Trying to understand taxes (home, buy, landlord)

[oakparkdude]

FWIW, Chicago has a significant Puerto Rican community historically centered in Humboldt Park. I never did find a Puerto Rican enclave in Boston.

[efrenb5]

Originally Posted by oakparkdude

FWIW, Chicago has a significant Puerto Rican community historically centered in Humboldt Park. I never did find a Puerto Rican enclave in Boston.

Yes I have heard. I have also heard that that area isn't very good to live around. My wife and I are in no way interested living there. If I wanted to live among Puertoricans we would stay in Puerto Rico. Only if my mom heard me.

Seriously though, I have been reading bad things about that area, and some of the things I'm escaping from have been spilling over there (like those damn blasting boom box cars with reggaeton, I hate reggaeton with a passion). So my wife and I are not that interested in the area at all. It would be good because we would have somebody to relate to, because we don't have any family there; but we are looking someplace relatively quiet and safe.

[Chicago60614]

Originally Posted by efrenb5

LOL "Just ignore the use tax." I'll make that my motto.

rca215, that's awesome feedback. That's pretty much my feeling right now, that the money I save on rent I'll never consume on things I have to buy. So Chicago ends up being cheaper than Boston. Your case is actually interesting for me because you can compare first hand the difference of cost of living and quality of life in both cities. May I bother you sometime with a couple of questions?

And Boston sucks? lol I hear that everyday from my wife. She actually is liking Chicago better as a candidate. Keep in mind that we have never been to Chicago and a little more than a week in Boston, which doesn't really count because we were not able to explore much.

Chicago60614, that's awesome advice. I'm not used to have free-shipping here in Puerto Rico, so I always forget I will have that in USA. I'll definitely keep online shopping in my mind. You must save a good amount that way. Good news about groceries. 2.25% would be actually lower than in Boston.

I will be living without a car and I will be renting for the first years, maybe forever. So I will be saving a good amount of money going car-less. Not sure about buying a property at some time. It's just so much of a hassle here that I don't want to buy again.

If you can make it work out for you (I did, and almost all of my friends), you can save a LOT of money in Chicago but not owning a car. No gas, no parking, no tickets, no stickers, no registration, no insurance, no car payments.

I sold the car and suddenly found thousands more dollars to play around with each year.

[efrenb5]

That's exactly what I am aiming for. A car is just a hold where money gets wasted. If I could I would be rid of it here in PR, but it is impossible to get to places on the bus and subway alone. They are just not reliable enough.

[Larry Siegel]

The use tax is a line on the Illinois IL-1040 income tax return and, if you do not have major purchases such as a car to report, is charged according to income as follows:

Income Use tax
$0 - $10,000 $3
$10,001 - $20,000 $9
$20,001 - $30,000 $15
$30,001 - $40,000 $21
$40,001 - $50,000 $27
$50,001 - $75,000 $38
$75,001 - $100,000 $52
Above $100,000 Multiply AGI by
0.06% (0.0006)

So, the much-discussed use tax doesn't amount to a hill of beans. (I would have thought that somebody else would have looked it up by now.)

I happen to think Boston is a slightly nicer city. It's more walkable, there are more historic neighborhoods close to downtown, and it's closer to outdoor recreation (and to New York). However, Chicago is great and I hope you won't be discouraged from living here by our complex tax structure and corrupt government.

[Chicago60614]

I'd proabably say Chicago has a very easy tax structure. No local income tax, a flat state income tax. Sales tax charged to most things except stuff like food and medicine.

[Larry Siegel]

Originally Posted by Chicago60614

I'd proabably say Chicago has a very easy tax structure. No local income tax, a flat state income tax. Sales tax charged to most things except stuff like food and medicine.

The complexity is in the fact that there are more than 1000 municipal taxing authorities in Cook County alone - the densest concentration of political units in the world. Fortunately, these only show up as line items on the property tax bill.

[chet everett]

As Larry states the complexity of property taxes comes from the FACT that even witin the same municipality there are often numerous different school districts, mosquito abate districts, sanitary sewer districts, fire protection districts, community college districts, library districts, special service districts for road improvements, airport authorities, forest preserves and probably others that I am too fed up to read ...

It is physically impossible to get to the levy hearings for each of these. You end up having to accept the tax rate they each impose.

[efrenb5]

Originally Posted by chet everett

As Larry states the complexity of property taxes comes from the FACT that even witin the same municipality there are often numerous different school districts, mosquito abate districts, sanitary sewer districts, fire protection districts, community college districts, library districts, special service districts for road improvements, airport authorities, forest preserves and probably others that I am too fed up to read ...

It is physically impossible to get to the levy hearings for each of these. You end up having to accept the tax rate they each impose.

So each of these institutions have a tax? How is this tax payed? In payroll deductions?

This sounds quite hard to understand. How do you know how the hell is getting a piece of your money?

[oakparkdude]

Originally Posted by efrenb5

So each of these institutions have a tax? How is this tax payed? In payroll deductions?

This sounds quite hard to understand. How do you know how the hell is getting a piece of your money?

All of these units of government levy a property tax. If you own property, you'll get a tax bill that enumerates all the different units of government and how much you owe each of them. At the top of the piece of paper you'll get the sum total that you owe. You write a check/electronically pay the county treasurer who will disburse the funds to the various taxing bodies. If you are a renter, you will never have to deal with this painful process.