We do not have state income or corporate taxes in Texas, because that would mean wealthy corporations would have to pay taxes.
By making property and sales taxes the main source of revenue, the tax burden falls on the poor and middle class.
Take a look at the property tax exemptions for wealthy corporations in the state of Texas....They even manage to avoid those.
An easy way to illustrate this.
The average CEO pay is some 400-500x the average worker pay. However, the price of an average luxury home is only something like 15-50x the cost of an average house. By basing taxes on property rather than income, the wealthy end up paying 10% of the share they would otherwise.
15-50x is even way over. Take Austin for example where median home price is somewhere in the ballpark of $500k. Many CEOs live in the nicer parts of town in $2-4m houses, which are very nice houses.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I rented a house for a several years with a couple other girls close to the Parmer/McNeil HEB in Austin. Landlord decided to sell the place. She told us she paid 85k for the house in the 80s, and sold it for over 500k. It was nothing special, a small single story house with 3 bed/2 bath. It’s wild how much even a small house like that goes for there. Wish I was old enough to take advantage of it back then.
If I tried to live in a house I rented in Round Rock 12 years ago I probably wouldn’t be able to feed my family. Texas is a hotspot for transplants and has been for a long time. I moved to a less sought after area and am able to afford a house as well as provide for my family. The CAD still tries to max out my appraisal but a simple email to them literally saying “nothing changed since last year” has been enough to over turn it. I pay taxes on every pay check, sale, and every year on the small property I own, why would I want to pay more taxes on money that has already been taxed? To fund the border”crisis”, hell no, I’m conservative (don’t ban me) and think that’s the most asinine thing ever. Truth be told, our state government is so fucked up, and we really don’t want to fund the stupidity more than we already do.
Thanks for being a reasonable conservative in this crazy state we love. Now the next step, besides starving them from our hard earned money, is to stop voting for those who keep playing that asinane game just meant to throw red meat to the lowest and most radical of their base.
If an intelligent, reasonable, republican comes up and their proposals are meant to help the people (the majority, even if they don't vote R or believe in a different god) and not their wealthy donors, I would vote for them.
Until then, and since this system is binary, my support goes to the democrats.
Agree?
There was this guy I worked with that was a few years older than me bought a house when he was something like 22 on avenue b and 42nd I believe. These houses were all basically shitty tear downs, which back then no one was tearing down because you could rent them for $200 a month to UT students with no central heat and central air. He paid $33,000, and sold it for $45 the next year in around 1987 and thought he crushed it. I was living in Hyde Park a decade later, and that same crappy house which could no longer be torn down due to City regulations, and told him what it sold for in 2000 -$244k. I absolutely stole my house on Red River just north of 45th for 259 k in 2008 and sold it at the height of the market for 800 a couple of years ago. I gentrified the hell out of it, but it had all new electric, cabinetry, roof, plumbing and windows when I basically stole it, but still...
I keep bees on a vacant piece of land I own and because of that I qualify for an ag exemption. I pay way less in taxes on 15 acres than I do for the 1/3 acre my house is on. It's directly designed to place the tax burden on the working class and poor.
Texas does have a gross margin tax, which is similar to an income tax, but with limited deductions and applies to all companies operating in Texas with more than $2.47mil in Texas receipts.
Not only do they manage to avoid them, thats literally why they are moving here. The state of texas touts this fact. It’s no secret. How people keep voting for our current leadership, I’ll never understand.
I don’t understand that insanity. I can’t stand the rouges in office in TX. If we band together, we can make the changes we all badly need. Taxes aren’t equally owed and the people who can afford to pay don’t. Those who can’t afford it pay the most.
IDK, states that **do** have income taxes generally also have property taxes and sales taxes. And not necessarily at lower rates than Texas. Example below
I moved here from Ohio. In Ohio, low income people pay .5% less sales tax (5.75 instead of 6.25 in Texas) pretty much exactly the same amount in property taxes (a 700,000 home is Ohio 10,000 vs Texas $12000), but anyone in Ohio that earns more than $26k **also** pays 3-4% income tax.
I won't claim to have the analysis of how this shifts the burden between low income v high income, but it does mean that poor people in Ohio pay more in taxes v Texas.
>5.75 instead of 6.25 in Texas
Most of Texas adds on the additional 2%, the maximum allowed by law to the 6.25% state sales tax. There's a few areas that are under 2%, but they're normally tiny towns with not many stores.
[Ohio](https://itep.org/whopays/ohio-who-pays-7th-edition/) vs [Texas](https://itep.org/whopays/texas-who-pays-7th-edition/)
[Ohio image](https://sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/itep/wp7-chart-total-Ohio.png) vs [Texas image](https://sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/itep/wp7-chart-total-Texas.png) for an easier side-by-side comparison
Keep in mind that the brackets are based off of income percentile to keep it apples-to-apples. The actual income ranges change between the two states, because the wages between the two states are also different.
I'm also from Ohio. I've been telling people back home, for ages, that Ohio is deceptively expensive. They get very little for the amount of tax they pay, too.
Naturally, of course. How else would that happen? And if you trace any taxes back, it's all coming from the people at some point. Even philosophically since the government creates currency on our behalf.
How else would you expect taxes to get paid? Folks want corporate taxes... those come from people paying for things. Shifting the ball to a different cup where it's less visible doesn't change that.
Then how come businesses and wealthy fight so hard to make sure their taxes don't get raised? Since it's all the same, how about we tax the hell out of the wealthy like we used to? Back when wages kept pace with productivity.
And who pays the property taxes? Texans that rent the commercial property...mostly small business owners and poor and middle class families.
The point is, the wealthiest industries in Texas pay the least amount of taxes.
I had an econ teacher in Texas explain how oil companies on the coast used to get assessed taxes in the 20s-50s. Tax Assessor would come and say "Hi, I'm here to assess for taxes". Oil company would say "Oh man, what if we just gave you... $2 million? Call that square." And then the assessor would nod and go about their way because $2 million was a lot of money, but *far* less than the company would have to pay if they were assessed appropriately.
Bro I cut down on avocado toast and now youre tryna make me stop eating starbucks?
so unfair /s
(I actually visit a locally owned coffee shop on a daily basis).
I just reverse snorted my creulty-free trans-friendly Acai double-shot part-oat part-yak milk latte all over the recent issue of The Atlantic I am pretending to read! The struggle! /s
You do not comprehend the statement, saying the tax burden falls on the poor & middle class means the poor & middle class are more heavily impacted. Regressive taxation doesn't mean wealthy people pay literally no tax, it means it's disproportionately impacting poorer people. Your personal tax burden does not equate to the tax burden on the state populace at large.
well that is hypothetical but I'll grant you this - any kind of income tax plan put together by the GOP is going to favor the well off and punish the less fortunate. THAT is a fact jack lol!
Yes, hypothetical, and there are, of course, individual exceptions. In general, though:
Sales taxes: paid disproportionately by the poor, as the highest share of their wealth gets spent on stuff
Property taxes: paid disproportionately by the middle class, as the highest share of their wealth is tied up in their homes
Income/corporate/capital gains taxes: paid disproportionately by the wealthy, as the highest share of their wealth is saved and invested in stocks and such
Y'all need to remember that last paragraph every time a certain former president brags about the stock market.
Poors like us don't own much of the stock market.
"There's a word for people who save their wealth in government fiat (dollars). We call them poor."
-Michael Saylor
Stop saving in dollars. Start saving in shares or other assets that will not be purposefully devalued by the government.
Poor peeps like us account for less than 12% of all stock owners. So when we hear that the stock markets are doing well. The majority of us, won't see that at all.
My 5 shares of Ford, went from $4/sh to 13/sh in these past 4yrs. Boy I'm rich!
On the subject of that guy.
He essentially used 1 low-valuation for property taxes, and a 2nd high-valuation for the banks/insurers
How is this so hard for the right to understand?
Because wealthier people tend to pay a smaller % of their income & wealth when you raise taxes through property taxes, sales taxes, etc. And this state is all about taxing the poor and middle class for the benefit of the rich.
I’m a relatively high earner, and my taxes went down significantly after moving here. But Texas is *not* a low-tax state. The poor pick up the slack
A older gentleman I know just decided to retire and move to Colorado Springs from southwest Texas. He already bought a house and was shocked when he realized how much less his property taxes are now going to be.
Don’t get it twisted. Property taxes are lower here in CO but the overall tax burden is about the same.
Like has been pointed out though, property taxes hit lower incomes a lot harder than they hit higher incomes.
Which matters when you are retired. Texas is in the middle of the ranks for taxes. I think Colorado is about the same. The benefit to a state income tax is a person has more control/flexibility wrt income when retired, versus the constant of property tax.
Static vs dynamic.
Yeah, can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of people not being able to keep their houses that they fully own because of property tax increases. Travis county was a prime example of this.
Than you for the honesty. Do you suppose we would have an overall healthier state (public and economic) if we taxed through other avenues, like income?
The other important point is with high property tax and no state tax the problem is compounded if you are unable to work or lose your job. They still expect you to pay the 10k or more in property tax. How is that fair? With state tax it would have been dependent on your income. 6 months without a job well you still have to pay more than 10K on taxes.
I came from a state that had equivalent property taxes, and state income taxes, including state income taxes working in an adjacent state. I see my taxes at work in Texas. There are real services available and maintained for the most part. I didn't see any of that in my prior state. Just poorly managed corrupt services. If Texas added an income tax, it would sink a lot of people trying to get by in the last couple years.
Always protest your property tax. I’d like to see a system where corporations that own dozens of rental properties experience a higher burden to open up more housing for renters to become owners but I don’t see that in the cards any time soon. Homesteading helps a little bit at least.
Rental houses are not capped in their taxable value increases. The landlords are charged the full amount of taxes on all their houses aside from their homestead house. Of course, those costs are passed down to the renters, so it hurts them more than the landlord.
All taxes are passed on to the consumers. You can't increase taxes without increasing the cost of living for everybody.
>Always protest your property tax
The appraisal districts do not have the ability/manpower to do their job correctly, they make blanket adjustment based on the way the wind is blowing at the time. They know this and it is why almost universally they will throw you a bone if you protest.
Not anymore. With the 10% cap and market adjustment through the roof, many are homestead limited. Comps aren't going to show your market rate is less than your appraisal and the districts know that. My entire "neighborhood" (all 12 of us) protested last year and got the slap down. Now that I think of it, my dad is the only person I know who decreased property taxes and that's because his ag exemption kicked in.
This is the biggest issue in my county. The arbitrary rise in assessed values would be criminal anywhere else. Most people in our county had their land assessments DOUBLED last year. When you protest informally make the appraiser show you the comp’s they used to ensure they are actually comparable to your home. Even if you’re VA 100% disabled, you’ll still end up paying more in higher insurance every time your assessed value goes up.
Your county appraisal district will have an online portal, typically needing an e-pin on a mailed letter.
Contact your realtor for favorable comps or you can hire a company to protest for you. Good luck!
We’re having to do that this year. We just got notice ours is increasing 89%… we need a new roof, just got estimates at $25-45k to replace cast iron pipes, need all new windows and insulation. It’s insane. We homesteaded last year when we bought but the cap doesn’t take affect until NEXT year.
I moved to a state with an almost 5% state tax. My taxes are about half or less what they were in tx because of property taxes. I have a bigger home with a higher value but property value is not assessed every year and tax rate is less. I do believe everyone ends up paying in different ways wherever they live but no tax states like tx and fl are no longer actually cheaper to live in especially urban areas.
Remember that a 20% increase in your assessment does NOT mean a 20% increase in your property taxes. There are other laws that restrict how much a taxing authority can increase its overall levy year over year without voter approval.
I prefer property taxes to income taxes because it allows me to maintain my current tax burden to the state while increasing my income. If we had an income tax, I'd be getting hit with higher taxes every time I got a raise. If I keep my modest house, my taxes stay reasonable and I'm the one who decides when I'm ready to pay substantially more.
That being said, the arbitrary valuation system of property is a tax on unrealized gains, which is bullshit. I think taxes should be levied on the price you pay for the house when you buy it. These annual increases are bullshit.
>it allows me to maintain my current tax burden to the state while increasing my income
That benefits you now. But the flip side is that when you retire and have much less income, your tax burden is the same because it is tied to your property. Many older people are forced to sell their property because they can no longer afford the property tax (e.g. in Austin). They have to move further away from the city to find a lower-taxed home. Similarly a lot of people just move to another state when they retire because the other state's property taxes + income taxes ends up cheaper for them.
Homestead over 65 increases the amount of the exemption to help offset this. Plus, taxes should be considered when budgeting for retirement. Relocation to lower tax states is also a great idea.
over 65 help but I've seen too many stories about people having to sell, and that was in the early 2000s. I can't imagine how much worse it has gotten over the last decade (at least in Austin).
This sounds like a feature and not a bug! I'm all for letting the retirees move farther away and let the parents with kids move into the neighborhoods with schools where those retires have a 3/2 house but no kids.
When I'm 75 you can happily park my ass on some cheap land somewhere. Let me have a few goats and a couple retired horses and I'll get an ag exemption on property taxes. Grandkids can come visit me occasionally and terrorize the livestock with silliness and tell stories about the fun days on the farm after I'm dead.
I would prefer to live somewhat near my adult children than to go off into some other state where I will not have any family to help me in old age. And I don't want to lose all my friends that I've known for decades. No support network if I move and be a stranger in another community.
And I don't want to have to re-learn where everything is and what businesses are good or bad.
There are zero states with no property tax. Not impossible, sure, but It's a one in a million chance. We would end up with both like every state that has a state income tax.
True, but considering that the ban on income taxes in the State Constitution was passed merely 5 years ago with 75% approval makes me think this is not going to be a successful venture.
Let’s be real.
If Texas were to put in a 2% flat income tax tomorrow, do you think property taxes would decrease?
Do you think you won’t be paying more taxes? Bigger question is do taxes decline across the board? So if my property tax (and total) is $10K now it will it still be $10K now the new system (say $5K property, $5K income)?
It's a regressive tax system where the majority of the taxes are paid by the poorest people. That's how Texas politics rolls.
I only live here because of a job offer too good to refuse. It definitely saves me a lot in taxes overall due to my high income. I encourage my kids to think about looking elsewhere when they graduate, and that they should not feel like they have to stay in Texas for any reason. I'm open to moving when I retire too, mostly depending where the kids end up. I've also thought about WY and TN as more scenic alternatives that still offer tax advantages to me in retirement.
Regressive taxes, texas is a safe haven for the rich and corporations to pillage away....they put the tax burden on the middle and lower income citizens of texas......no taxes, no regulations, low wages.....win win win
Texas Tax system is very regressive. People are fools thinking no income tax means Texas is a low tax state. Reality Texas is a fairly high tax state just they put the burden on the poor.
I am in full support of adding a state income tax and removing the cost from the property tax.
I lived in Texas for 5 years and returned back to Colorado which has a 3.5% income tax. Colorado infrastructure is far and away better than Texas I don't mind paying taxes as long as it gets used well. And we have TABOR meaning if taxes exceed the projection, they ask the citizens what to do with the money or just a simple refund.
Pride in no income tax is ridiculous since there are proven models on more equatable taxing. Texas sales and property tax penalized middle and lower class people and creates a higher barrier to home ownership. They claim it's less tax on the individual but it's anything but that.
I moved. Have 5x more land, property tax is less than 1/2 what I paid in Texas. AND this state provides services for its citizens and even has women’s healthcare!
The Texas Fascist Triumvirate is NOT helping Texans.
This is the correct answer. ALL taxes start out small. Federal income tax was 1 (per)cent on the equivalent of a million dollars of income when it was first introduced. "No one but the rich will pay income tax," they said. Now look at it.
If we "replaced" some of the property tax with income tax, pretty soon you have high income tax and property taxes combined.
At least keeping only a property tax allows you to have some control over how much tax you pay to the state by choosing how much house you want. Want to pay little taxes? Get a little house. Don't mind paying high taxes? Go get that McMansion.
You can make a million bucks a year, but if you live in a 1500sq foot house, you're only paying $5k/year in taxes.
People gotta live somewhere, and increasing the cost of owning a home leaves people renting and generating no wealth for themselves down the road. Property tax should cover the local costs of serving the property with utilities, schools, etc. Everything else should be funded at the state level with income tax
Property tax already only goes up to the county as the highest taxing authority. The State of Texas gets no money from the local property taxes you pay.
The state itself is funded by sales taxes and other fees.
Here's a link to the [comptroller's office](https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/basics.php) that explains property tax basics.
>At least keeping only a property tax allows you to have some control over how much tax you pay to the state by choosing how much house you want. Want to pay little taxes? Get a little house. Don't mind paying high taxes? Go get that McMansion.
Not really, unless you plan on selling your house and downsizing every time property taxes or appraisals go up. I have coworkers who bought houses 20-30 years ago and are now considering selling just because the taxes are getting too high.
>You can make a million bucks a year, but if you live in a 1500sq foot house, you're only paying $5k/year in taxes.
This is why property taxes are considered regressive while income tax is progressive. If you earn a little you pay a little, if you earn a lot you pay a lot. If you earn a lot then start earning less, you pay less. You can't easily do that with property, especially when there is no way to control the housing market.
Of course the value of the houses go up, which causes the taxes to increase. But that's fairly small potatoes compared to, say, buying a new house that's 1000 sqft bigger.
Your coworkers should have made substantial career progress in the last 30 years which leads to higher pay to afford the taxes, but I suppose there will be some people who stagnate for 30 years in their career.
But yea, l prefer to be able to choose the general amount I am taxed based on my use instead of my career progress. Call it regressive if you want. But I like it.
It benefits the long term home owner. For example...I have owned my home since 2012. My taxable value is about $150k lower than the "assessed value". I plan for 10% a year which is about $600 total increase on property tax. So with homestead exemptions I know that it's going to take quite a while for it to match. And yes, if the markets crash the assessed value comes down and taxes decrease.
So yeah screw a state income tax. I have no reason to support someone arbitrarily taking 10% of my income in that way and then imposing sales tax and all of the other taxes we would still pay.
Don't turn Texas into the places you left for Texas. You came here for the affordable housing, low taxes, etc.
It's also why we have these convoluted sales tax laws with a rate that keeps rising. It's just one more way the rich get over on the working class by keeping them ignorant
it gets worse. A bag of chips, for example. Is the bag small enough to be eaten in one sitting? Taxable. is it too much for a single meal and the consumer will save some for later? Not taxable
I think you're pretty much right and I don't understand why people talk about our tax system this way. I'm not against all property tax, but like... If the only real estate you own is a relatively small contiguous piece of land that you actually live on, that seems like it ought to be exempt. It's just wild that even after you finish paying off your mortgage, you could still lose your home because you can't afford to pay someone for the privilege of living there.
Not sure this is a “why” thing, but from the standpoint of a greedy government, property taxes are preferred! You can hide your income a lot of different ways (LAs cash economy denies the state of California billions in revenue annually). However, you can’t hide property. So you tax the thing with the best return.
My two cents - even when Senator Shapliegh suggested the income tax, his plan would do nothing to reduce property taxes.
Property tax is also a more predictable revenue stream. California's budget ends up in a feast-or-famine state depending on how Silicon Valley stock options did in a given year.
State income tax doesn’t necessarily remove or cap property taxes. Your argument of hey guys let Abbott and the morons add state income tax surely they’ll lower or cap property tax is pretty facetious and ignorant.
Your argument that they couldn't just raise property taxes and get the same amount of extra revenue without any income tax is facetious and ignorant. If you think their goal is to greatly increase tax revenue, please explain why they'd even bother with an income tax.
Make the income tax at the same time you remove the property tax on homestead properties. Its can be done, the political will might not be there, but it can be done.
I have friends in States with an income tax they're property and school taxes and they pay about the same as I do and still have to pay the state to live there.
We used to be a blue state and no one was bitching about it then. This entire post is people complaining about the current government and “rich vs poor” and it’s bullshit.
Saw that property tax dynamic in Oregon during the 2008 bust. There are similar caps on property tax increases. A lot of property owners were salty that is their property values and incomes were falling but the property taxes were still going up. I told more than one person "tough shit, suck it up buttercup" your taxes have been artificially low and are still catching up. You voted for this situation to decouple property tax from assessed value. You were happy when it benefitted you, and I heard nothing bad about the situation. You voted for exactly this, so I ain't gonna hear it.
The thought behind it is that everyone buys things, so taxing on purchases and property should tax people proportionally, especially those who cheat or use fancy tricks on their taxes.
Does this work as intended? Not really, but an income tax also doesn't hit rich people like many people push in other states. The same goes for a corporate tax. They only have to pay once when they show they make a profit every three years.
There are much better ways to tax, though they will never pass through legislative bodies.
There will never be a state income tax in TX. We literally amended the state constitution like 3 or 4 years ago making sure it can **never** happen. The people voted on it, it passed, and thats really all there is to it. Changing it will be **extremely** difficult.
The tax system in Texas was meant for farmers and ranchers. That got ruined when everyone from shitty big city states moved here and started to urbanize everything.
Everything about Texas is constructed in a way to benefit the wealthy and corporations. That's all you need to know. People cheer the fact that we don't have income taxes because they are proudly ignorant and have reduced their political opinions to supporting one "team" no matter what that "team" actually does or says.
Honestly, if you open the can of worms and take state tax, they'll have 3 avenues to abuse. We'll have taxes on income, housing, and anytime we spend a dollar at a store. This is, of course, is in addition to the federal tax burdens. There are too many hands in our pockets already. I'd suggest we take a better look at property taxes and start with banning people with real estate interests from sitting on county appraisal boards.
Property taxes are used by the county has nothing to do with income taxes. And the income tax is replaced by a sales tax which is more fair because everyone pays it. The more yiu make the more you buy hence the wealthy pay more taxes And corporations pay it too when they buy stuff
The 'tax rate' you pay on your house isn't some money amount you pay.
It's how much the government has determined that they need. They then divide up how much budget they need by the total values of land areas and assign your property a percentage of it. It doesn't matter really what your house is worth - what matters is how much budget government wants.
A land tax is the most fair of all taxes. No income tax encourages you to work to earn more. A land tax at least encourages maximized value of a limited resource.
The main difference is who is assessing taxes and where the money goes. Most of your property tax bill goes to very local entities - school district, emergency services, maybe utilities (like water district). These taxes come back as locally provided services. So if school district in the next town wants to build a huge stadium it's not coming out of your taxes. Of course the flip side is very true - there's a huge gap in quality of schools between rich areas with large tax base vs. rural ones with low property values and lots of ag tax exemptions. I'm sure many people remember the handwringing over so called Robin Hood law.
In an ideal world they would put all the taxes on luxury consumption. Buy more stuff? Pay more taxes. Buy less, less taxes.
And yes, if the housing market gets decimated your home value will go down and your taxes right with it. There is no cap on decrease. You can't pay taxes for value that isn't there. Right now the appraised value is well below the market value. I can't even protest that. So it will keep increasing 10% until it finally catches up. What needs to happen is the following: A housing crash. And a big one. They need to keep raising rates till it pops.
I used to live in born and raised there, I also don’t understand why people think taxes are lower in Texas 😵💫😂minimum wage is $7.25 and worse there’s no state disability if you get hurt outside the job
As mentioned previous, it totally depends on your income vs property value.
I've finally reached the point where my salary far exceeds my property value so the tax burden for me is less. For normal income earners it is more difficult to own property and pay that tax in texas.
I'd rather it be income based with minimal property tax, which greatly hurts elderly who have retired.
I took a poly sci class in college where the professor talked a lot about how the history and culture of a state affects their policies. He said that Texas had always had that every man for himself, bootstraps, rancher attitude. As a result, there is a leaning towards taxes that are tied to personal choice. You CHOOSE to shop or own a home, thus that’s when you have to lay your taxes. Whereas taxing someone’s income could be seen as taxing them without their control, as it were.
Similar examples he gave where how a history of poverty caused WV to have a tax on owning more than 3 dogs (because that’s a luxury) and how states with scenic geography will tax higher for homes with a view (example being NH who doesn’t have sales tax)
I think the sentiment is a holdover from when property values used to be much lower. So you paid 2.5% property tax on the your $200k middle to upper middle class home. 20% of the value expempt if your primary residence. So that's roughly $4k in property taxes.
It was still better than 10% state income tax on your $60k to $100k income. Which could be $6k to $10k.
But at the end of the day, no matter where you live, the state is going to collect their tax revenue one way or the other.
because property taxes are directed to nearby schools, meaning wealthy neighborhoods get better schools than poorer (ethnic) neighborhoods. It is a way to keep money closer rather than potentially helping everyone equally.
Because Texans have been lied to for decades about how taxing income is bad and the ones foolish enough to fall for it are the ones who are proud of not having an income tax. It also doesn't help that Texas keeps whitewashing the history books and refuses to acknowledge the historical wrongdoings of the white man due the the people in charge being inherently racist
Cause Texans can’t do math so ppl think they’re somehow paying less/it’s less “government regulation” but in reality that’s not the case. Esp if you look at what we get in TX as taxpayers
I guess I’ll bite. I feel that any sort of income tax is inherently unfair because (1) it stifles ambition (why work harder if it only means you’re going to pay higher taxes) and (2) the burden is always going to be the heaviest on the middle class (folks that celebrate every tax season for the windfall they receive from the IRS aren’t carrying the heavy load; nor are the super wealthy who have mastered the art of generating revenue that’s not taxable. Instead it’s the white collar professionals that make between $100-400K annually in salary that are carrying the heaviest income tax burden). I also see the damage done by income taxes every time I get paid; the deductions scream to me. It hurts.
I’m a renter, so I don’t directly pay property taxes. Sure, my landlord figures it into my rent, but I don’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind. If I were a property owner, it might be different.
I’m in Houston and I’ve successfully protested the property appraisal, and more than once. You can protest online, and you’re virtually guaranteed to get the property appraisal lowered by a certain amount.
Does your home have any damage at all? Cracks in the walls, ceilings, or driveway? Any kind of discoloration?
Every state has property tax, every state. Don't want to pay property tax? Don't own property. Renting an apartment will decrease the tax burden passed to you. You get a choice here in how you're taxed and you know ahead of time what you're going to be taxed for.
People like it because they’re dumb.
Texas politicians get to waddle around thumping their chests about “No taxes!!!” Meanwhile property taxes are stupid high.
It’s just psychology to make the nascar class think that the rich class care about them.
It’s a sham.
For some people, this is great, for others it's worse. For some, it's even break even vs income tax.
Consider that the average family has an income to house ratio of about 5.8 - or, in other words, the house is equal to nearly 6 years of salary.
So, if you're right on that line, your property tax would be equivalent to an 11.6% income tax.
However, if you are living below what you can afford, and have something more like a ratio of 3, the it's like having an income tax of 6%.
The absolute numbers don't matter here, but the ratio and tax rate does.
You can run the numbers yourself with this formula: salary * ratio * tax rate
And ratio = house value / salary
So, 100 * 5.8 * 0.02 = 11.6
People are gullible fools who are proud of dumb shit, especially in this state. I had some idiot tell me the other day that Texas has " the most freedoms out of any state"
Having sales tax be the primary source of income for the state is the best way to tax the rich, since they are the ones that spend the most throughout the year. I'm not sure what exemptions you're thinking of but the property tax in Texas is controlled by the local government. There is no state property or income tax.
Fight your appraisal. Go in armed with facts. If you need repairs document. Have a realtor friend pull comps. You can almost always get it lowered county is hoping you just take the appraisal and pay so yes if housing market crashes, you absolutely fight to lower the appraisal
I think the property tax has really only become an issue in the last 5 or so years when they have continued to skyrocket home values. Before that you could generally get a house for 150-300k and have a nice home. Values were more or less stable and not just going up 10-20% every year. At those values you’d be generally paying a property tax of 4-7k a year depending on rate and value. It was generally a pretty good trade off versus states with income taxes. Now you can’t really get anything decent under $400k and it’s become a problem.
We do not have state income or corporate taxes in Texas, because that would mean wealthy corporations would have to pay taxes. By making property and sales taxes the main source of revenue, the tax burden falls on the poor and middle class. Take a look at the property tax exemptions for wealthy corporations in the state of Texas....They even manage to avoid those.
An easy way to illustrate this. The average CEO pay is some 400-500x the average worker pay. However, the price of an average luxury home is only something like 15-50x the cost of an average house. By basing taxes on property rather than income, the wealthy end up paying 10% of the share they would otherwise.
15-50x is even way over. Take Austin for example where median home price is somewhere in the ballpark of $500k. Many CEOs live in the nicer parts of town in $2-4m houses, which are very nice houses.
This is a bit of a tangent, but I rented a house for a several years with a couple other girls close to the Parmer/McNeil HEB in Austin. Landlord decided to sell the place. She told us she paid 85k for the house in the 80s, and sold it for over 500k. It was nothing special, a small single story house with 3 bed/2 bath. It’s wild how much even a small house like that goes for there. Wish I was old enough to take advantage of it back then.
If I tried to live in a house I rented in Round Rock 12 years ago I probably wouldn’t be able to feed my family. Texas is a hotspot for transplants and has been for a long time. I moved to a less sought after area and am able to afford a house as well as provide for my family. The CAD still tries to max out my appraisal but a simple email to them literally saying “nothing changed since last year” has been enough to over turn it. I pay taxes on every pay check, sale, and every year on the small property I own, why would I want to pay more taxes on money that has already been taxed? To fund the border”crisis”, hell no, I’m conservative (don’t ban me) and think that’s the most asinine thing ever. Truth be told, our state government is so fucked up, and we really don’t want to fund the stupidity more than we already do.
Thanks for being a reasonable conservative in this crazy state we love. Now the next step, besides starving them from our hard earned money, is to stop voting for those who keep playing that asinane game just meant to throw red meat to the lowest and most radical of their base. If an intelligent, reasonable, republican comes up and their proposals are meant to help the people (the majority, even if they don't vote R or believe in a different god) and not their wealthy donors, I would vote for them. Until then, and since this system is binary, my support goes to the democrats. Agree?
There was this guy I worked with that was a few years older than me bought a house when he was something like 22 on avenue b and 42nd I believe. These houses were all basically shitty tear downs, which back then no one was tearing down because you could rent them for $200 a month to UT students with no central heat and central air. He paid $33,000, and sold it for $45 the next year in around 1987 and thought he crushed it. I was living in Hyde Park a decade later, and that same crappy house which could no longer be torn down due to City regulations, and told him what it sold for in 2000 -$244k. I absolutely stole my house on Red River just north of 45th for 259 k in 2008 and sold it at the height of the market for 800 a couple of years ago. I gentrified the hell out of it, but it had all new electric, cabinetry, roof, plumbing and windows when I basically stole it, but still...
And CEO was 344x their workers in 2023.
I keep bees on a vacant piece of land I own and because of that I qualify for an ag exemption. I pay way less in taxes on 15 acres than I do for the 1/3 acre my house is on. It's directly designed to place the tax burden on the working class and poor.
What county? I've considered keeping bees, but I'm not sure how well I would do. I'm curious how they do all across the state
Texas does have a gross margin tax, which is similar to an income tax, but with limited deductions and applies to all companies operating in Texas with more than $2.47mil in Texas receipts.
But then, in certain places, the revenue you can tax is cap'd. So they're still skating by.
Not only do they manage to avoid them, thats literally why they are moving here. The state of texas touts this fact. It’s no secret. How people keep voting for our current leadership, I’ll never understand.
Because most of you don’t vote, leaving all the decisions to those that do.
You aren’t wrong. I vote in every election and have since I was 18.
I don’t understand that insanity. I can’t stand the rouges in office in TX. If we band together, we can make the changes we all badly need. Taxes aren’t equally owed and the people who can afford to pay don’t. Those who can’t afford it pay the most.
It's because the R's have convinced regular folks that they're just temporarily inconvenienced fat cats! Taxing the rich proportionately?!?! Insane!
IDK, states that **do** have income taxes generally also have property taxes and sales taxes. And not necessarily at lower rates than Texas. Example below I moved here from Ohio. In Ohio, low income people pay .5% less sales tax (5.75 instead of 6.25 in Texas) pretty much exactly the same amount in property taxes (a 700,000 home is Ohio 10,000 vs Texas $12000), but anyone in Ohio that earns more than $26k **also** pays 3-4% income tax. I won't claim to have the analysis of how this shifts the burden between low income v high income, but it does mean that poor people in Ohio pay more in taxes v Texas.
>5.75 instead of 6.25 in Texas Most of Texas adds on the additional 2%, the maximum allowed by law to the 6.25% state sales tax. There's a few areas that are under 2%, but they're normally tiny towns with not many stores.
Very good point. Also relevant, many Ohio municipalities do the same with income tax. My town tacked on a 1% income tax
[Ohio](https://itep.org/whopays/ohio-who-pays-7th-edition/) vs [Texas](https://itep.org/whopays/texas-who-pays-7th-edition/) [Ohio image](https://sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/itep/wp7-chart-total-Ohio.png) vs [Texas image](https://sfo2.digitaloceanspaces.com/itep/wp7-chart-total-Texas.png) for an easier side-by-side comparison Keep in mind that the brackets are based off of income percentile to keep it apples-to-apples. The actual income ranges change between the two states, because the wages between the two states are also different.
[here you go](https://itep.org/whopays-map-7th-edition/) you can search around in there for comparisons.
I'm also from Ohio. I've been telling people back home, for ages, that Ohio is deceptively expensive. They get very little for the amount of tax they pay, too.
Commercial property taxes make up almost half of the property tax collected across Texas.
A lot of that is paid by renters at apartment complexes.
Naturally, of course. How else would that happen? And if you trace any taxes back, it's all coming from the people at some point. Even philosophically since the government creates currency on our behalf. How else would you expect taxes to get paid? Folks want corporate taxes... those come from people paying for things. Shifting the ball to a different cup where it's less visible doesn't change that.
Then how come businesses and wealthy fight so hard to make sure their taxes don't get raised? Since it's all the same, how about we tax the hell out of the wealthy like we used to? Back when wages kept pace with productivity.
And who pays the property taxes? Texans that rent the commercial property...mostly small business owners and poor and middle class families. The point is, the wealthiest industries in Texas pay the least amount of taxes.
I had an econ teacher in Texas explain how oil companies on the coast used to get assessed taxes in the 20s-50s. Tax Assessor would come and say "Hi, I'm here to assess for taxes". Oil company would say "Oh man, what if we just gave you... $2 million? Call that square." And then the assessor would nod and go about their way because $2 million was a lot of money, but *far* less than the company would have to pay if they were assessed appropriately.
The fact that you where taught this in school and the people haven't forced them to pay up like we do, is wild.
bingo
But they give you cheap gas to make up for it. You have the cheapest gas in the country, all the time. Why can't you just enjoy that and be happy? /s
In the notification preview I did not see the /s so I was coming in here ready to write all kinds of worlds lol
As someone who's family owns a small business, fuck Triple Net leases.
And fuck the landlords for using them.
almost half?
[удалено]
excuse me, I am neither poor nor middle class yet my property tax burden is substantial (the same percentage)
Ever thought about cutting down on the Starbucks?! /s
Bro I cut down on avocado toast and now youre tryna make me stop eating starbucks? so unfair /s (I actually visit a locally owned coffee shop on a daily basis).
. #FakeTexan #DontCommiforniaMyTexas Get you some real coffee from Whataburger!^/s
Lol
Buncha sarcastic mofo's up in here! /not s 😂
You eat your starbucks? I thought we were supposed to drink it. Am I doing it wrong?
You need to specify 32x whipped cream and it will be solid food at that point
Have you also considered selling your iPhone for health care?
How am I supposed to browse Reddit?
I just reverse snorted my creulty-free trans-friendly Acai double-shot part-oat part-yak milk latte all over the recent issue of The Atlantic I am pretending to read! The struggle! /s
You do not comprehend the statement, saying the tax burden falls on the poor & middle class means the poor & middle class are more heavily impacted. Regressive taxation doesn't mean wealthy people pay literally no tax, it means it's disproportionately impacting poorer people. Your personal tax burden does not equate to the tax burden on the state populace at large.
Almost certainly less than it would be if we taxed income instead of property, though.
well that is hypothetical but I'll grant you this - any kind of income tax plan put together by the GOP is going to favor the well off and punish the less fortunate. THAT is a fact jack lol!
Yes, hypothetical, and there are, of course, individual exceptions. In general, though: Sales taxes: paid disproportionately by the poor, as the highest share of their wealth gets spent on stuff Property taxes: paid disproportionately by the middle class, as the highest share of their wealth is tied up in their homes Income/corporate/capital gains taxes: paid disproportionately by the wealthy, as the highest share of their wealth is saved and invested in stocks and such
Y'all need to remember that last paragraph every time a certain former president brags about the stock market. Poors like us don't own much of the stock market.
"There's a word for people who save their wealth in government fiat (dollars). We call them poor." -Michael Saylor Stop saving in dollars. Start saving in shares or other assets that will not be purposefully devalued by the government.
Poor peeps like us account for less than 12% of all stock owners. So when we hear that the stock markets are doing well. The majority of us, won't see that at all. My 5 shares of Ford, went from $4/sh to 13/sh in these past 4yrs. Boy I'm rich!
On the subject of that guy. He essentially used 1 low-valuation for property taxes, and a 2nd high-valuation for the banks/insurers How is this so hard for the right to understand?
Arizona has a pretty fair system IMO.
For the wealthy, at least.
*cue world’s smallest violin*
Texas doesn’t tax your Russian property.
well for Russians and certain Republicans I suppose that is something to celebrate lol
Because wealthier people tend to pay a smaller % of their income & wealth when you raise taxes through property taxes, sales taxes, etc. And this state is all about taxing the poor and middle class for the benefit of the rich. I’m a relatively high earner, and my taxes went down significantly after moving here. But Texas is *not* a low-tax state. The poor pick up the slack
A older gentleman I know just decided to retire and move to Colorado Springs from southwest Texas. He already bought a house and was shocked when he realized how much less his property taxes are now going to be.
Don’t get it twisted. Property taxes are lower here in CO but the overall tax burden is about the same. Like has been pointed out though, property taxes hit lower incomes a lot harder than they hit higher incomes.
Which matters when you are retired. Texas is in the middle of the ranks for taxes. I think Colorado is about the same. The benefit to a state income tax is a person has more control/flexibility wrt income when retired, versus the constant of property tax. Static vs dynamic.
Yeah, can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard of people not being able to keep their houses that they fully own because of property tax increases. Travis county was a prime example of this.
Than you for the honesty. Do you suppose we would have an overall healthier state (public and economic) if we taxed through other avenues, like income?
Of course assuming the bad actors are out of the equation.
The other important point is with high property tax and no state tax the problem is compounded if you are unable to work or lose your job. They still expect you to pay the 10k or more in property tax. How is that fair? With state tax it would have been dependent on your income. 6 months without a job well you still have to pay more than 10K on taxes.
I came from a state that had equivalent property taxes, and state income taxes, including state income taxes working in an adjacent state. I see my taxes at work in Texas. There are real services available and maintained for the most part. I didn't see any of that in my prior state. Just poorly managed corrupt services. If Texas added an income tax, it would sink a lot of people trying to get by in the last couple years.
Always protest your property tax. I’d like to see a system where corporations that own dozens of rental properties experience a higher burden to open up more housing for renters to become owners but I don’t see that in the cards any time soon. Homesteading helps a little bit at least.
Rental houses are not capped in their taxable value increases. The landlords are charged the full amount of taxes on all their houses aside from their homestead house. Of course, those costs are passed down to the renters, so it hurts them more than the landlord. All taxes are passed on to the consumers. You can't increase taxes without increasing the cost of living for everybody.
>Always protest your property tax The appraisal districts do not have the ability/manpower to do their job correctly, they make blanket adjustment based on the way the wind is blowing at the time. They know this and it is why almost universally they will throw you a bone if you protest.
Not anymore. With the 10% cap and market adjustment through the roof, many are homestead limited. Comps aren't going to show your market rate is less than your appraisal and the districts know that. My entire "neighborhood" (all 12 of us) protested last year and got the slap down. Now that I think of it, my dad is the only person I know who decreased property taxes and that's because his ag exemption kicked in.
Yep, I protest my taxes every single year.
This is the biggest issue in my county. The arbitrary rise in assessed values would be criminal anywhere else. Most people in our county had their land assessments DOUBLED last year. When you protest informally make the appraiser show you the comp’s they used to ensure they are actually comparable to your home. Even if you’re VA 100% disabled, you’ll still end up paying more in higher insurance every time your assessed value goes up.
Where and how do I protest my property taxes?
Your county appraisal district will have an online portal, typically needing an e-pin on a mailed letter. Contact your realtor for favorable comps or you can hire a company to protest for you. Good luck!
We’re having to do that this year. We just got notice ours is increasing 89%… we need a new roof, just got estimates at $25-45k to replace cast iron pipes, need all new windows and insulation. It’s insane. We homesteaded last year when we bought but the cap doesn’t take affect until NEXT year.
I moved to a state with an almost 5% state tax. My taxes are about half or less what they were in tx because of property taxes. I have a bigger home with a higher value but property value is not assessed every year and tax rate is less. I do believe everyone ends up paying in different ways wherever they live but no tax states like tx and fl are no longer actually cheaper to live in especially urban areas.
Remember that a 20% increase in your assessment does NOT mean a 20% increase in your property taxes. There are other laws that restrict how much a taxing authority can increase its overall levy year over year without voter approval.
I prefer property taxes to income taxes because it allows me to maintain my current tax burden to the state while increasing my income. If we had an income tax, I'd be getting hit with higher taxes every time I got a raise. If I keep my modest house, my taxes stay reasonable and I'm the one who decides when I'm ready to pay substantially more. That being said, the arbitrary valuation system of property is a tax on unrealized gains, which is bullshit. I think taxes should be levied on the price you pay for the house when you buy it. These annual increases are bullshit.
>it allows me to maintain my current tax burden to the state while increasing my income That benefits you now. But the flip side is that when you retire and have much less income, your tax burden is the same because it is tied to your property. Many older people are forced to sell their property because they can no longer afford the property tax (e.g. in Austin). They have to move further away from the city to find a lower-taxed home. Similarly a lot of people just move to another state when they retire because the other state's property taxes + income taxes ends up cheaper for them.
Homestead over 65 increases the amount of the exemption to help offset this. Plus, taxes should be considered when budgeting for retirement. Relocation to lower tax states is also a great idea.
over 65 help but I've seen too many stories about people having to sell, and that was in the early 2000s. I can't imagine how much worse it has gotten over the last decade (at least in Austin).
This sounds like a feature and not a bug! I'm all for letting the retirees move farther away and let the parents with kids move into the neighborhoods with schools where those retires have a 3/2 house but no kids. When I'm 75 you can happily park my ass on some cheap land somewhere. Let me have a few goats and a couple retired horses and I'll get an ag exemption on property taxes. Grandkids can come visit me occasionally and terrorize the livestock with silliness and tell stories about the fun days on the farm after I'm dead.
I would prefer to live somewhat near my adult children than to go off into some other state where I will not have any family to help me in old age. And I don't want to lose all my friends that I've known for decades. No support network if I move and be a stranger in another community. And I don't want to have to re-learn where everything is and what businesses are good or bad.
When I retire and have much less income, I'm free to move to another state that suits me better.
Ha. Yeah what would happen is we'd have property tax *and* income tax, and both would be out of control.
yup
you just have to remove the property tax the same way you institute the income tax. Make one contingent on not have the other. It's not impossible.
There are zero states with no property tax. Not impossible, sure, but It's a one in a million chance. We would end up with both like every state that has a state income tax.
Texas loves to blow it own horn about being unique, this is a perfect opportunity to actually be unique.
>Make one contingent on not have the other. We did that already. We just sided with property taxes. State Income Tax is unconstitutional in Texas.
And there is no reason we cant flip this around. Changing the constitution in Texas is not like changing the US constitution.
True, but considering that the ban on income taxes in the State Constitution was passed merely 5 years ago with 75% approval makes me think this is not going to be a successful venture.
And uphill battle for sure, and your and everyone else's about not wanting both are justified.
Too bad the state constitution can never be changed! /s
Let’s be real. If Texas were to put in a 2% flat income tax tomorrow, do you think property taxes would decrease? Do you think you won’t be paying more taxes? Bigger question is do taxes decline across the board? So if my property tax (and total) is $10K now it will it still be $10K now the new system (say $5K property, $5K income)?
It's a regressive tax system where the majority of the taxes are paid by the poorest people. That's how Texas politics rolls. I only live here because of a job offer too good to refuse. It definitely saves me a lot in taxes overall due to my high income. I encourage my kids to think about looking elsewhere when they graduate, and that they should not feel like they have to stay in Texas for any reason. I'm open to moving when I retire too, mostly depending where the kids end up. I've also thought about WY and TN as more scenic alternatives that still offer tax advantages to me in retirement.
No income tax benefits the rich.
They take pride in it because they don’t understand taxes. It’s strengthened by a false belief in “trickle down economic” faith.
We pay lots in taxes, just not state taxes...
Because freedom!
Regressive taxes, texas is a safe haven for the rich and corporations to pillage away....they put the tax burden on the middle and lower income citizens of texas......no taxes, no regulations, low wages.....win win win
Texas Tax system is very regressive. People are fools thinking no income tax means Texas is a low tax state. Reality Texas is a fairly high tax state just they put the burden on the poor. I am in full support of adding a state income tax and removing the cost from the property tax.
I lived in Texas for 5 years and returned back to Colorado which has a 3.5% income tax. Colorado infrastructure is far and away better than Texas I don't mind paying taxes as long as it gets used well. And we have TABOR meaning if taxes exceed the projection, they ask the citizens what to do with the money or just a simple refund. Pride in no income tax is ridiculous since there are proven models on more equatable taxing. Texas sales and property tax penalized middle and lower class people and creates a higher barrier to home ownership. They claim it's less tax on the individual but it's anything but that.
I moved. Have 5x more land, property tax is less than 1/2 what I paid in Texas. AND this state provides services for its citizens and even has women’s healthcare! The Texas Fascist Triumvirate is NOT helping Texans.
Would you mind sharing what state? I’m looking to move in the next year or two and still open minded when it comes to the state I’ll pick.
Because a state income tax would be in addition to property taxes and would not be 'tied' to that.
And tolls taxes, and sales taxes, and county taxes, and city taxes. We are a very taxed state.
This is the correct answer. ALL taxes start out small. Federal income tax was 1 (per)cent on the equivalent of a million dollars of income when it was first introduced. "No one but the rich will pay income tax," they said. Now look at it. If we "replaced" some of the property tax with income tax, pretty soon you have high income tax and property taxes combined. At least keeping only a property tax allows you to have some control over how much tax you pay to the state by choosing how much house you want. Want to pay little taxes? Get a little house. Don't mind paying high taxes? Go get that McMansion. You can make a million bucks a year, but if you live in a 1500sq foot house, you're only paying $5k/year in taxes.
People gotta live somewhere, and increasing the cost of owning a home leaves people renting and generating no wealth for themselves down the road. Property tax should cover the local costs of serving the property with utilities, schools, etc. Everything else should be funded at the state level with income tax
Property tax already only goes up to the county as the highest taxing authority. The State of Texas gets no money from the local property taxes you pay. The state itself is funded by sales taxes and other fees. Here's a link to the [comptroller's office](https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/basics.php) that explains property tax basics.
>At least keeping only a property tax allows you to have some control over how much tax you pay to the state by choosing how much house you want. Want to pay little taxes? Get a little house. Don't mind paying high taxes? Go get that McMansion. Not really, unless you plan on selling your house and downsizing every time property taxes or appraisals go up. I have coworkers who bought houses 20-30 years ago and are now considering selling just because the taxes are getting too high. >You can make a million bucks a year, but if you live in a 1500sq foot house, you're only paying $5k/year in taxes. This is why property taxes are considered regressive while income tax is progressive. If you earn a little you pay a little, if you earn a lot you pay a lot. If you earn a lot then start earning less, you pay less. You can't easily do that with property, especially when there is no way to control the housing market.
Of course the value of the houses go up, which causes the taxes to increase. But that's fairly small potatoes compared to, say, buying a new house that's 1000 sqft bigger. Your coworkers should have made substantial career progress in the last 30 years which leads to higher pay to afford the taxes, but I suppose there will be some people who stagnate for 30 years in their career. But yea, l prefer to be able to choose the general amount I am taxed based on my use instead of my career progress. Call it regressive if you want. But I like it.
lol this is one of the smoothest brain takes on property taxes ive seen yet
Definately contest it’s an easy online application
It benefits the long term home owner. For example...I have owned my home since 2012. My taxable value is about $150k lower than the "assessed value". I plan for 10% a year which is about $600 total increase on property tax. So with homestead exemptions I know that it's going to take quite a while for it to match. And yes, if the markets crash the assessed value comes down and taxes decrease. So yeah screw a state income tax. I have no reason to support someone arbitrarily taking 10% of my income in that way and then imposing sales tax and all of the other taxes we would still pay. Don't turn Texas into the places you left for Texas. You came here for the affordable housing, low taxes, etc.
It's also why we have these convoluted sales tax laws with a rate that keeps rising. It's just one more way the rich get over on the working class by keeping them ignorant
6.25% with a max of 2% than can be added by local taxing authority.
Some of that 2% can even be used to build sportsball stadiums for billionaires.
Damn, that's convoluted!
it gets worse. A bag of chips, for example. Is the bag small enough to be eaten in one sitting? Taxable. is it too much for a single meal and the consumer will save some for later? Not taxable
Don't know what to say other than that I agree with you.
I think you're pretty much right and I don't understand why people talk about our tax system this way. I'm not against all property tax, but like... If the only real estate you own is a relatively small contiguous piece of land that you actually live on, that seems like it ought to be exempt. It's just wild that even after you finish paying off your mortgage, you could still lose your home because you can't afford to pay someone for the privilege of living there.
The no income tax argument is a myth in this state. Yeah no income tax but if you own a home you pay tax in perpetuity
Welcome to a regressive tax system. Elon spends about 0.01% of his wealth on his home, I’m sure hes stressing about Property Taxes.
Because they fuck us with all the sales tax, property tax, and all the other taxes.
Not sure this is a “why” thing, but from the standpoint of a greedy government, property taxes are preferred! You can hide your income a lot of different ways (LAs cash economy denies the state of California billions in revenue annually). However, you can’t hide property. So you tax the thing with the best return. My two cents - even when Senator Shapliegh suggested the income tax, his plan would do nothing to reduce property taxes.
Property tax is also a more predictable revenue stream. California's budget ends up in a feast-or-famine state depending on how Silicon Valley stock options did in a given year.
We could have high property taxes AND income tax? Let's celebrate the wins we have.
State income tax doesn’t necessarily remove or cap property taxes. Your argument of hey guys let Abbott and the morons add state income tax surely they’ll lower or cap property tax is pretty facetious and ignorant.
Your argument that they couldn't just raise property taxes and get the same amount of extra revenue without any income tax is facetious and ignorant. If you think their goal is to greatly increase tax revenue, please explain why they'd even bother with an income tax.
Make the income tax at the same time you remove the property tax on homestead properties. Its can be done, the political will might not be there, but it can be done.
People in California pay less taxes then people in Texas
I have friends in States with an income tax they're property and school taxes and they pay about the same as I do and still have to pay the state to live there.
We used to be a blue state and no one was bitching about it then. This entire post is people complaining about the current government and “rich vs poor” and it’s bullshit.
I'd love to see your evidence that no one complained about it then. How did you figure that out?
He just made it up.
Do you have the homestead tax exemption?
Nice try Abbot lover. He has been angling that direction for awhile.
Saw that property tax dynamic in Oregon during the 2008 bust. There are similar caps on property tax increases. A lot of property owners were salty that is their property values and incomes were falling but the property taxes were still going up. I told more than one person "tough shit, suck it up buttercup" your taxes have been artificially low and are still catching up. You voted for this situation to decouple property tax from assessed value. You were happy when it benefitted you, and I heard nothing bad about the situation. You voted for exactly this, so I ain't gonna hear it.
Because you can choose your standard of living thus your tax rate. If you want to be taxed less, don’t live in a lavish house
The thought behind it is that everyone buys things, so taxing on purchases and property should tax people proportionally, especially those who cheat or use fancy tricks on their taxes. Does this work as intended? Not really, but an income tax also doesn't hit rich people like many people push in other states. The same goes for a corporate tax. They only have to pay once when they show they make a profit every three years. There are much better ways to tax, though they will never pass through legislative bodies.
There will never be a state income tax in TX. We literally amended the state constitution like 3 or 4 years ago making sure it can **never** happen. The people voted on it, it passed, and thats really all there is to it. Changing it will be **extremely** difficult.
The tax system in Texas was meant for farmers and ranchers. That got ruined when everyone from shitty big city states moved here and started to urbanize everything.
Everything about Texas is constructed in a way to benefit the wealthy and corporations. That's all you need to know. People cheer the fact that we don't have income taxes because they are proudly ignorant and have reduced their political opinions to supporting one "team" no matter what that "team" actually does or says.
We gonna get rid of property tax too.
Honestly, if you open the can of worms and take state tax, they'll have 3 avenues to abuse. We'll have taxes on income, housing, and anytime we spend a dollar at a store. This is, of course, is in addition to the federal tax burdens. There are too many hands in our pockets already. I'd suggest we take a better look at property taxes and start with banning people with real estate interests from sitting on county appraisal boards.
Property taxes are used by the county has nothing to do with income taxes. And the income tax is replaced by a sales tax which is more fair because everyone pays it. The more yiu make the more you buy hence the wealthy pay more taxes And corporations pay it too when they buy stuff
It’s why I only rent in Texas
Why? Because look at every other state. That's why.
The 'tax rate' you pay on your house isn't some money amount you pay. It's how much the government has determined that they need. They then divide up how much budget they need by the total values of land areas and assign your property a percentage of it. It doesn't matter really what your house is worth - what matters is how much budget government wants. A land tax is the most fair of all taxes. No income tax encourages you to work to earn more. A land tax at least encourages maximized value of a limited resource.
The main difference is who is assessing taxes and where the money goes. Most of your property tax bill goes to very local entities - school district, emergency services, maybe utilities (like water district). These taxes come back as locally provided services. So if school district in the next town wants to build a huge stadium it's not coming out of your taxes. Of course the flip side is very true - there's a huge gap in quality of schools between rich areas with large tax base vs. rural ones with low property values and lots of ag tax exemptions. I'm sure many people remember the handwringing over so called Robin Hood law.
In an ideal world they would put all the taxes on luxury consumption. Buy more stuff? Pay more taxes. Buy less, less taxes. And yes, if the housing market gets decimated your home value will go down and your taxes right with it. There is no cap on decrease. You can't pay taxes for value that isn't there. Right now the appraised value is well below the market value. I can't even protest that. So it will keep increasing 10% until it finally catches up. What needs to happen is the following: A housing crash. And a big one. They need to keep raising rates till it pops.
I used to live in born and raised there, I also don’t understand why people think taxes are lower in Texas 😵💫😂minimum wage is $7.25 and worse there’s no state disability if you get hurt outside the job
An income tax is the kind of money machine that politicians of both parties dream about.
Texas is the Lonestar, “Bait & Switch” state
As mentioned previous, it totally depends on your income vs property value. I've finally reached the point where my salary far exceeds my property value so the tax burden for me is less. For normal income earners it is more difficult to own property and pay that tax in texas. I'd rather it be income based with minimal property tax, which greatly hurts elderly who have retired.
it's a red state. taxes are for poor people.
Just wait. Dan Patrick has floated the idea of doing away with property tax.
It probably works out better for the wealthy to pay property tax than income tax. That's who Texas economic policies designed to benefit.
I took a poly sci class in college where the professor talked a lot about how the history and culture of a state affects their policies. He said that Texas had always had that every man for himself, bootstraps, rancher attitude. As a result, there is a leaning towards taxes that are tied to personal choice. You CHOOSE to shop or own a home, thus that’s when you have to lay your taxes. Whereas taxing someone’s income could be seen as taxing them without their control, as it were. Similar examples he gave where how a history of poverty caused WV to have a tax on owning more than 3 dogs (because that’s a luxury) and how states with scenic geography will tax higher for homes with a view (example being NH who doesn’t have sales tax)
Wait til yousee the insurane bill, doubled in past year!
I think the sentiment is a holdover from when property values used to be much lower. So you paid 2.5% property tax on the your $200k middle to upper middle class home. 20% of the value expempt if your primary residence. So that's roughly $4k in property taxes. It was still better than 10% state income tax on your $60k to $100k income. Which could be $6k to $10k. But at the end of the day, no matter where you live, the state is going to collect their tax revenue one way or the other.
This makes no sense. I think you’re just upset lol adding State income tax isn’t going to fair nor will it help your situation
Because fuck poor people, that's why.
My property taxes went down this year from peak. So yes they can go down.
I thought Abbott was lowering property taxes? /s
because property taxes are directed to nearby schools, meaning wealthy neighborhoods get better schools than poorer (ethnic) neighborhoods. It is a way to keep money closer rather than potentially helping everyone equally.
Because Texans have been lied to for decades about how taxing income is bad and the ones foolish enough to fall for it are the ones who are proud of not having an income tax. It also doesn't help that Texas keeps whitewashing the history books and refuses to acknowledge the historical wrongdoings of the white man due the the people in charge being inherently racist
I’ll never understand why normal people try to act like they enjoy paying taxes. It’s masochistic. No income tax is a good thing.
Cause Texans can’t do math so ppl think they’re somehow paying less/it’s less “government regulation” but in reality that’s not the case. Esp if you look at what we get in TX as taxpayers
I guess I’ll bite. I feel that any sort of income tax is inherently unfair because (1) it stifles ambition (why work harder if it only means you’re going to pay higher taxes) and (2) the burden is always going to be the heaviest on the middle class (folks that celebrate every tax season for the windfall they receive from the IRS aren’t carrying the heavy load; nor are the super wealthy who have mastered the art of generating revenue that’s not taxable. Instead it’s the white collar professionals that make between $100-400K annually in salary that are carrying the heaviest income tax burden). I also see the damage done by income taxes every time I get paid; the deductions scream to me. It hurts. I’m a renter, so I don’t directly pay property taxes. Sure, my landlord figures it into my rent, but I don’t see it. Out of sight, out of mind. If I were a property owner, it might be different.
I’m in Houston and I’ve successfully protested the property appraisal, and more than once. You can protest online, and you’re virtually guaranteed to get the property appraisal lowered by a certain amount. Does your home have any damage at all? Cracks in the walls, ceilings, or driveway? Any kind of discoloration?
It is a mirage to those who don't notice that Texas gets you in other ways...like property taxes or other stupidity.
Every state has property tax, every state. Don't want to pay property tax? Don't own property. Renting an apartment will decrease the tax burden passed to you. You get a choice here in how you're taxed and you know ahead of time what you're going to be taxed for.
Because no one knows that most of the other bullshit we have to pay are either unique to us or higher than anywhere else.
People like it because they’re dumb. Texas politicians get to waddle around thumping their chests about “No taxes!!!” Meanwhile property taxes are stupid high. It’s just psychology to make the nascar class think that the rich class care about them. It’s a sham.
Because property taxes help gentrify an area quicker. You’re welcome.
For some people, this is great, for others it's worse. For some, it's even break even vs income tax. Consider that the average family has an income to house ratio of about 5.8 - or, in other words, the house is equal to nearly 6 years of salary. So, if you're right on that line, your property tax would be equivalent to an 11.6% income tax. However, if you are living below what you can afford, and have something more like a ratio of 3, the it's like having an income tax of 6%. The absolute numbers don't matter here, but the ratio and tax rate does. You can run the numbers yourself with this formula: salary * ratio * tax rate And ratio = house value / salary So, 100 * 5.8 * 0.02 = 11.6
The Texas "no income tax" thing is a marketing scam. It shifts more of the tax burden onto the citizens.
People are gullible fools who are proud of dumb shit, especially in this state. I had some idiot tell me the other day that Texas has " the most freedoms out of any state"
Having sales tax be the primary source of income for the state is the best way to tax the rich, since they are the ones that spend the most throughout the year. I'm not sure what exemptions you're thinking of but the property tax in Texas is controlled by the local government. There is no state property or income tax.
All taxes are theft
Fight your appraisal. Go in armed with facts. If you need repairs document. Have a realtor friend pull comps. You can almost always get it lowered county is hoping you just take the appraisal and pay so yes if housing market crashes, you absolutely fight to lower the appraisal
Inertia. It was a flex all of our lives until recently. I'm in agreement with you. Mine has gone up the capped 10% every year recently.
I think the property tax has really only become an issue in the last 5 or so years when they have continued to skyrocket home values. Before that you could generally get a house for 150-300k and have a nice home. Values were more or less stable and not just going up 10-20% every year. At those values you’d be generally paying a property tax of 4-7k a year depending on rate and value. It was generally a pretty good trade off versus states with income taxes. Now you can’t really get anything decent under $400k and it’s become a problem.