Tell me about the taxes in your state....

ACooper

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#1
Do you have property tax? Income tax? How's the sales tax? Anything else you'd like to share about your state?
 
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Well I pay a fair amount of taxes. Property, income, sales tax - we have it all. BUT, I get a fair amount of services out of it. I don't mind paying taxes when I get services in return. My city in particular I adore.

I've driven cross-country in various directions, driven through and stayed in some cities that are real shi*tholes... bare minimum and poorly-maintained infrastructure, no or crappy public green space/parks system, etc and I tell you what... I'll keep my taxes. In fact, you couldn't pry me out of this city with a crowbar.
 

ACooper

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I think I should have put a disclaimer on this thread!

*This thread is not political. It's not to 'neener neener, my state is better'. It is 1 part curiosity, and 2 parts comparitive for possible relocation choices.*
 

Beanie

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#4
Don't move to Illinois. Our taxes are ridiculous and yet our state is still broke.
I take that back. Don't move to Illinois if you intend to live anywhere south of the "Chicago area," because to the politicians, Chicago is the only part of Illinois that matters. Everywhere else? MEH. WE BROKE SORRY.

Chicago is kinda lovely though. I wouldn't have minded moving to a Chicago suburb, truly and honestly. Except the whole lots of lake effect snow thing... that's kind of a bummer.
 

Airn

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#5
I live in Arkansas. My sales tax is around 9%. As I don't have property or a house, I'm not sure about the other taxes. Missouri's is around 6.5%. Quite a few people just go across the state line to grocery shop or get tobacco products.
 
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Well I wasn't trying to be all "neener, neener." Just saying that I feel that I actually get tangible value from my taxes, things that are important to me to my quality of life, so I don't mind paying them. *shrug*
 
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#7
New Hampshire has no income or sales tax but super high property taxes. You could lose your home, if you lose your job. The state really needs to replace the property tax with an income tax.
 

milos_mommy

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#8
People here always say the taxes are the highest in the country, but I'm not sure that's true.

8.875% sales tax
Property tax varies A LOT, by both county, and type of property, family size, if you rent out, etc. I know some areas people say they pay really low property tax, and some areas pay very high taxes, I have no idea if that's in comparison to other NY areas or the country in general. Areas with higher taxes get things like Christmas lights hanging from their street lights and parades and really fancy school plays. Lower tax areas still have good schools, public services, etc. No one here gets good highway (or back road) maintenance, but that's more of a reflection on the horrendous superintendent of the highway dept. than taxes.

It really, really, REALLY depends on the specific area in NY you're looking in. Overall, I like the state, even if it's very expensive, we get a ton of benefits. My only complaints are that MORE of our tax dollars don't go to schools.

Also, I think this is the whole country, but not sure, for certain weeks in spring and fall there is no sales tax on clothing and footwear.

There is also an additional tax in NYC on top of the state taxes, but for all the free stuff we get I definitely think it's worth it.
 
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#9
People here always say the taxes are the highest in the country, but I'm not sure that's true.

8.875% sales tax
Property tax varies A LOT, by both county, and type of property, family size, if you rent out, etc. I know some areas people say they pay really low property tax, and some areas pay very high taxes, I have no idea if that's in comparison to other NY areas or the country in general. Areas with higher taxes get things like Christmas lights hanging from their street lights and parades and really fancy school plays. Lower tax areas still have good schools, public services, etc. No one here gets good highway (or back road) maintenance, but that's more of a reflection on the horrendous superintendent of the highway dept. than taxes.

It really, really, REALLY depends on the specific area in NY you're looking in. Overall, I like the state, even if it's very expensive, we get a ton of benefits. My only complaints are that MORE of our tax dollars don't go to schools.

Also, I think this is the whole country, but not sure, for certain weeks in spring and fall there is no sales tax on clothing and footwear.

There is also an additional tax in NYC on top of the state taxes, but for all the free stuff we get I definitely think it's worth it.
Just to add on to this.

We don't pay a property tax where I am, but we pay a pretty high school tax, which I'm OK with. Some of the places we were looking at when we bought our house paid over $10 grand a year in school tax, no thanks, but when we looked at houses in other school districts it isn't that bad.

Over all I like where we are for now. Not someplace we want to stay permanently, but nice for now.
 

joce

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#10
Our sales tax is 6.25 %. I had to look that up;) Higher side in lorain county.

I have no idea on income tax, know we have it. I let my mom do my taxes and I know I don't get crap back and they take a ton out,or I feel that anyway. It makes me sick to look at my check honestly. More I make,more they take.

Here if you have over ten acres and you can say you use your property for farming you can claim CAUV status and pay next to noting on property tax. Last place we looked at was beautiful but only eight acres and 3,300 a year in taxes. Place before was 27 acres and 1,200 a year. My friend that does it just sells chicken eggs and breeds german shepherds(I know :cool:). We would have our hay guy plant most of it so it really would be farmed. There are some areas were taxes are not bad out here even if you don't do cauv. I am just very picky about where we live.

I know PA has some clean and green thing which sounds great. You get to keep your money for keeping the trees basically if I understand it right.

You know its awesome here! Lake is fun, we could go boating! Play with the dogs on the beach:)
 

CaliTerp07

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Virginia is one of the lower tax states, as best as I can tell. At least, people moving to the DC metro area often cite that as why they choose to live in Virginia over Maryland or DC proper. (Joke's on them though, traffic is horrible and they should just live where their job is!)

Sales tax is 5%. (Food is taxed at only 2.5%). Counties can add another percent, I believe.

Property tax is really low in my county--only 1.07%, but our property values are high, so for a normal sized 4 bedroom house I pay around $8k/year in property tax. The rate is by county, so it varies slightly across the state.

State income tax is 5.75% of anything over $17k (+ $720 due to the progressive tax structure).

Virginia also has "personal property" tax. We pay a yearly tax on boats, cars, RVs, etc. The rate is 4.57% of the assessed value each year. The (state? county?) subsidizes 85% of taxes on the first $15k of assessed value though, so if you drive an older car it shouldn't be over $400/year. My 13 year old car costs me about $100/year. A luxury car could run you over $1000/year though.
 

ACooper

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#13
Well I wasn't trying to be all "neener, neener." Just saying that I feel that I actually get tangible value from my taxes, things that are important to me to my quality of life, so I don't mind paying them. *shrug*
Oh no Sass! My disclaimer post had absolutely nothing to do with your post *scouts honor*

It's just that after I posted this thread, I clicked over to my facebook and there were a couple of my cousins along with a few friends engaged in a political debate. :rolleyes: (so sick of it all....seriously tempted to remove quite a few from my news feed!) States were mentioned and I thought "Oh dang......I hope my thread isn't taken as more political fodder" So I flipped back over and added the disclaimer, LOL
 

joce

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#14
Virginia also has "personal property" tax. We pay a yearly tax on boats, cars, RVs, etc. The rate is 4.57% of the assessed value each year. The (state? county?) subsidizes 85% of taxes on the first $15k of assessed value though, so if you drive an older car it shouldn't be over $400/year. My 13 year old car costs me about $100/year. A luxury car could run you over $1000/year though.
I think this is on trailers to. Heard its bad for horse trailers and they have yearly inspection? We have three trailers, the boat and the four wheelers plus the cars. No way. Lol. We have echeck but its free now.

I know some states like Kentucky always have the car tax kinda like yours I guess (not sure it's based on worth, though it was straight?) even after its paid off.

I think I like Ohio just fine lol!
 

CaliTerp07

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I think this is on trailers to. Heard its bad for horse trailers and they have yearly inspection? We have three trailers, the boat and the four wheelers plus the cars. No way. Lol. We have echeck but its free now.

I know some states like Kentucky always have the car tax kinda like yours I guess (not sure it's based on worth, though it was straight?) even after its paid off.

I think I like Ohio just fine lol!
Yeah, the tax has nothing to do with whether it's paid off or not. I paid cash for my car, and I've still paid taxes on it every year (just slightly less each year as the value has declined). And yes, it counts for trailers too.

And yes, state inspection every year, but not on boats and trailers and such, just vehicles. It's painless though--15 minutes at almost any gas station, and I think it's only $12 or something trivial. Emissions has to be done every 2 years before you can re-register the car at the DMV. That's $25, I think, and again 15 minutes at the gas station.

Annoying? Sure. But it's trivial.
 
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We do have yearly car inspections here in NY. They don't cost much, I think like $20 or something. I'm not really sure because I normally do it with my oil change and I've only had it done twice. I think it's ridiculous, especially after talking to my co-workers. One girl, college age, was talking about how a guy she met at school basically paid the mechanic off back where he was from to pass his car even though it was falling apart.
 

Jynx

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I think CT is an expensive state to live in:( We have state tax, 6.5%, town taxes, property taxes of which 75% go to the school system , car tax, boat tax, (all personal property tax)..You name we get taxed on it..We have alot of politicians who sit back and just love to spend our money on stupid stuff. Everything goes up except paychecks:(
 

LindaJD

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Massachusetts isn't called taxachusetts for nothing. Our sales tax is 6.25. no tax on food or clothes though. I live right near the New Hampshire border so I do most of my shopping there, no sales tax there. Yearly car inspections cost $29.00. Yearly Excise taxes on cars is $25 per thousand dollar value. Property taxes vary by town, but mine are lower than surrounding towns and I pay Residential $13.92 | Commercial $31.93 per thousand. I pay about $6,000 a year.
Income tax 5.3%. Gas tax is 23.5 cents a gallon.
Meals tax 6.25%
If and when Massachusetts finds a way to tax the air, they will.
 

Romy

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Sales tax is 8-9%. No income tax. Property tax varies widely, a lot of it is determined locally because it's used to fund schools.
 

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