Where can I 'own' land?

Third Eye Open said:
Oh wow, that's not very much at all. Maybe I'm over reacting. I was trying to do some research as I have hardly any knowledge about taxes (seeing as I don't pay very many :) ) And I somehow got the impression that it was a 10% ish tax.
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Yeah, the way property taxes are figured vary dramatically from place to place. The two things you would want to keep an eye out for are any available exemptions (such as the owner occupant one mentioned earlier) and how property values are assessed. For example, the market value of my place is fairly high, mostly due to the fact that I live on Maui, but the assessed value is much lower.

Heh, just out of random curiosity, I looked up my property on the local tax system (yay Internet!) and it turns out that they have changed the exemption limit for the upcoming tax period. My house will be completely exempt from taxes, so I will only be paying on the land. This will most likely drop my annual taxes below $1000. Hurrah! Thanks for starting this thread. :)
 
GStan said:
This part I don't like. My wife had me registering all last month trying to win some "Dream Home" from Home and Garden TV. I was thinking about the tax implications of winning a $2M home in the San Francisco area, not just for me but anyone at my income level. Between property taxes and federal income taxes, I'm not sure how much it would really feel like winning something if we actually won.
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That's why you sell it instead of keeping it.
 
Third Eye Open said:
Well that's disappointing :-( . I was looking forward to someday not having to pay rent, and it seems to me that paying tax on land or a house might as well be the same as paying rent to someone who owns the house or land.
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I'd take RoboTimbo's comments with a grain of salt.

No state in the USA charges more than about 2% annually in property taxes. On a $100,000 house, you can expect to pay maybe $100 a month in taxes. On that same $100,000 house, you would expect to pay $1000 a month in rent.
 
madurobob said:
Nah - unless its a lot of property, or in a very expensive neighborhood, the $3.5M lifetime exclusion (I think thats the 2009 #) will cover most inherited land. If your parents own more than that they should dump it in a trust anyway. And, gift tax is part of the same uniform tax.

Anyway, is the definition of "own" in this thread something like "yours to do with what you will with no responsibility to do anything with, for, or because of it ever again and no threat of losing it"?

Cuz, that seems a bit childish to me.
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No, just 'own' as in 'I'm done paying for it, it's mine now' like when you own a car you don't have to pay for taxi rides anymore, you still have to pay for upkeep of course.
 
drkitten said:
I'd take RoboTimbo's comments with a grain of salt.

No state in the USA charges more than about 2% annually in property taxes. On a $100,000 house, you can expect to pay maybe $100 a month in taxes. On that same $100,000 house, you would expect to pay $1000 a month in rent.
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That's the info I was looking for! My google-fu must really be rusty. That's not as much as I thought it was, hooray! Not that I'm even planing on buying a house anytime soon :(
 
Third Eye Open said:
No, just 'own' as in 'I'm done paying for it, it's mine now' like when you own a car you don't have to pay for taxi rides anymore, you still have to pay for upkeep of course.
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I don't know where you live, but over here we have to pay annual property taxes on automobiles. Coupla hundred bucks a year.
 
GStan said:
How much would you have to pay without the exemption, i.e. if you were renting it out to someone else as an investment, or if it was a second home? I only ask 'cause I've always imagined property taxes would be pretty high in your neck of the woods.
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It would be much, much higher. I don't know exactly how it would be assessed in my neighborhood, but I do some contract work for the Real Property Division here and can ask.

I do know someone who owns a vacation rental condo down on the beach and is paying around $16,000 per year. Apples to oranges, though.
 
Better not tell him about the position of the "Feu Superior" in Scotland. In fact, better not tell me about the position of the Feu Superior in Scotland or I'll probably start chewing the crockery.

Rolfe.
 
What you're looking for is called an allodial title. Try the Philippines or some other such ****hole.
 
Third Eye Open said:
No, just 'own' as in 'I'm done paying for it, it's mine now' like when you own a car you don't have to pay for taxi rides anymore, you still have to pay for upkeep of course.
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Yeah, thats kind of my point. With important things comes responsibility. That car requires registration, inspection, insurance, gas, tires, oil, replacement parts & labor, etc... A house and land requires similar input in taxes, water/sewer hook-up and use fees, etc.. There can even be HOA dues, environmental impact issues, etc... You can't just do what you want with it - not in a developed country at least.

In fact, sometimes you can lose your land simply because someone else has a more productive use for it (some recent SCOTUS BS I remember).

But, as others have pointed out, standard property tax is not too bad. On my $275K house the 2008 taxes were about $2,500. About $600 more for my similarly valued rental house in the nearby city.
 
In Dane County, Wisconsin $250,000 house, taxes are about $4800 per year. It really depends on where the land is.
 
Third Eye Open said:
If I buy land here in America, I still have to pay for it every year.

Is there any countries where if I buy some land I can own it completely? Or is America as close as it gets?
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just because u pay property taxes u feel u don't completely own the land?

do you not completely own your car because you need a drivers license and have to pay registration fees?

libertarians are weird.
 
If I were to wash up on a hitherto unknown island in, say, the Pacific, could I stake a claim to it? If so, who would I go to to stake the claim?
And what would give them the right of decision?
(Probably best to keep quiet about it, I guess... yum yum, coconuts)
 
GStan said:
This part I don't like. My wife had me registering all last month trying to win some "Dream Home" from Home and Garden TV. I was thinking about the tax implications of winning a $2M home in the San Francisco area, not just for me but anyone at my income level. Between property taxes and federal income taxes, I'm not sure how much it would really feel like winning something if we actually won.
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My wife makes me register for that stupid contest every year. The winners invariably have to sell the house for considerably less than what they claim it's worth in order to pay the tax. One previous winner tried to keep his prize and live in the house, but quickly went bankrupt.
 
parky76 said:
just because u pay property taxes u feel u don't completely own the land?
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Try arguing for a land value tax some time; you'd be surprised how many people claim that, because you have to pay a tax on land, you don't "really" own it.
 
plumjam said:
If I were to wash up on a hitherto unknown island in, say, the Pacific, could I stake a claim to it?
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You can claim whatever you like; whether or not others respect your claim is another matter!

If so, who would I go to to stake the claim?
And what would give them the right of decision?
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Claims to land have one origin, and one origin only: brute force. If you have no means to force others to respect your claim, no one has any reason to respect it.
 
Prometheus said:
My wife makes me register for that stupid contest every year. The winners invariably have to sell the house for considerably less than what they claim it's worth in order to pay the tax. One previous winner tried to keep his prize and live in the house, but quickly went bankrupt.
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Ehhh ... you win a million dollar home, the taxes are about $10,000 a year, you try to keep it and live in it but go bankrupt?

How come they didn't, on the brink of bankrupcy, let me see, I have it: Sell the home for what they could get for it? Half a million, maybe?

Even if you couldn't pay the taxes at all, the house would probably be auctioned away and I cannot see how it could possibly sell for less than the accumulated taxes.

I don't believe the story is true.

:cool:
 
parky76 said:
just because u pay property taxes u feel u don't completely own the land?
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Yes. I would feel like the government owns the land, and I'm paying a fee to them in order to use it. What do you think would happen if I didn't pay my 'rent'? I'd get kicked off the land. If someone is kicking you off land because you didn't pay them, it seems to me that that someone is the one who owns the land.

do you not completely own your car because you need a drivers license and have to pay registration fees?
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If I had a car and it was just sitting in my driveway not doing anything, and I still had to pay a fee to someone who would take the car away if I didn't pay that fee, then no, I wouldn't feel like I owned the car.

libertarians are weird.
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I've been told I'm a libertarian. All it usually takes for people to call me this is for me to say something like 'I think people should be free to do what they want as long as it doesn't hurt anyone or anyone's stuff.'

I guess that could be seen to be 'weird'.
 
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