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It's Time to Scrap Property Taxes
American Thinker ^ | February 22, 2017 | Justin Haskins

Posted on 02/22/2017 9:22:26 AM PST by Kaslin

Since the dawn of human civilization, governments have relied on property taxes to pay for public services.

In ancient Egypt, the pharaoh’s tax collectors levied taxes on individuals’ grain, oil, livestock, and land. When Alexander the Great conquered the world more than 2,300 years ago, he established administrators to assess local property taxes in the communities he ruled over, with some of the more troublesome nations paying more as a penalty for their disobedience. European monarchs would later assess their own property taxes, which, on occasion, led to full-scale wars between wealthy land-owning rivals. The British property tax system would eventually develop into something comparable to what we see in America today, and the Founding Fathers of this nation accepted the existence of property taxes as normative and necessary for the development of a proper society.

Government taxes are not inherently immoral. In fact, taxes are a necessary part of a functioning community. Without taxes, there would be no way to fund police or fire departments, the military, or necessary government agencies.

However, property taxes are fundamentally different than other forms of taxation. Use taxes, such as tolls, require only those people actually using a service to pay taxes. Income taxes and sales taxes apply levies on the transfer of wealth. Some taxes, such as Social Security taxes, are applied in exchange for a future benefit (assuming Social Security survives, of course).

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; Government
KEYWORDS: propertytaxes
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To: Gaffer

I like the way you think!


21 posted on 02/22/2017 9:49:05 AM PST by Mason
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To: SpaceBar

Still don’t know why I pay property taxes to support schools in the district if my kids don’t go to those schools. Now I could see a graduated reduction to zero if my kids once went to those schools.


22 posted on 02/22/2017 9:50:02 AM PST by EQAndyBuzz (Nuke Bilderberg from orbit. It''s the only way to be sure.)
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To: dragnet2

what I most dislike about property taxes is.. they go up as the value goes up.

It’s the same as if the income tax went up every year.

It put tax increases on automatic pilot.


23 posted on 02/22/2017 9:50:25 AM PST by TexasFreeper2009 (Make America Great Again !)
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To: Kaslin

The property tax system made some sense in small communities where almost everyone owned a farm or their own home.
But few communities like that exist anymore.

Property taxes today are nothing but a form of socialist wealth redistribution.

The system punishes the homeowner and real property owner and rewards the moocher and illegal.

It needs to be replaced with a revenue equal alternative that allows everyone to “contribute”.

Homeowners with few or no children pay for the schools for everyone including illegals and moochers who don’t contribute a red cent.


24 posted on 02/22/2017 9:50:50 AM PST by Vlad The Inhaler ("I really took notice when the animals began to pair up and stand in line." - NOAH)
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To: Kaslin

I think the problem is not so much the type of tax, but how a particular tax is apportioned.

E.g. increasing sales/use taxes for particular products/services allows the gov to interfere w/commerce w/their social experimentation and picking winners and losers.

Excise taxes are even more abused.

If in direct proportion, as originally indicated in the constitution, I don’t see much prob w/income tax. The only problem I see w/property tax is how the assessments can be skewed.


25 posted on 02/22/2017 9:51:55 AM PST by fruser1
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To: A_Former_Democrat
A tax on overseas remittances, especially to Mexico and other bad actors of illegal immigration, in lieu of property taxes on American citizens.

And if your locality has few or no illegal immigrants sending that money abroad? What does it do for revenue then?

26 posted on 02/22/2017 9:53:10 AM PST by DoodleDawg
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To: Mr. Douglas
In the Philly Inquirer a few years back was a story about a politician (Dem, natch) whose home was worth about 1 mil, based on size and neighborhood value. It was valued on the tax rolls for 100,000.

When I was with the local taxpayers alliance in the surburbs, I met widows who had their paid-for homes taken away for tax purposes. A typical story would involve a home that was bought 30+ years ago for 20 thousand dollars or less, yet was now worth 100 to 300 thousand, with the corresponding tax bill at 6000 and up. These women lived on tiny pensions and social security and could not pay 500 per month just for property taxes.

An Income tax is a tax on income coming in, so you can afford it. You can avoid or minimize sales tax by watching your spending, but you can't avoid or minimize property tax, and don't say the solution is pulling old ladies out of their homes.

27 posted on 02/22/2017 9:54:47 AM PST by sportutegrl
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To: DoodleDawg

Do it state wide . . or at the national level. Offsets against PT paid on your 1040 or state return.

And above the line so everyone gets a piece of the action.


28 posted on 02/22/2017 9:55:57 AM PST by A_Former_Democrat ("Liberalism is a mental disorder" On FULL Display NOW BOYCOTT Mexico NFL PepsiCO Kellogg's)
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To: sportutegrl

It is called down-sizing.

And yes, older people make these type of choices all the time.


29 posted on 02/22/2017 10:00:06 AM PST by skinndogNN
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To: TexasFreeper2009
Great point. In CA, it's so bad it's causing stagnation. Folks don't want to move to a nicer home say 10 or 40 miles away because they'll be paying CA 1% of the purchase price which is big money per month in property taxes, when you're talking about homes from 600k and up.

They can afford to move and purchase that nicer home, but don't dare because when they bought their home the sale price was say 148k and they have been paying 1% in taxes on that but now the home is now worth 640k. The new home they want is 750k. But they'd be paying 1% on that.

So they either they stay put, or head out of state. This is the choice they are left with.

30 posted on 02/22/2017 10:04:52 AM PST by dragnet2 (Diversion and evasion are tools of deceit)
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To: Kaslin

Abolish government schools.

1) property taxes could be cut in half, or abolished;

2) cost of education would be reduced by 50% or more;

3) no more little illiterate Commies being churned out.


31 posted on 02/22/2017 10:06:52 AM PST by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: sportutegrl

Yep. I like to say that if there are property taxes, there is no such thing as property ownership. Only rental from the government.

And in that statement is the problem. This is especially true in a nation that was built on the concept of private property rights.


32 posted on 02/22/2017 10:07:10 AM PST by Mr. Douglas (Best. Election. EVER!)
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To: sportutegrl

This is why owning property should be a requirement to the right to vote.

People that do not pay taxes should not be voting for programs that inflict taxes on those who do.


33 posted on 02/22/2017 10:13:03 AM PST by Pontiac (The welfare state must fail because it is contrary to human nature and diminishes the human spirit.)
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To: Kaslin

Interesting discussion.

So then, what is the best or most fair tax to levy, to pay for government services??

There are unfair aspects of just about any tax system people can think of. Income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, gas taxes, excise taxes, tariffs—all have downsides and I think all have been criticized in these comments.

And some have criticized that their property taxes pay for their local public schools, and that’s unfair because he/she has no children in the schools.

I’m just noting that our current hodge lodge of different taxes has evolved over time. And thinking that realistically, if we do away with certain types of taxes, that some other tax would take its place. Which gets us back to talking about how fair is this or that type of tax.


34 posted on 02/22/2017 10:16:25 AM PST by Dilbert San Diego
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To: dragnet2

Yep...you just rent the property, after a huge cash outlay. Don’t pay your property tax demands, watch your property disappear.


35 posted on 02/22/2017 10:19:51 AM PST by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: Pontiac

BINGO!

Only property owners should have the right to vote. Our Founding Fathers were correct.

Now? Not only do property owners have to pay exorbitant taxes; we have no more sayso than the freeloaders and takers who get to vote themselves more bread and circuses.


36 posted on 02/22/2017 10:21:51 AM PST by Responsibility2nd
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To: dragnet2

“Property taxes are one of the biggest con jobs ever perpetrated on the American people.”

Refreshing, beginning premise for a search for
alternative ways of taxation.

IMHO


37 posted on 02/22/2017 10:33:05 AM PST by ripley (ually to)
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To: dragnet2
But for everyone else wanting to buy? Ferrget it. They're going to get looted and robbed, but good.

My sister learned that the hard way. My dad made her executor of the family trust to spite me for moving to Idaho. When mom passed, the value of the house on her passing was recorded in the trust. Annual property taxes were $923. I had no desire to be tied to CA property. My sister erred in how show chose to purchase my half of the house. It was removed from the trust and half ownership assigned to each of us. My sister took out a load to buy my half. Because the house was pulled out of the trust, her half was reassessed taxes at market value. She barely breaks even with a very expensive rent to cover the principal, interest, tax and insurance. I expect the property to go upside down on value vs what is owed on the half mortgage.

38 posted on 02/22/2017 10:33:55 AM PST by Myrddin
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To: Dilbert San Diego

Maybe the first discussion should be about what is being paid for.

Revisit the goals, separating them from the solutions. The goal of “every child gets a free basic education” has merit; that the solution is a single government run school is too limited, needing other options that pressure cost reductions. Public fire department? why not privatized & competing? Etc. Hammer out the point.

Identify axioms and baselines. I’m all for someone being able to withdraw from society at large, live self sufficiently, own meaningful land & buildings, and pay zero taxes.


39 posted on 02/22/2017 10:44:04 AM PST by ctdonath2 (Understand the Left: "The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the Revolution.")
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To: dfwgator
"More local taxes means more local control."

Exactly.

40 posted on 02/22/2017 10:49:19 AM PST by who_would_fardels_bear
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