Rose Cottage Ltd

No regular real estate “news” this week because I want to take a moment to ask, “Do we really OWN anything?”

Some readers may have already guessed where I’m going with this and yes, it’s property taxes. Here’s a bit of history regarding US property taxes:

Property taxes in the United States originated during colonial times.[60] By 1796, state and local governments in fourteen of the fifteen states taxed land, but only four taxed inventory (stock in trade). Delaware did not tax property, but rather the income from it. In some states, “all property, with a few exceptions, was taxed; in others, specific objects were named. Land was taxed in one state according to quantity, in another according to quality, and in a third not at all. Responsibility for the assessment and collection of taxes in some cases attached to the state itself; in others, to the counties or townships.” Vermont and North Carolina taxed land based on quantity, while New York and Rhode Island taxed land based on value. Connecticut taxed land based on type of use. Procedures varied widely.[61]

During the period from 1796 until the Civil War, a unifying principle developed: “the taxation of all property, movable and immovable, visible and invisible, or real and personal, as we say in America, at one uniform rate.”[62] During this period, property taxes came to be assessed based on value. This was introduced as a requirement in many state constitutions.

Full article: Wikipedia

I won’t link to the thousands of available stories of people who have long ago paid their mortgage but due to increased cost-of-living and the flatlining of social security, have lost their lifelong residences to – the tax man. By the time you get into real estate tax trouble, and have had so many additional fines and sometimes daily penalties added – a $500 back-tax bill can turn into thousands of dollars now owed.

And where does all this tax money go? We who pay have no control and often no knowledge of how the money is spent. Quite frequently it is applied to things we are in disagreement with. Although I have no children, part of my property taxes each year for nearly 40 years have been applied to “education.” Okay. Whether I have kids or not, I want children in my district to have nice schools and the books, teachers, and materials they need. What I do NOT want to fund is a special school for illegal alien children who can’t speak English. This is happening in my local area RIGHT NOW.

Can I refuse to pay in protest? Oh hell no! Between the mortgage company and the local taxing authority, my property is proven to not be my own. And even if I had NO remaining mortgage, the town and/or state will slap tax liens on my property and eventually move to take it from me if I do not wish to fund programs to which I am in direct opposition. The same goes for my car – which IS paid for. That falls in the “property tax” column as well. Since I pay off my cars and tend to keep them for long periods, I might eventually pay more in taxes than I did for the car!

And this tax business is only taking a larger and larger bite out of our lives. I think we’ve moved well into the month of April as the time we begin “working for ourselves” – meaning the first 3+ months of the year, we are working to pay taxes.

So to answer the question “Do we really own anything?” From a tax standpoint the answer is “No.” Our lives are increasingly “liened” to a government that consistently wastes our money and spends it on things – often in foreign countries – that we do not support.

Try not to think about this when you clock in to work on Monday morning…