Speaking of Taxes

Some of my neighbors are up in arms on the neighborhood email list about the recent reassessment. They seem not to understand the idea of a reassessment and the difference between a reassessment and a tax increase. (My county tries for a "market-value" assessment.) One woman is really, really, really upset that her house was reassessed and had a large percentage increase. The old assessment was $76,600 and the new assessment is $125,000. She bought the house for $120,000 in 2008. She's really upset that no one else in the neighborhood had such a large percentage increase.

To calculate your county taxes around here, you take the fair-market value of your house and multiply by $0.006725. This includes the school taxes.

Oh, and despite having my W-4 filled out as having NO exemptions and NO dependents and NOTHING that would say "withhold less" (and I think taking some extra withholding out every month), I still ended up owing the IRS $2200. (This is pretty typical. I've never gotten a refund.) My property taxes were the only thing that saved me money on my federal taxes (well, I also got about $20 off because I had to pay $100 for the class I took in the fall). The only good thing about the standard deduction is that I'll never have to pay the Alternative Minimum Tax. Only good thing. I need to get social security numbers for my computer and my plants.