at 12%, long term at 5.15% (the state income tax has been going down steadily from the old rate of 5.3 or 5.5 10 years ago)
  
• Massachusetts has no local town/city income tax

Property tax:

• The house is taxed at $19 per thousand of value - 1.9% - annually by my town. This varies from town to town in Mass from as low at $4 per thousand to as high as $25. This pays for most town services - police, fire, schools, roads. ( This rate came down over the last few years but my value is increasing so the average annual bill is slightly up)
  
• The vehicles are assessed an annual excise tax of 2.5% of value on an accelerated depreciation schedule (something like 90%, 60%, 40%, 10% of value over the first 4 years) This is also paid to the town.

Sales tax:

• 6.25% state sales tax. food, clothing up to $150, fuels are all exempt. (this went up form 5.0 a few years ago)
  
• meals tax - same as sales tax, 6.25% at restaurants
  
• Massachusetts has no local town/city sales tax

Fuel taxes:

• Gasoline has 24 cents of state excise tax and 18 cents of federal excise tax per gallon included in the price. deisel similar or a bit higher. Home heating fuels are exempt.

Z33 said:

As for income tax.... Dont get me started. The wife and I were at $26,518.32

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That's really the number from your form 1040, line 63?

Grisu said:

That's really the number from your form 1040, line 63?

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That number is not hard to hit for a multi-income middle class family in a high cost of living state. When my wife goes back to work we will be well over that.

You really want to faint, look at the number Joful posted in the 203k thread

I'm in NJ.

I pay 5400 which includes school taxes.

I have a 1300 foot ranch on .6 acres. I bought the house in July for 207k. It was a great deal and it's valued a bit higher.

I actually live in a town with a decent tax rate (not compared to most states though). If I plopped my house into the next town over my taxes would be 6800 to 7000 and I would have to pay a private company to pick up my garbage.

Z33 said:

a few of the welfare queens I support.

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You mean all those retirees on Social Security?

jharkin said:

That number is not hard to hit for a multi-income middle class family in a high cost of living state. When my wife goes back to work we will be well over that.

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Even with the kids, mortgage deduction etc. and for federal income tax (as the OP stated) only? Hmm, I must fill out my tax return wrong or completely underestimate where the middle class starts; I have never been even close to that number. VT is not MA but not that cheap either. (And I always thought GA was not that expensive but I could be off.)

FWIW, our tax rates look pretty similar. Property is somewhat lower (~1.6% total but to figure out the actual amount you need an advanced math degree) but state is higher, I think.

Id be out of Business if i paid anywhere near what you guys pay.
The Sewer bills around here are more then the RE taxes. RE taxes $400 on 3000 SF Annual Sewer fee $600 .
Still somehow they manage to pay police $100000 a year and Teachers $60000

Im at $1,100 property tax for a $70k assessed property, but will probably be going up after im done remodeling.

Everyone grouses about taxes (include me in the club). But the older I get (and remember that means the more I have to "protect") the more I understand that taxes are the very things that better our country and our society. I believe that paying taxes is my responsibility as a citizen of the United States of America! I (and the Good Man) have been the beneficiaries of a wonderful publically funded education and continuing to fund schools only makes good sense. We drive on roads that were publically funded and are maintained by public funds. We have not directly benefitted from public water and sewer projects, but funding clean water and air is OK with us!

NOW, do I think there is inequity in the present system of taxation? you bet your boots I do! In light of the fact that we have no children have we been required to pay "more" into the system than our household has immediately derived than those with kids have likely had to pay, is it "unfair"? probably! Are we OK with that? YUP! Why? because it's "for the greater good". Doing so will benefit our society and it will allow the younger members of our society to enjoy the benefit so many of us have already enjoyed! Consider the motto of our country, you guys... E pluribus Unum. It's not about "me" it's about "US"!

philupthegastank said:

Im at $1,100 property tax for a $70k assessed property, but will probably be going up after im done remodeling.

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My property is assessed about the same ,around $70k so my area taxes roughly a third the rate of yours.

Grisu said:

Even with the kids, mortgage deduction etc. and for federal income tax (as the OP stated) only? Hmm, I must fill out my tax return wrong or completely underestimate where the middle class starts; I have never been even close to that number. VT is not MA but not that cheap either. (And I always thought GA was not that expensive but I could be off.)

FWIW, our tax rates look pretty similar. Property is somewhat lower (~1.6% total but to figure out the actual amount you need an advanced math degree) but state is higher, I think.

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I dont know state by state, but at least around here, anyone with a 4 year degree in a STEM field is starting out no lower than 60-70k.. People with advanced degrees start higher. Easy to get into the 6 figures as an engineer with a few years of job experience. Guys who own skilled building trade businesses can probably rack up incomes like that or higher putting in a lot of hours. My wife when she was working as an RN was in the 70 to 80 range. I think public school teachers are at least in the 60 range as well... Maybe I am off base but I would consider all those occupations middle class - we are not talking doctors, lawyers or stockbrokers here.


So figure you have a 2 income family like that and its easy to be in the 150k+ gross income range putting you into the 28% bracket and have decent sized household tax bills.

Well people I could not afford most of your taxes
We pay 1200 year property and school tax with about 60 %
school as for income tax my WSIB pension is not taxable
The wife pays about 27% (WSIB Workplace Safety and Insurance Board )

Grisu said:

Even with the kids, mortgage deduction etc. and for federal income tax (as the OP stated) only? Hmm, I must fill out my tax return wrong or completely underestimate where the middle class starts; I have never been even close to that number. VT is not MA but not that cheap either. (And I always thought GA was not that expensive but I could be off.)

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Hmm... maybe the definition I posted abouve you could call upper middle class if you want.. When you said you where in the 30% marginal bracket did you mean federal or federal+state? If you are at that level federal alone for taxable income I think you would be at the level of paying on the order of $$ quoted above unless im really screwing up my math...