Photo by Kyle Glenn on Unsplash This Thanksgiving week is a big travel week for millions of Americans. Most people are heading to friends' and/or relatives' where they'll share a Turkey Day spread. Others are using the time for other, non-holiday recreational pursuits. By this time next week, they'll be back home. In most cases, they'll return to homes are in the United States. However, thousands of U.S. citizens have relocated internationally. Despite the location distances, those Americans abroad share something with domestic residents other than celebrating a traditional U.S. holiday. They still owe U.S. taxes on their income, regardless... Read more →
Real Estate Housing
Property taxes are the prime source of funding for school districts across the United States. But the homeowners who pay those taxes generally think those taxes are too high. That tax concern was addressed yesterday, Nov. 7, in two states where voters made the ultimate decisions by their choices on ballot questions. And the election results were not a surprise, even where they decided against property tax relief. Coloradoans' complicated tax "no" vote: Colorado voters overwhelming rejected Proposition HH, a proposal by Democratic lawmakers to provide them property tax relief and boost school funding. But Proposition HH was not nearly... Read more →
Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images Tuesday, Nov. 7, is election day. The hubby and I already voted. But, as expected in an election year that doesn't include national races, we are in the vast minority. With almost 18 million registered voters, an early count of early voters showed that statewide turnout was only 5.53 percent. I'm a bit surprised. I thought the property tax cut ballot initiative would have energized more of my neighbors. Texas property tax cut: The proposition was put on the ballot by the legislature in response to homeowner complaints about Texas' real estate taxes, which... Read more →
Check out some October sweet tax treats below that could help make this month less scary, at least as far as your taxes are concerned. (Photo by Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images) October is a scary month, and not just because of Halloween. Millions of uber procrastinators face a final mid-month deadline to file their annual tax return. It's also the beginning of the fourth quarter of the year. So, in addition to picking out your All Hallows Eve costume and hiding the holiday treats so your family won't eat them all before trick-or-treaters come knocking in a few... Read more →
Photo by Nikola Knezevic on Unsplash The famous saying about all politics being local also applies to taxes, most notably property taxes. Property taxes are locally levied, usually by counties (or parishes if you're in Louisiana), meaning they vary widely across, and within, the 50 states. Local jurisdictions set the tax rate, but if real estate values increase, even a relatively low rate can mean a big tax bill on your home. Because of the complicated considerations involved in calculation property taxes, the Tax Foundation's latest analysis took a two-pronged approach. The Washington, D.C.-based tax policy nonprofit looked at median... Read more →
Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images The U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) shows that family-related reasons were a driver for more than a quarter, or 26.5 percent, of households between 2021 and 2022. Some of the moving vans were called to combine or create new family abodes as people who had put off wedding plans during the COVID-19 pandemic finally said "I do." In other cases, it was couples splitting their partnership and possessions, possibly due to too much time together during coronavirus lockdowns. There are tax implications when marriages begin and... Read more →
A photo of Chocolate Lab's chocolate lasagna, posted on Yelp in March by a diner. The Denver, Colorado, eatery now is closed, apparently due to delinquent taxes. Even before The Bear started streaming, it was no secret that running a restaurant is difficult. In addition to culinary responsibilities, restauranteurs must tend to zoning issues, health department inspections, and labor concerns. And, of course, there are tax matters. It's that last one that apparently has led to the closure of Denver's only chocolate-centric restaurant. I know, you wish you had made it to the Mile High City to try out Chocolate... Read more →
Swimming pool steps photo via Unsplash+ in collaboration with Jordan González We have new neighbors, and it's obvious why they bought the house. Family members and their friends have been in the swimming pool every day since they moved in. Good for them. I hope they enjoy the pool. I also hope they budgeted for the upkeep. Judging from the assortment of pool companies that also have been over there almost every day, the maintenance to keep it swimmable could be significant. The perpetual pool question: The added costs of being able to step out your back door and take... Read more →
An energy audit might find that adding insulation can make your home more comfortable and energy efficient. The formal inspection also could get you a tax break. audit could produce lower utility bills and a tax credit. (Photo via Unsplash+ in collaboration with Getty Images) In extreme weather, which happens year-round and more frequently nowadays, homeowners do their own residential energy audits. Depending on the season, we stand in hot or cold spots in our houses and try to figure out (1) why it's happening, and (2) how to remedy it. If you're finding yourself doing this more often, and... Read more →
State programs complement federal tax breaks for energy-saving commercial and residential property improvements. These pups probably would be cooler inside under the A/C instead of atop the condenser. As a general rule, your cooling system works better when you keep the outside air conditioning unit clear of everything, including pets! My phone's battery is being drained by the summer heat. No, not because I'm using it outdoors. I rarely leave my climate-controlled haven. It's being sucked of power because I'm getting an inordinate number of alerts about how freakin' hot it is in my part of Texas, as well as... Read more →
Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko Sometimes a tax notice is a good thing. That was the case for a Georgia man who paid his county taxes. Or so he thought. But a follow-up notice prompted him to raise questions about the prior payments. And that led last week to the arrest of a clerk at the Spalding County Tax Commissioner's office on charges of theft and forgery. Paid taxes not paid: The two theft charges come from the taxpayer's payment of his taxes in cash. The alleged forgeries were from receipts for those payments. Before these incidents were reported, the Spalding... Read more →
Running through a sprinkler is one way to beat the heat. Making your home more energy efficient can help, too. (Photo by MI PHAM on Unsplash) Summer doesn't officially arrive until next week, but temperatures in much of Texas are running about 10 degrees above normal. My fellow Lone Star Staters and I are not alone. A brutal heat wave is expected to scorch much of the southern United States through the Juneteenth holiday weekend. The biggest worry during extreme temperatures, hot or cold, is that the public power grid will fail. Even when utilities manage to stay operational, customers... Read more →
Remember the 94-year-old Minnesota woman whose home was seized by country tax collectors after she stopped paying her property tax bills? Such action is commonplace, as noted in my earlier post on this topic. But in Geraldine Tyler's case, Hennepin County kept all the money it got when it sold her condo, not just the amount needed to cover her delinquent real estate taxes. Those taxes, plus penalties, interest, and other costs, came to $15,000. The Minnesota county got $40,000 for the property. Yesterday (May 25), the Supreme Court of the United States, or SCOTUS, unanimously ruled in Tyler's favor.... Read more →
Updated, Thursday, May 25, 2023 (see so-noted paragraph below) The interior of the U.S. Supreme Court (Photo by Phil Roeder, Flickr via Wikipedia) April is not a fun fiscal month for a lot of us. In addition to Tax Day, when many of us, including the hubby and me, owe the U.S. Treasury a bit, along with an estimated tax payment, it is property appraisal time here in Texas. The last couple of years, that's been particularly distressing. If we were putting our house on the market like a couple of our neighbors, we'd be happy that we could ask... Read more →
Photo by Sharon Waldron on Unsplash Every year after Tax Day, I get emails from my financial institutions and local office supply stores about upcoming shredding days. On these dates, I and all my neighbors and fellow customers can bring our documents we would like turned into confetti to prevent identity thieves from using any of the information. That's a welcome service. But there are some documents, especially tax-related ones, that you need to hang onto for a while. Here's an overview of the tax material you need to keep and for how long. Your 1040: The main record everyone... Read more →
Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden share a lighter moment. Last week, they also shared their 2022 federal and state tax returns with the American public. (Photo courtesy K. Harris/White House) The U.S. president's and vice president's tax returns were among the more than 117 million filings that the Internal Revenue Service has received through mid-April. We know this because, as is once again tradition, President Joe Biden and his wife, First Lady Jill Biden, made their 2022 tax return public. So did Vice President Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff. The Bidens' filing showed they paid... Read more →
Where you live and the types of taxes collected there determine whether your tax bill goes up or down. (Photo by Annamaria Kupo on Unsplash) The annual income tax filing season generates a lot of talk about moving. Few of us actually pack boxes and load up vans as soon as we send the Internal Revenue Service our 1040s, but we do contemplate what it would be like to live in a lower-tax locale. People in high-tax states explore possible relocation to a lower- or no-tax domestic jurisdiction. Some more peripatetic taxpayers look abroad. But there's more to consider than... Read more →
Photo by Emanuel-Kluge via Flickr When U.S. residents make international moves for work, there's one part of the country that goes with them. They remain U.S. taxpayers, filing federal tax returns on the on their overseas earnings. Uncle Sam, however, does provide some tax breaks to his citizens living and working abroad. Their filing deadline is June 15. Thanks to tax treaties, globally peripatetic taxpayers also get certain foreign earned income exclusions and/or foreign income tax credits. These exclusion amounts also are affected by the cost of living, as noted in Part 8 of the ol' blog's 2023 annual inflation... Read more →
Photo by Chris F In February, Austin took another winter weather hit. A surprisingly heavy freeze ended with broken tree limbs taking out power lines, leaving tens of thousands of Austin households and businesses without electricity for days. We were among the powerless. During the three days we sat huddled in our increasingly cold house, griping about the third consecutive and unusually cold winter (thanks, no thanks, La Niña!), we realized we needed to look into making some improvements to our house. The energy efficient upgrades will also help in a couple of months when we're dealing with the area's... Read more →
Photo by Kay Bell All things considered, we got through last week's Central Texas ice storm pretty well. Yes, I whined about no power, hence no heat for 3½ days, but we piled on enough clothes to mimic the Michelin Man, and used our grill to cook previously frozen food before it spoiled. As for our property, our oldest and biggest tree, a live oak, lost just three limbs. Two, shown above, fell in our backyard; the other snapped on the other side of the fence and fell into our neighbor's yard. The neighbor had a clean-up crew over at... Read more →