Do Americans have to pay tax for their real estate every year?


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Today a Chinese guy who has got his PhD degree and worked in America for 5 years said that China's house and land policy may be better than that of America. His reason is: although China does not allow land to be owned privately, but it gives the house buyer 70 years of the right of use (of house and land. The buyer pays house tax and land tax in a lump sum when buying). Americans have the private

ownership of their house and land, but they have to pay tax for the house and land every year (land tax: 1%-4%, one year late in paying the tax will lead to the land being confiscated and auctioned off by government), ; so in less than 50 years, the overall sum of the tax they have paid will be equal to the cost of the house and land.Besides, your son has to pay 45% inheritance tax after your death.

The reason sounds skeptical in my ears. If Ameica is so bad, why does he continue to stay in America and not come back to China?

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Hello,

I believe property taxes vary based on the municipality. On a home that I own, I pay an annual property tax, that comes out to maybe 0.5% the worth of the house? Or, in other words, if house were assessed at $100,000, I pay $500 in taxes on it per year. As stated, that likely varies greatly on a city-by-city basis, so houses in an unincorporated area of the county might pay something different. My understanding is that the majority of the taxes collected go towards K-12 education.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

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Today a Chinese guy who has got his PhD degree and worked in America for 5 years said that China's house and land policy may be better that of America. His reason is: although China does not allow land to be owned privately, but it gives the house buyer 70 years of the right of use (of house and land. The buyer pays house tax and land tax in a lump sum when buying). Americans have the private

ownership of their house and land, but they have to pay tax for the house and land every year (land tax: 1%-4%, one year late in paying the tax will lead to the land being confiscated and auctioned off by government), ; so in less than 50 years, the overall sum of the tax they have paid will be equal to the cost of the house and land.Besides, your son has to pay 45% inheritance tax after your death.

The reason sounds skeptical in my ears. If Ameica is so bad, why does he continue to stay in America and not come back to China?

Such a system is unworkable and broken - just look at the property bubble in China and the incentive for the local government to keep an unsustainable bubble going via the ever increasing one off taxes that roll in. Reminds me very much of the situation in Australia with their stamp duty to the point that when the housing market collapsed the results were pretty horrific to local government budgets. I also have to ask what problem is such a Chinese system mean to solve? As for local taxes - you pay council rates to pay for water/roads/etc. so these taxes are hardly onerous.

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Today a Chinese guy who has got his PhD degree and worked in America for 5 years said that China's house and land policy may be better than that of America. His reason is: although China does not allow land to be owned privately, but it gives the house buyer 70 years of the right of use (of house and land. The buyer pays house tax and land tax in a lump sum when buying). Americans have the private

ownership of their house and land, but they have to pay tax for the house and land every year (land tax: 1%-4%, one year late in paying the tax will lead to the land being confiscated and auctioned off by government), ; so in less than 50 years, the overall sum of the tax they have paid will be equal to the cost of the house and land.Besides, your son has to pay 45% inheritance tax after your death.

The reason sounds skeptical in my ears. If Ameica is so bad, why does he continue to stay in America and not come back to China?

absolutely. it's what funds education k-12 education

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Yes we do, my taxes are paid through my home loan, as many folks do while still paying off their home. My cousin inherited land my grandfather purchased and built a home on, his father had razed the original home-place and built a new home. After failing to pay the taxes for a few years, my cousin has been evicted and the property will be auctioned off soon. Why is America's system better? We own it and can retain it as long as we keep the taxes paid. Three generations were raised and lived on the land I mentioned, and could've remained in the family and handed down to my cousins children had he kept up the taxes.

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Same in UK and France

UK is a little different. The council tax you pay is a band system (A-H) and those are based on the market value that property was on 1st April 1991 or estimated to be if it wasn't built at the time. Had lots of fun with the local councils over the years as the system isn't very consistant and some houses have been mislabled resulting in hundreds of ???s in extra tax each year :(

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Yes, My county who assesses property taxes each year lowered my tax due to the crashed housing market and the prices. I'm over my head right now.

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so in less than 50 years, the overall sum of the tax they have paid will be equal to the cost of the house and land.

It sounds like he did a comparative analysis on the overall cost of ownership vs renting.

Of course, if you can't own land in China, then no one can force you to pay property tax on it there!

Besides, your son has to pay 45% inheritance tax after your death.

This sucks.

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In many places in the US you pay taxes on the property but there are 'homesteader' rights. This is where the elderly get tax discounts and other benefits to lower their overall tax bill.

Very few places in the US will take your property for being 1 year behind on taxes any more. I know in Ohio there are people that are 10-15 years behind, with the information being published in the paper yearly. You can buy the property for taxes but they have the right to fix tax bill within 30 day, and you assume all debts assigned to the property.

The system works in the US as long as you keep the local government in check and stop them from nickle and dimming you for everything that comes up since it 'will only cost a home owner of a $100,000 a few dollars a year', but everybody wants there money and it is never enough.

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The system works in the US as long as you keep the local government in check and stop them from nickle and dimming you for everything that comes up since it 'will only cost a home owner of a $100,000 a few dollars a year', but everybody wants there money and it is never enough.

Yeah... that's how it should be. In the town that I live in, property taxes range from $2,000 annually (the poorest sections) to $35,000 (the richest). Mine fit right around $13,000 for a house and property that really isn't that big.

My town needs to satisfy their almost $200 million school budget.

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absolutely. it's what funds education k-12 education

Which, if education weren't such an embarrassment, I would have no problem paying... LOL It's appalling the amount of money that goes into a system that just doesn't work.

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Yeah... that's how it should be. In the town that I live in, property taxes range from $2,000 annually (the poorest sections) to $35,000 (the richest). Mine fit right around $13,000 for a house and property that really isn't that big.

My town needs to satisfy their almost $200 million school budget.

Exactly. A lot of them see you as nothing more than an income generator... And rather than look at a school system that isn't working, they just throw more money at it, and then of course increase your taxes to do that...

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I personally like how our tax system works.

We have income tax (taxes on what we get paid)

We have interest tax (any money that you make outside of your income also gets taxed)

We have sales tax (taxes on what we spend)

We have property tax (taxes on our homes that we own)

We have school tax (taxes that goes to school which is usually lumped with property tax)

We have federal tax (taxes that we have to pay the federal government)

We have death tax (taxes on money that we receive that has already been taxed by the previous owner of said monies)

After all is said and done, the average American may get to keep about 20% of their money.

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I personally like how our tax system works.

We have income tax (taxes on what we get paid)

We have interest tax (any money that you make outside of your income also gets taxed)

We have sales tax (taxes on what we spend)

We have property tax (taxes on our homes that we own)

We have school tax (taxes that goes to school which is usually lumped with property tax)

We have federal tax (taxes that we have to pay the federal government)

We have death tax (taxes on money that we receive that has already been taxed by the previous owner of said monies)

After all is said and done, the average American may get to keep about 20% of their money.

HAHAHA, it really is ridiculous. All to fund a government that can't be fiscally frugal to save their lives...

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Yeah, I pay about 6.5k a year on my real estate taxes (and I'm not in a fancy part of the country in the least), just so the area can fund their poor over-budget schools.

Heaven forbid they just cut their budget and live within their means.

Also, like others have said, besides sales tax, and a city head count tax, I get taxed for my income at the fed, state, city and county levels... and to be honest, I'm not sure what they all provide me, as a citizen, that's worth how much they take from me. :whistle: It seems I have to make at least 50k more than I need to survive, just so I can live after all the taxes are taken out.

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americans pay high tax for everything. Its like the land of the raped when it comes to money over there. I won a bunch of money in vegas and had to give up almost half of it for taxes lol. Good thing we have places here in Canada to get it back but still.

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americans pay high tax for everything. Its like the land of the raped when it comes to money over there. I won a bunch of money in vegas and had to give up almost half of it for taxes lol. Good thing we have places here in Canada to get it back but still.

i find it ironic that you did not mention the sky-high taxes in Canada for everything to satisfy the socialist lust our government (especially our provincial govt) has :laugh:

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depends on where you are, a lot of property taxes pay for the local school districts, like mine does..... some towns don't have property taxes, it all depends on where you are what the local town has set up... this is not a federal or state thing, it's all local, so you can live somewere without a tax if you want to, you could also live somewhere without sales tax if you want to... some states don't even have state taxes... its all up to you what you pay based on where you live... the only thing that is a definite thing is the federal income tax

I personally like how our tax system works.

We have income tax (taxes on what we get paid)

We have interest tax (any money that you make outside of your income also gets taxed)

We have sales tax (taxes on what we spend)

We have property tax (taxes on our homes that we own)

We have school tax (taxes that goes to school which is usually lumped with property tax)

We have federal tax (taxes that we have to pay the federal government)

We have death tax (taxes on money that we receive that has already been taxed by the previous owner of said monies)

After all is said and done, the average American may get to keep about 20% of their money.

you forgot gas taxes, on all gas you use for travel

Utilities taxes for all the public utilities

some places like california now have eco taxes for recycling electronics....... blah

Capital Gains taxes for investments.......

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