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I hope I'm not driving you people nuts, but I'm a very well organized planner! It's so important we have all the bases covered before moving across the country. We don't intend to be one of those families who move to Maine, find we've been completely disillusioned and move away after two years. The best way I can figure to avoid that scenario is to be well prepared for what is in store when we get there. So...
I've been looking over our 2005 property tax statement for our town, Texas. We pay school taxes, county taxes and city taxes on our home all rolled into one ball of wax. The rates are calculated per $100 of value after homestead exemption is subtracted. Our current year's total rate was $3.02 per 100. I noticed that your taxes are based on $1000 rate scale, so our equivalent would be $30.20 per $1000. Can I possibly be figuring that right? If so, that's outrageous! I thought your multipliers there were high, but I didn't realize how high ours are.
If I'm looking at these figures wrong, someone PLEASE correct me!
Then, give me the link to the tax rate chart up there. I know I saw it on one of these posts recently, but I can't find it now.
I didn't mention our sales tax, either. Our area sales tax is 8.25%. We pay no tax on groceries, but everything else is taxable, incl dining out. Our hotel tax is 17%. We are paying a little cheaper than you guys for fuel right now. Regular unleaded is $2.16 gal today, but it's been closer to $3 a gallon most of the year until the last two months.
I was very surprised to see your hotel tax when I booked was only 7%. What is your sales tax rate?
Elcarim - when looking at property in Maine - as I am doing now - pay attention to the property tax for each town it varies widely and wildly. The biggest influence on where we buy is going to be the property tax rate. You can literally go across a river and a couple of miles and the property tax be a third less. You could also check online with each town to see what that town's millage rate is. Our realtor sends us the listing information for each property which includes the property tax rate. The general sales/use tax is 5 percent with certain items exempted like groceries. In Alabama I pay 10% for everything I buy, including groceries. I expect to cut my sales tax burden in half or more by moving to Maine - slightly increased property tax will be offset by that and by the fact that I can deduct property taxes from my federal income tax each year.
Yes, 3.02 per hundred equals 30.20 per mil. Bangor has just reduced its mill rate from 20.40 for 2006 to 19.40 for 2007. What? Reduced the tax rate?
Obviously for some a prime consideration is the local school system. This can effect a tax rate as much as anything. It is important to note that some towns do not maintain their own High Schools and in some of those cases students are able to "pick" a high school to attend in neighboring towns. There is a very nice private school in Bangor, John Bapst Memorial High, which costs $8,500 per year. If you live in the right town, tuition will be paid, in whole or in part, by your town!
It is very important to draw up a list of what is important to you and weight the list from most to least when considering exactly where to buy a home.
Thanks for the responses. I couldn't believe, after reading all the posts about Maine's "high" property taxes, that ours is so much higher here. We just get the bill, pay the bill and that's it. Stupidity on our part, I guess.
I did notice that many of the smaller towns we're looking at only have K-8 schools. I assume they go to the neighboring towns for high school. I guess that's where people get to choose. Here, ever town, regardless of size, has it's own set of schools, and no-matter how crappy the test scores, we have no choice but to stay in our own zone. In Houston, it's even divided by neighborhoods. There are dozens of elementary schools alone in Houston, and many, many districts.
Thanks for the responses. I couldn't believe, after reading all the posts about Maine's "high" property taxes, that ours is so much higher here. We just get the bill, pay the bill and that's it. Stupidity on our part, I guess.
I did notice that many of the smaller towns we're looking at only have K-8 schools. I assume they go to the neighboring towns for high school. I guess that's where people get to choose. Here, ever town, regardless of size, has it's own set of schools, and no-matter how crappy the test scores, we have no choice but to stay in our own zone. In Houston, it's even divided by neighborhoods. There are dozens of elementary schools alone in Houston, and many, many districts.
This is an interesting site that give a fairly complete tax picture of cities all over the country. http://w (broken link) w w . kiplinger.com/personalfinance/tools/taxmap/
Based on their 'typical" family, the total tax burden, exclusive of Federal, Houston is #3, and Bangor is #76, while Portland ME is #96 out of 101. #1 is the cheapest, and it happens to be Casper Wyoming.
Great resource! Thx! There are some major differences. Though we are taxed in a different city/county (Houston property tax rate is 1/2 of what ours is at $30.02/$1000 property value) the other items are the same for our town.
Maine has a state income tax, which seems to make up the difference between your costs and mine. You pay $4180 est a year on state income tax, and we only pay a federal income tax. Property tax, as I said, is very high on our property. That makes the taxes on the average $113,000home $3392 a year in our town as opposed to $2494 in Bangor. Just over the trees from us about 30 mi away, my sister pays $5500 a year on her $140,000home, so her rate is even higher than ours.
Our sales tax is also one and a half times yours at 8.25%. Your estimate there was $1000 a year and ours is $1650. Your gas tax is $246 annual est and ours is $200.
So, tit for tat, you out-tax our town by $2678 a year, all made up of your state income tax that we don't have the burden of. BUT! We'll get used to it when we move!
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