Garage and taxes

[Kevin54]

I haven't seen a thread on this yet, but just curious....How much did your taxes shoot up with either a garage remodel or a garage build. Of course, we all know that taxes go up in what seems daily, but when you remodeled your garage, or built a new one, did they go up drastically, very little, or none at all. When I built my 28' x 36' mine went up roughly $200/year, but our taxes are based on what is under roof and not what is living space. By that I mean, on my house at the back, I have an under roof 8' x 30 deck and on the side the deck is 6' x 24'. I am taxed on the extra roof space. On the garage I have a 6' overhang fron and side for a total of 70' x 6'. I am taxed on that additional roof space. So just curious as to what others are getting nailed on.

 

[66HertzClone]

My taxes increased $28 a quarter when we put up a shed. We are in the process of discussing taking the existing 3 car attached garage and converting it to living space. We would build a new free standing garage with additional storage space to replace it. I plan to built it and do virtually nothing to the interior until well after the final inspection. Hopefully this will limit the increase since it appears the garage would be just that, a garage.

 

[JMURiz]

Mine went WAY up, they said my house was worth $75k more with my small 22'x24' garage.

 

[ddawg16]

Here in CA, your taxes are based on the purchase price of the house....if you make an improvement, the cost of the addition is added to the base price...

So, when I do my garage...If I spend $20K on it, my tax base goes up $20K with a slight adjustment made for the fact that I was replacing garage that was in really bad shape. Overall, it is more or less fair.

Thank God for Prop 13.

And for those who don't know what Prop 13 was...prior to it, the taxes were based on the appraised value of the property. After 13, it was based on the purchase price. What this meant was that all those old folk that bought a house and never moved, their taxes would stay pretty much the same...but if you sale, the new owner pays at the new value.

 

[JMURiz]

Thank God for Prop 13.

Sure wish we had that in the DC area!

 

[zr52002]

Sure wish we had that in the DC area!

I'm glad more places don't. All it does is let older folks have low taxes while younger people starting their lives thus paying current values on property end subsidizing them. It *****, but go figure it's popular with older people that historically come out and vote more consistently

 

[ddawg16]

I'm glad more places don't. All it does is let older folks have low taxes while younger people starting their lives thus paying current values on property end subsidizing them.

Spoken like a true democrat....

At the risk of this thread getting off topic......the problem when you don't have prop 13 is that when houses appreciate in value at an unreasonable rate (as it did recently here in CA) everyone ends up paying out the gazoo. So, that poor retired couple who 'thought' they had eveything planned out are now in trouble.

So...what are the real reasons for property taxes (besides paying the salery of govt)? Police, Fire, infrastructure, parks, etc.

Whats a fair way to spread the cost? Head Tax? Doesn't seem fair for a couple living in a mansion with no kids...or for the guy with 20 kids living in a shack. Square footage? Seems more fair...the rich dude living in the 5000 sq ft house would pay more. But wait, the dude with 20 kids living in a shack would pay almost nothing...but then again, he/she would most likely be on welfare anyway....Flat tax? Nope....it's that rich dude again that would get off cheap. Size of the lot? Sounds good unless you have a farm with only one house or some dude puts 20 condos in the place of where one house used to be.

So....appraised seems to be about the most fair overall...within limits.

Personally I would rather do away with democrates and go to a use tax. If you don't use it, you don't pay. Don't want to pay property taxes? No problem...just don't bother calling 911...cuz they won't come.

Ok....I feel better now.

 

[zr52002]

Spoken like a true democrat....

Try again buddy. I find liberals are the ones that push these "prop 13" boondoggles to shift the tax burden to younger people.

Tell me, my friend in an older subdivision that just moved in should pay 4x the taxes that his neighbor does, just because the neighbor has lived there 20 years and he moved in last week?

He shouldn't, it's practically an identical house. 2 people in the house, neither couple has kid, same house, should mean same taxes.

 

[timgr]

Mmm. I don't think it's that simple.

Prop 13 was a response to the what property owners felt was an unfair increase in their taxes. If you read the Wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978) you'll see that many long-time homeowners were being squeezed by court rulings regarding local distribution of property taxes, and by the rapidly increasing assessments on their property. What the article does not mention is that 1978 was the Carter era, when the country was going through severe stagflation, with inflation around 15% and not much growth. Times were tough economically, and Prop 13 seems (to me at least) like a very rational response by the taxpayers of CA to what they saw as a threat to them and their households.

This is not a battle against young and old - instead I see it as the response to the unintended consequences of poor social and economic policy. Prop 13 was purely a defensive action by the taxpayers against government policy that the they rightly saw as threatening their well-being.

 

[CharlieBrown]

I my mind..once you pay taxes on your home..then it should be done..period


think about it..you never really own your home..cause if you dont pay the tax..the government takes it away

and no..a retired couple..shouldnt subsidize the crack addict with ten kids on welfare

but of the two above classes..i wonder who votes democrat..and who votes republican

 

[kenfath]

Prop 13 did a number of good things for all California property owners. It set the tax rate at 1% of assessed valuation plus bonded indebtedness. It allows an annual increase of 2%. When property is sold the sale price establishes the fair market value for real estate tax assessment purposes. 'I think' Prop 13 also set up the requirement that all new taxes will be submitted to the people for approval by a 2/3rds majority of the people voting on the issue. It also has a mechanism to lower taxes when the real estate's value decrease.

In the 1970s large amounts of agriculture property was being purchased by developers and speculators who were paying previously unheard of prices. One example I remember was two parcels of comparable land were located on opposite sides of a road. Both were citrus groves that were occupied by owner/growers. Both parcels were assessed at $500/acre. One owner sells his property for $25,000 per acre. Since real estate assessments then were based on comparable sales the other persons property now had a huge tax increase. The agriculture income was not sufficient to pay the new taxes. The consequence was owners were forced from their property.

The fact that the proposition passed showed it had popularity of both Democrats and Republicans.

Prior to Prop 13 property taxes were out of control. To spend more politicians simply raised the tax rate. Prop 13 lets property owners know what their taxes will be and it tells government how much money they will have to work with.

What surprises me is the People in more States haven't adopted a Propostion 13.

 

[fxdlryan]

I'm guessing here in NoVa, it's gonna have a huge impact on my assessed value and taxes. My builder still has a few things on the punch list before final inspection, after which point I'll be reassessed.

As to the Prop 13 deal, I have mixed feelings. In an area like California or DC, it can have some distinct advantages. In our area, many old folks have been taxed out of their homes. Some older folks live across the street from me, I hit their driveway with the snowblower in the winter and lend them a hand when I see that they are struggling with something. They return the favor with veggies from their garden and conversation, their property taxes alone today are twice what their house payments were when they bought the house. They have an older ranch house, but it sits on 3 acres and Loudoun County is getting deep into their pockets. Many farmers have been taxed out of their property, etc. Prop 13 or something similar can help with those kinds of issues. It does seem a little unfair if I bought my house 10 years ago and my neighbor buys his today and pays twice the property tax that I do, but taxing old folks out of their home seems kind of un-American to me. There is no perfect system, but I certainly think we could do better than what is done presently.

 

[oldgoat]

For us they go by what the assessed value of the property is. Then they are suppose to go through each district every so many years and do a new assessment. When I built my garage nothing happened until this year and the value of the property went up about $12000 dollars so I didn't get hurt too bad I guess since I spent a lot more than that on it. Don't know what it will come out on taxes though until the tax bill comes this winter. I think probably another couple hundred more a year. I think that they have talked about puting a freeze on what the elderly pay on their taxes in that it would stay at the tax rate that they have when they reach the age of when the freeze would come in. Don't believe anything has happened on it yet, but I can go along with it since they are the ones that many times aren't in a position to deal with increases.