Today, in a definite affront to the IRS, a 53 year old man carried out a suicide mission against the ageny. He set his house on fire this morning, left a rant on a website, climbed into a small plane and flew it into an IRS building in Austin, Texas causing a major fire and inflicting serious damage. Wow, that is moxie, America usually doesn't have suicide bombers.
I'm not condoning his actions but we can certainly identify with his rage against the agency here on the verge of tax season. I don't know what his particular situation with the IRS was but of the taxes I have to pay, the IRS piece is just one part. I pay plenty in Social Security (FICA) tax, New York State tax and property taxes not to mention sales tax, gasoline tax and all those other taxes that come out of my wages.
Perhaps the IRS has come to represent the evils of rampant taxation in general. Or maybe, because he lives in Texas, where there is no income tax, it was the agency he had to most contend with. I wonder if his actions change the tax situation for his family or if he has now egregiously left his problems to them.
Showing posts with label Tax Grievance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tax Grievance. Show all posts
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Simply Because it is September
Today is the first day of September. The weather dropped cold like a stone. That was it, our run of summer weather is over. We may still see some 80 degree days but the summer heat that we enjoyed over the last few weeks was all too short. Oh well. At least I did all that I could with it. But, it is September now and so our psychology shifts. Even the Dow Industrials lost 186 points today simply because it is September.
September and October are historically down months for the financial markets and when a majority of the previous stock market crashes have occurred. After the unprecedented rally of the last five months, investors are taking profits ostensibly because the rally has no basis and is therefore unsustainable and because the market goes down in September anyway. It is circular logic that creates an unavoidable condition. I'll get it straight one of these days.
The only thing that I am certain about is that I am still unemployed. I was supposed to go back to work when the kids went back to school but I still have not been fortunate to find employment. Many were predicting that an improved stock market would spur business to hire and prepare for renewed demand but employment still seems to be frozen. Many are still being laid off but now it is old news. To me, it is more competition on the ground and no matter how fantastic you are, no one seems to be above the fray. None of the people who started school with me in June have found employment, many of whom have very impressive resumes.
Tomorrow is my last day of school so I still have a milestone that I can set my lack of employment behind. School is supposed to help me be more employable and its actual completion resets the clock again even though I have already updated my resume and applied for dozens of jobs in the last month. Anyhow, I press on for at least I have something to show for myself.
September and October are historically down months for the financial markets and when a majority of the previous stock market crashes have occurred. After the unprecedented rally of the last five months, investors are taking profits ostensibly because the rally has no basis and is therefore unsustainable and because the market goes down in September anyway. It is circular logic that creates an unavoidable condition. I'll get it straight one of these days.
The only thing that I am certain about is that I am still unemployed. I was supposed to go back to work when the kids went back to school but I still have not been fortunate to find employment. Many were predicting that an improved stock market would spur business to hire and prepare for renewed demand but employment still seems to be frozen. Many are still being laid off but now it is old news. To me, it is more competition on the ground and no matter how fantastic you are, no one seems to be above the fray. None of the people who started school with me in June have found employment, many of whom have very impressive resumes.
Tomorrow is my last day of school so I still have a milestone that I can set my lack of employment behind. School is supposed to help me be more employable and its actual completion resets the clock again even though I have already updated my resume and applied for dozens of jobs in the last month. Anyhow, I press on for at least I have something to show for myself.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Property Tax Grievance
Last week my husband and I were lucky enough to file a grievance with the Town Assessor to reduce our property taxes. We had received a deluge of mail from many law firms and agencies offering to file on our behalf. In return the typical fee is 50% of your 1st year tax savings plus any appraisal fees if required. Of course, if your taxes are not reduced then you pay nothing. It is a win-win situation since you have nothing to lose and everything to gain. My husband thought it was a great idea and that we should sign up with one of these firms. I figured that I should research the matter and do it myself since that’s the type of person I am. Somehow, I had the date of May 20, 2008 in my head. It was the deadline stated on all of these offers. On May 19, I finally got around to my research only to find that May 20, 2008 was the absolute deadline for filing with my Town and that the grievance period began on May 1st. Great! I had no choice but to show up the next day and take my chances with the process.
I arrived in the rain with great trepidation because I was unprepared. Also, because it was the last day, I had no chance to fix any issues that may arise. I was pleasantly surprised. For all of the typical complaining about government employees, those at my Town Assessor’s office were stellar. Though the line got long at times, they patiently helped everyone along who needed it. If you couldn’t grasp the computer, if you couldn’t fill out the application, if you couldn’t grasp one single iota of the process, it did not matter. The Assessor’s office helped you with everything. It was incredible. Even when the waiting line for the computers got too long, residents were led to the back office to use the employees’ personal computers.
Luckily, I found the process to be simple. First, you are given an application and led to a computer to look up your address to get your tax id# (if you didn’t bring your tax statement with you) and your assessed valuation. The assessed valuation is the multiplier used to calculate the dollar amount of taxes owed. Using the valuation, the
assessed value (the current market value as deemed by the Assessor) of your property is calculated. I couldn’t believe the amount that my house was assessed, close to $100,000 more than I thought is was worth. This was a good sign that I might have a case. In my town, you also received a list of all the sales of homes in your zip code during the past year. It was your job to find 3 comps, 3 homes as similar to yours as you can find in your neighborhood that sold for less than the amount your home is currently valued by the Town Assessor. The same process an appraiser uses to qualify the value of your home. You were given the opportunity to use the computer again to verify the 3 homes you had chosen to get additional details to complete the application. You could also attach a recent copy of an appraisal if you had one. The final step was for you to value your home based on the comps that you picked and that was it.
Your application then goes to the Assessment Review Board for approval. I was concerned that some of the comps that I picked had higher assessed valuations than my house. However, the state of New York sets the rules for property tax grievance. Only the current market value of your home and other homes in the area can be used to determine if your house is overvalued. I hope that I am approved for this year. It will be a great help. If not, I will definitely try again next year. I couldn’t believe that there were so many firms and agencies making so much money for a process that was so simple, at least in my town.
I arrived in the rain with great trepidation because I was unprepared. Also, because it was the last day, I had no chance to fix any issues that may arise. I was pleasantly surprised. For all of the typical complaining about government employees, those at my Town Assessor’s office were stellar. Though the line got long at times, they patiently helped everyone along who needed it. If you couldn’t grasp the computer, if you couldn’t fill out the application, if you couldn’t grasp one single iota of the process, it did not matter. The Assessor’s office helped you with everything. It was incredible. Even when the waiting line for the computers got too long, residents were led to the back office to use the employees’ personal computers.
Luckily, I found the process to be simple. First, you are given an application and led to a computer to look up your address to get your tax id# (if you didn’t bring your tax statement with you) and your assessed valuation. The assessed valuation is the multiplier used to calculate the dollar amount of taxes owed. Using the valuation, the
assessed value (the current market value as deemed by the Assessor) of your property is calculated. I couldn’t believe the amount that my house was assessed, close to $100,000 more than I thought is was worth. This was a good sign that I might have a case. In my town, you also received a list of all the sales of homes in your zip code during the past year. It was your job to find 3 comps, 3 homes as similar to yours as you can find in your neighborhood that sold for less than the amount your home is currently valued by the Town Assessor. The same process an appraiser uses to qualify the value of your home. You were given the opportunity to use the computer again to verify the 3 homes you had chosen to get additional details to complete the application. You could also attach a recent copy of an appraisal if you had one. The final step was for you to value your home based on the comps that you picked and that was it.
Your application then goes to the Assessment Review Board for approval. I was concerned that some of the comps that I picked had higher assessed valuations than my house. However, the state of New York sets the rules for property tax grievance. Only the current market value of your home and other homes in the area can be used to determine if your house is overvalued. I hope that I am approved for this year. It will be a great help. If not, I will definitely try again next year. I couldn’t believe that there were so many firms and agencies making so much money for a process that was so simple, at least in my town.
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