DOUBLE TAXATION? WTH?

[wolfcreek]

It's come to my attention that some people in my area are paying taxes to 2 different cities and/or 2 different counties at the same time. In most cases the countyline passes through their neighborhoods however, not necessarily, city boundries.

Has this happened to people you know or can anyone explain how this is legal? (Some knew of this before buying their homes)

[xpertskir]

One of my neighbors has the county line chop his yard in half. The property taxes are about 15% different between the two counties. I have never asked him what he pays...

[TexasAg1996]

I'd imagine that since they can't tax property located outside their district, each county gets paid for the portion of the property in its district.

[GoLightly]

I live in an area where the representation & taxation boundaries are very complicated. Elementary school districts are different than high school districts, which are different districts than the local governments. You should see how many different ballots there are for most elections.

Each school district is a separate taxing authority, so each is given a line on my property tax bill. Add one for my town & another one for my county.

The bill you're concerned about is likely proportioned. If you're concerned, ask the treasurers at each of the taxing authorities you're dealing with.

[wolfcreek]

The bill you're concerned about is likely proportioned.


Supposedly, these are not individual property owners but, entire neighborhoods. If it were the other way around, I could understand.

[GoLightly]

Could be they all need to push to get fully annexed into a single community. If the county & district line ran down the middle of all of their lots, each would own property in both districts. The way they could find out whether or not they're getting double taxed would involve finding out the amount each taxing authority is applying its mill rate to, in order to determine the tax liability. If both are using an identical value, more digging would be need to be done. The value on the portion of the property that has improvements should be quite a bit higher, less we're talking really funky, with the line running down the middle of all of their houses. Services, such as sewers, schools, police, fire & garbage collection all have lines. They may need to dig into the entities that provide them to their properties to build a case challenging the non-provider's taxing authority.

They'd be unable to vote in one of the counties & one of the communities that hold taxing authority over a portion of their properties. The community & county they're allowed to vote in would be the first place they should go in order to get an annexing question into the governing board's schedule.

When the county I live in was split, long, long ago, property records were raided from the old county courthouse in the middle of the night. One of the books went missing for years & was discovered behind a bookshelf when a remodeling project was done.

Neighborhoods were built out of farms & the original farmers determined which school district their properties belonged in, which is how my community's school district map became such a hodge podge. County courthouses should have the paperwork. It may take digging around in the records of both counties. If there is an overlap, they need to force the counties to fight it out.

[wolfcreek]

If there is an overlap, they need to force the counties to fight it out.


I agree! I'm still trying to figure out why they didn't just choose a different neighborhood.


There was also a case where a local neighborhood was annexed 3 yrs. ago but, the county forgot to report it to the appraisal dist. About 500 families received tax bills for the 3 yrs. averaging about $1800 payable by Jan. 31 2008. I suspect some of this same irresponsibility is going on here.

[GoLightly]

I'm still trying to figure out why they didn't just choose a different neighborhood.

For some of us, house shopping is more of a nightmare than figuring you'll deal with a mess like this one later, specially when you include the honeydew factor.

I had an index card file of all of the houses we looked at, with the faults of each rejection noted. I also had a three ring notebook for a rough inspection checklist on the houses we considered. We'd pick up the Sunday paper on Saturday night to chart the next day's course of action. Months & months & months of Sundays, I'd pack snacks for the three kids & we'd look at houses 'til after dark. That doesn't include the appointments we had during the week. At the point when the oldest, then age 7, said he'd kill himself if he had to look at another house, my ex figured building would be necessary. Shopping for a lot was a whole lot easier.

If we'd gotten stuck in this kind of property tax mess, it would have been put on my honeydew list & my ex would assign himself the responsibility to nag me about it until I had it fixed. You think I learned about this property tax stuff by choice? LOL "This bill doesn't look right." "Look into it", required research to provide answers.

People could also walk into something like this outta ignorance, figuring it would be simple to straighten out. What's a couple of phone calls when you've found the ideal location? Meanwhile, the broker is telling you, you need to pull the trigger or someone else is going to snap it up, right under your nose.

There was also a case where a local neighborhood was annexed 3 yrs. ago but, the county forgot to report it to the appraisal dist. About 500 families received tax bills for the 3 yrs. averaging about $1800 payable by Jan. 31 2008. I suspect some of this same irresponsibility is going on here.

You could be right. Know if that $1800 was just the county's tax? I live in a property tax he!! & that seems high to me.

[wolfcreek]

You could be right. Know if that $1800 was just the county's tax? I live in a property tax he!! & that seems high to me.


Actually, after further research, it was a 'city' that annexed this neighborhood. Same results, different entity.

[GoLightly]

That makes more sense. I couldn't figure out what kind of services that a county could provide to justify $600 a year. How much snow removal do y'all have down there in a year? Still seems a little high, unless it includes school taxes & then is would seem way low.

[wolfcreek]

The city I was refering to, is seeking to annex our neighborhood also. We were told city taxes would run well over $500 per yr. The worst thing is We would have to pay to tap into the city's wastewater system and remove our septic tank. ($4000) For city, county and local school taxes, We pay about $2100 per yr. now. (no snow removal in central Texas needed)

[GoLightly]

Shoot, I paid more than $2100 a year 20 years ago, for a 950 sq ft house. Told ya I live in a property tax he!!hole. lol

Your $4K would be quickly offset by a septic tank failure. Depending on the age of your tank, that would be a consideration. Pumping costs versus utility payments, pumping would be somewhat cheaper, but not tons cheaper. Home valuations go up faster in areas on public utilities. Whether or not you'd get nicked for that would depend on how aggressive the appraiser is.