As I've written about quite a bit recently, Mrs. Denmarkguy and I are currently wrangling with the world of taxes. The "effects" of Covid-related restrictions have not been good for our income since late 2019... but yet? The tax man always cometh.
First, it was preparing our income tax return (whcih got mailed in on Monday), and today it was using the information from that income tax return to head to the local property tax office to submit the paperwork and an application for a property tax exemption for our lovely home.
It seems ironic, somehow, that even when you own a piece of real estate outright — as in, not even the bank has a lien on it — you still have to make fairly substantial payments to the local taxing authorities every year... or else they can come and take your property away in what's known as ”tax foreclosure.”
One of the small helpful provisions around here is that once you turn 61 years of age (which I did, last year) you qualify for certain exemptions which will serve to reduce the amount of property tax you have to pay every year.
That's a welcome break because currently, our property taxes have been averaging a little over $6000 a year — or the equivalent of a ”rent” payment of about $500 a month — which is no small potatoes for a couple of self-employed people with struggling small businesses. I suppose we would be struggling less if a substantial part of our livelihood hadn't been curtailed by the presence of COVID-19 and the attendant lockdowns and restrictions on gatherings and movement. But fact remains that we are struggling and so we need all the help we can get.
So I gathered all my relevant paperwork and headed down to the county courthouse. One of the nice things about living in a small town is that even the people in ”official positions” tend to be pretty laid back and decent. And this was thankfully no exception.
Although the whole process took somewhat over an hour, the lady who helped me — who also happened to be the office manager — patiently walked me through the entire process of filling out various forms and making sure the right paperwork was there to support all numbers on a page. What's more, at the end of it all, she declared ”everything looks good, you qualify for the highest level of exemption,” and let me know that we could expect to get a revised property tax bill in the mail in about a week or 10 days... much quicker than the ”4-6 weeks processing time” promised by the official state treasurer's website which oversees the program.
Now we get to wait and see how much of a reduction we actually end up with.
Of course this only applies to our current year property taxes; we still have to somehow find a way to come up with enough money to pay the past due taxes from previous years. We seem to be perpetually running about three years behind... which is the extreme limit of the grace period.
Sadly, it looks like I may have to power down some Hive to come up with that... I'd almost say ”that's against my religion!” but ultimately we have to be pragmatic about it and recognize that at least part of the reason we keep building this "savings" balance is precisely so we can bail ourselves out when these situations arise.
In the meantime, I guess I'll just keep on blogging and hoping it makes enough of a difference!
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Are you a homeowner? If so, do you have to pay a lot of property taxes, where you are? Do they have any assistance programs for older people or low income people? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220216 22:55 PST
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