Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A taxing issue
No jury duty for me this year, praise be. I had to call twice (last night at 5 PM and again today at 11 AM), and was told by the recording that my jury service is complete -- until I get a new summons 12 months from now, of course!

I have a new blogging venture, one that probably won't interest the majority of the folks who read this blog, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. It's called Talk Show News and it's a companion piece to my lineups page. I may even do a little bit o'journalism over there.

It's almost time to pay our property taxes -- well, technically they're not due for another couple months, but if I pay them before Dec. 31 I can deduct them on our 2008 tax return, and it's not like we're earning gobs of interest on the money. Out of idle curiosity, I looked up the amount of property taxes our next door neighbor pays. He's a nice old guy who has literally lived in that house his entire life. Well, thanks to Prop. 13, his annual tax burden is, I kid you not, $1,292. The tab went up less than $200 in the past five years, during one of the greatest booms in real estate history. No wonder he's able to spend so much time traveling!

I realize that I made a grave mistake in not moving here and buying a home when I was in my early 20s. I'd be paying more than $1,292 in property taxes, of course, but not anything close to what I'm paying now.

Then again, if it weren't for suckers like me who bought houses at grossly inflated prices, the city would be in even worse fiscal shape than it is now.
posted by 125records @ 7:48 PM  
3 Comments:
  • At 10:00 PM, Anonymous neal said…

    Don't get me started on property taxes and reassessments! They are looking at ours right now. They call it a Lightning Tax for good reason!

     
  • At 10:28 PM, Anonymous Flasshe said…

    I hate to ask how much you pay in property tax. I don't pay much more than your neighbor does, but I don't live in California...

     
  • At 4:54 PM, Blogger 125records said…

    Flasshe, let's just say that the neighbor's house and property is valued at under $50K for tax purposes. It's been a long, long, long time since anyone has been able to buy a home for that paltry amount in the Bay Area!

     
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Name: Sue
Home: San Francisco Bay Area, California, United States
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