I know. I'm trying various other tricks, since I'm owner-builder on a house that will have mortgage-sized tax bill, if I don't appeal to the county tax board. Since I bought the land cheap, and am building the basic home at a fraction of the final appraised value, there is precedent for claiming reduced appraised value, if everything is documented.
Plus Prop 13 in California helps, once you establish the basis, if you never sell.
(The remaining irritation are tons of bond issues you have to keep track of. I have a rental property in Sonoma County with property taxes of $500/yr and bond+misc mandatory fees of $1,200/yr.)
The daughters ! Now, there's an expense politics can do nothing about, I know from experience ! <vbg>
I pushed the kids towards home-ownership and rental ownership, regardless of their other careers, and, so far, it has worked out well, in spite of the above tax issues.
The only way IMO to check the future growth of all-powerful, all-consuming government and eventual fascism or socialism is citizen's duty of constant pressure to restaint, accountability, and transparency. |
