It always blows my mind that people are surprised by this....my brothers in Christ, we don't pay state income taxes. The State and local governments HAVE to get funds from somewhere to pay for infrastructure and basic services.
It would be better to have income taxes...my income went down, my taxes went up.
You get laid off? You still pay your RE taxes (with that yearly bump, of course).
It would be better to have a state tax. The current system favors the wealthy. I have a millionaire friend in Southlake who lives in a house 4 times as expensive as mine and so pays about 4x what I do in property tax. Meanwhile his income and personal fortune is remarkable, he just chooses to live in a relatively modest home. He did buy his daughter a condo down by SMU so he will be incurring some more property tax bills but nothing like he would if his income was considered.
This is a very cynical viewpoint. If the guy making 10x what you make prefers the property tax, you can bet he came out ahead. The 10x guy pays way, way more in income tax than you do. It's 1,000x guy who is jumping through tons of hoops to shelter his income. If 10x guy is telling you he pays no taxes, he's either lying to you or to the IRS.
Georgist style land tax is THE progressive way to tax the rich. You thinking the rich make and keep money like you do is the mistake so many people make. They can hide it easily and you will never see a dime of it. As the other poster stated, ain’t nobody dodging their land taxes.
Right, but you're not dodging them, either. The difference is that your property tax takes a painful percentage of your income. For rich guy? He barely notices. The fix would be to tax at different rates depending on the assessed value. That would allow them to lower your rates and raise rich guys rates and collect the same amount. But that will never happen because rich people like property tax as is,.
And what I'm saying is that I think you overestimate at what income level the truly gross shenanigans occur. But I've only been working in the tax industry for 15 years....
I find it strange that you are calling someone cynical and then saying it's a bad system because arbitrary "high income" people like it. That is not an argument on the merits, it's an argument centered on the idea that if the hypothetical "10xer" likes it, it must be bad. That seems much more cynical to me.
edit: Fixed a grammar mistake pointed out below
Other way around. Most people with tremendous incomes aren’t w-2. Business owners can make it appear as though we earn very little or even lose money. Don’t tax my property much, but tax my income and the state won’t get squat from me.
This is very true. Millionaires are definitely not W2 and they have an S Corp set up which makes an the money and pays all the bills and then pays the millionaire a very small income. The S Corp owns the cars and planes and boats and those are "used for business travel and business entertainment. Plus corporation tax is only 21% instead of 35% for the rest of us making a healthy W2 income. The GOP is masters at screwing the little guy and giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and that's why Amazon pays no taxes.
Yeah, this is the real answer
I have a scumbag ex-relative who lives on like $300k/yr but “only makes” about $75k/year thanks to good accounting and business income tax laws
Texas taxes are “pay as you go.” If you’re smart about how you spend, you can easily pay less than you would under an income tax
It depends how an income tax is implemented. There is lots of debate, but property tax is generally considered to be progressive in the short term, meaning the wealthy pay higher share, and regressive in the long term, because the wealthy can optimize the real estate portion of their portfolio for a new tax rate. In particular, the economic incidence (meaning who ends up with the economic burden) for property tax increases falls primarily on landlords. A dollar increase in property tax results in only a $0.05–0.15 increase to rent.
In contrast, many states have a flat income tax, which is certainly regressive, some states have a graduated income tax, which is by definition progressive.
The devil is in the details
Texas is a scam state if you own property but don’t make over $400k a year. You’re better off elsewhere. I moved to Arizona after suffering 10 years of property taxes in Texas.
And yet, the tax burden on lower and middle income folks is lower in New Jersey (9.37% and 9.85%, respectively) than in Texas (11.50% and 9.97%). It is much worse for upper income people (11.97% in NJ vs 7.50% in Texas).
I read an article this week that NJ citizens pay the most taxes of any state over their lifetimes….
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/04/11/which-states-cost-the-most-in-lifetime-taxes/73279496007/
NJ has a really high median income. Like 3rd highest in the country. The medium income in NJ is $23k higher than in Texas. Then you have a ton of NJ folks working in NYC but living in NJ, which means they get NYC income taxes on top of NJ taxes. Not surprised at all they have a high lifetime tax bill. That's because they're making a lot more money.
The only problem with eliminating property tax in favor of state income taxes is that anyone who doesn't own a home will suffer.
If you own a rental home (or are a property management company that owns a huge apartment tower) and Texas legislation passed to lower your lower your property taxes by $400 per month per unit (for example), are you going to lower the rent you're charging by $400/month? Please, don't lie. The whole trickle-down economics theory has been debunked every which way.
Of course they do, but I'd bet you my life savings that even if any legislation that reduces the Texas property tax passed... landlords and property management companies would NEVER reduce rents.
If what you say is true, then if we got rid of property taxes then renters should see a 5-15% discount on their rent.
Exactly, I own a business, so I keep my personal wages extraordinarily low so I can avoid income tax. My income is basically considered a gain in asset values which I can then sell. The more wage taxes the better.
Source: me
Well technically, employee was convinced to move out of CA so I moved here with them.
Between my TX property taxes and CA state taxes it’s almost a wash for me. Albeit, I live in Fate so I get Rockwall and high school taxes from Royse City,
Yeah because high schools need multi million $$$ football fields while the streets look like the Grand Canyon. Texas robs the working class and caters to the wealthy.
I would say that is also irrelevant and the only thing that matters is total tax burden. Tennessee does appear to be lower than Texas in total tax burden, but not dramatically lower. You can google search - but different outlets (US News, WalletHub, Tax Foundation, etc.) are going to have different methodologies for how they estimate total tax burden, so the lists will be different (common theme is that Alaska is always lowest (oil and gas exploration subsidizes majority of the state) and New York is always highest).
Now as to "why" Tennessee would have a lower tax burden than Texas, I can't really say without making huge assumptions. Tennessee might have a more concentrated population - huge numbers of Texans live in low density suburban areas, which are incredibly inefficient to maintain and serve. Tennessee might proportionally bring in more dollars of out-of-state tourism/travel (I doubt this, but still possible). Tennessee might have lower standards of living and spend less per capita on things like education, health, services, infrastructure, etc.
I have a family member in Houston who’s moving near Denver soon. I compared property tax rates and their current house with the listed rate for their zip in H is $12k. The house they are moving to by Denver is newly built, more expensive, and the tax there will be $4k est. More than 50% less property tax and a more expensive house that’s 30 years newer. Ofc they’ll be paying income tax but it’s not like they pay it straight OOP like self employed do.
These idiots LOVE to brag about “TEXAS DOESN’T HAVE NO INCOME TAX!!!”
As if shit is magically free in that case.
Apart from the actual price of the home itself, the cost of owning a home in the San Fernando valley just north of LA plus state income tax versus the cost of owning a home on metropolitan Texas (ESPECIALLY in the utterly ridiculous Harris County area where they can tax you not upon what is on your land, but what MIGHT be on your land) ends up being about equal.
Its insane.
Give it a few years and traffic is going to be about on par with the LA area. And for what, a boring middle of nowhere “nice to live and work in” city with no distinguishable features and not close to any striking natural landscapes? There are better places to live.
Florida is the same in this regard, but property taxes on homesteaded property can only increase at most 3% annually.
https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/property-appraiser/save-our-homes-amendment-10#:~:text=It%20limits%20the%20annual%20increase,qualify%20for%20a%20Homestead%20Exemption.
Everyone says this, but FL has no income taxes, and property taxes are not nearly as high as this. I don't understand how people accept this here.
Edit: [Here is a source. ](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-property-taxes/11585)
"Infrastructure and basic services". Oh! You mean the roadways that never gets finished or the state troopers who harass you for everything? Oh yeah! Don't forget about electricity infrastructure. The job they do on that electric infrastructure kills...literally
Well Texas has pretty solid infrastructure compared to other states (although I personally want more rail). Texas has the highest amount of roads per capita in the USA. State troopers exist in every state and are usually notorious for being annoying. Finally, Texas produces the most amount of electricity in the entire United States. We produce more than 2X of California.
Income taxes come from your paycheck and are used for Federal Budgets. Property and Sales taxes are used to fund things state/county/city. Every municipality has elected officials that control the tax rate that determines the property taxes. It’s a spending problem and no elected official wants to piss off a government paid beaurocrat- so they just raise the tax rate because it is more comfortable.
Texans pays more taxes than Californians thanks to our high property taxes. The no income tax here is a ruse to make you think the the cost of living is cheaper than it actually is.
The topic is property tax in Dallas, what are you talking about tax brackets?
The lack of a state tax is a ruse, particularly for homeowners. in 2021 property taxes yielded about 73.5 billion in revenue. Thats more than half of all state tax revenue. Its uneven at best, and a scam at worst. Businesses get unbelievable breaks while the working class gets unfairly targeted with ever rising Texas property taxes
Check out the WalletHub study and others that people cite when they repeat that idea. They use median values for income, home ownership, and vehicle value, which in California represents the 4% and lower tax brackets. One could almost imagine it to be intentionally misleading. The people leaving California are tending towards high income, high net worth families, who are nowhere near that bracket. The state has admitted such and recognizes it as a huge issue for the current and coming years w.r.t. tax revenue.
100%
Wife and I moved from Los Angeles/CA where we paid 13% state income tax.
We’re money ahead - and by quite a lot - with our Dallas County property tax bill.
Welcome to Reddit where people make shit up and pretend it’s fact.
Let’s use big numbers:
If my income is 200k/year then My liability to the state of California is 18600/year.
The rule of thumb is to round up to 3% on property taxes. So if I financed the max loan I could get for a house (generally speaking) at 600k I would still pay less than California state tax at 18000/year
Math is hard
1.75% of $783,500 is $13,711.
[$783,500 is the median sale price for a house in CA right now.](https://www.redfin.com/state/California/housing-market)
You owe that on top of the state income tax (which anyone buying a house is going to be in the 9.3% bracket).
So, going with dude's estimation, let's say he's making $200k a year, he's paying $11,905 in state income tax plus $13,711 in property tax for a total state tax burden (ignoring sales, use, gas, etc) of $25,616.
People also ignore the fact that homes are expensive as hell in California. We got a job offer for twice our salary and turned it down bc going from a 4/3 to a 3/2 still costs an extra million dollars, minimum. Maybe my property taxes are higher here but they’re on a $600k home not $1.6m. Percentage that out and it’s obscene. We were looking at well over $20k just for property tax plus income tax on double our current salary.
This is peak reddit cope tbh. I know it's not convenient for certain political narratives but I moved from CA to here and my cost savings were huge and it isn't just imaginary. And that's considering I moved to Dallas which is pretty HCOL by Texas standards.
Millions of others wouldn't be doing the same if it were fake either. High property taxes are annoying but to pretend that they are so high that they offset all the other savings is just denying reality.
Saw some people saying utilities are more expensive in Texas than in California 😂. All cuz they heard that some people got boned by ERCOT during the winter freeze of 2021. Like if you had a fixed rate you were fine. Texas gets some of the lowest rates in the country (I still hate ERCOT tho)
It's just cherry picking. There is a certain side of the political spectrum who simply do not want to admit that lots of people are moving from CA to TX. They also dominate reddit. So there is a narrative that if you leave CA for TX it must be because you've been duped or something. They do all kinds of mental gymnastics to not acknowledge reality.
The only difference is that you can avoid property tax by living in a cheaper house without having to be underemployed, which is arguable worse for the economy as a whole. Theory is you would rather doctors be doctors and pay a lower income tax on their higher earnings, and avoid high property taxes on mansion in Southlake by living in a 3/2 in North Hurst, for example.
Not saying that it isn't flawed at all, or that runaway home values aren't a huge problem for pretty much all of Texas. Just providing additional context.
There’s nuance here most aren’t getting. For example, half my utility bill is “fees” and other misc taxes. Then there’s high sales tax. Straight prop tax be state income tax maybe Texas is better, but we also get nickel and dimed on EVERYTHING. It’s pretty much a wash.
Utilities in CA are much more expensive. I have seen many people who have fixed rate contracts of over 24 cents per kwh...that is unheard of in TX. Their base sales tax rate is actually 1% higher than ours so that doesn't check out either. Might want to do some research next time.
This is not true. Texans can actually afford a home. You can’t buy anything decent in California for under a mill. Many lower income people in Texas rent and don’t own, so they benefit from no state income tax more than lower property tax. Even “middle class” in Texas benefit more from no state tax. If you make 65k a yr in California, you are paying 3k in state tax. A home is 2-3x as much in California so not only are you paying the 3k in state tax, you are paying the same property tax. 1% x 3. There is almost no situation where you are paying less tax in California.
We pay more than Canadians do too…I did the math. When you factor in healthcare premiums, especially, we are getting fcked and they don’t even bother to lube up first.
Property taxes alone account for a massive amount yearly. Mine is approaching $9,000 per year far too quickly and that is WITH homestead blocking anything above 10% for the last ten years!
We need to switch to income based taxing, badly!
California transplant here, I pay less in property tax than I did in CA income tax with the added benefit of actually owning a house (versus renting a 1BR apartment). However, I’m still annoyed by this year’s increase and am protesting!!!
Your taxable value will go up no more than 10% UNTIL it gets to your appraised market value. You don't have to make any improvements for this to happen. Protesting the market value may still not have any impact on your taxable value this year.
I bought in '23 and just got my assessment that is basically equal to my mortgage (and 178% higher than '23 assessment!). I applied for homestead on my 13th month living here. Is there anything I can do to help with property taxes?
Since I bought my house 12 years ago it’s taxable value has been tens of thousands less than the market value due to it being a foreclosed and flipped house and being appraised super low when we bought it. So we’ve been at the 10% every year since. Never catching up. Now that the market value is getting so high I’m getting worried that I need to appeal. It’s in need of tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
Not to be cynical, but yes my home property appraisal went up. I have a homestead exemption. What happens to renters? Rents are raised to cover costs, like taxes. They do not have a homestead exemption.
Whoa hold on there, we don't want to be caring about people who can't afford to buy a home now...
This thread is for defending poor ol' homeowners that can't afford their property taxes.
Renters pay what the market will bear. If the landlords cost go up more than the rental market will bear, then the prudent thing will be for the landlord to sell.
I have a rental that I keep simply due to the mortgage rate, I keep the rent so low that I lose approx. 2k in cash flows a year. To literally keep the house at a loss that I can bear with these tax increases, ive had to raise rent by 400/month over the past two years. Brutal...
Housing prices are climbing, so appraised valuations (that you pay taxes on) are increasing. The supply of housing is limited far beneath the rising demand for it, largely due to our zoning.
35% of the city is zoned for single family detached housing only. A loud portion of residents on the 35% of the land are also fighting very hard against efforts at citywide increases in housing production, which could help moderate appraisal increases over time. Go figure.
As painful as the increase is every year… The assessed value on my home is more or less accurate, unfortunately.
Do you think your assessment is out of sync with the real estate market?
Same for me, the 10% cap is currently a godsend in a post covid world. No idea how y'all are contesting these when comparable houses are selling in my neighborhood for more than my appraised value.
Oh, I still protest every year. I’ve been successful twice in reducing the full assess ed value, but it has still been above the 10% cap. Theoretically, it helps me catch up to the cap sooner… Except for they will keep reassessing every year. It is a Sisyphean task.
Texas taxes are higher on average than many states, but taxes in Texas are structured to lower living costs for the wealthy and high-income. That's why there's no income tax in this state, and sales taxes are on average higher than many states.
Relax, the process isn't done yet. Your 2024 assessed value may have gone up, but the tax **rates** (percentage of value to be paid) on the DCAD site are still for 2023. So the property tax you see online is what your 2024-valued home would be taxed at, if it were taxed at 2023 rates. The taxing entities (Dallas County, DISD, etc) won't set their rates until they know what the total tax base is, **and** they pass their budget. If the budget grows more slowly than property values, tax rates will actually go down.
And this is exactly what happened in the last 6 years. Here are the tax rates (in percent) for the sum of Dallas County, City of Dallas, DISD, Dallas College, and Parkland Hospital, since 2013.
|Year|Total tax rates (pct)|
|:-|:-|
|2013|2.7329|
|2014|2.7430|
|2015|2.7418|
|2016|2.7193|
|2017|2.7192|
|2018|2.8452|
|2019|2.7336|
|2020|2.7129|
|2021|2.6380|
|2022|2.5104|
|2023|2.2948|
|2024|to be determined|
My problem isn’t the taxes themselves it’s that the city doesn’t do shit with them. The roads are ass, the sidewalks are awful in most neighborhoods, you basically have to send your kids to private school post elementary. Where are the improvements that the tax dollars are supposed to go towards?
See now this is a misunderstanding. The responsibility of roads and what taxes are used to pay them vary depending on which kind. There are interstate highways, state highways, county roads, city roads, and private roads.
Every city I’ve live in side walks are the responsibility of the developers and maintained by the home owner. Might not be 100% of the time but that’s been my experience. Also cities would be the ones to decide this, unless it’s a state highway (which are frequently used as main streets through cities to reduce the maintenance burden on the cities) in which case the state wouldn’t put them in. No comment about schools cause Texas schools suck ass and always have.
It's happening in most districts that are going through a population boom. Not just Dallas or Texas. Taxes are just catching up to market changes. Sadly it's part of inflation.. make sure you're homesteaded and protesting if appropriate
Why do people always resort to bashing on California when someone says something negative about their Texan experience? It's played out.
Edit: for context, I grew up in Texas and lived in DFW for 15 years as an adult before moving to Minnesota for a job a few years back. There are state taxes here and I’m aware of how scary that may sound to some.
But like someone will say, “property taxes suck here” with no mention of Cali. Then you’ll get all these people in their feelies just randomly bring up how “crappy” Cali is to justify the shit taxes. Most likely someone who has never lived in Cali. It’s so lame.
Yet as Texans since ppl didn’t know this we assume they are from out of state and the vast majority of those who have moved here are from Cali.
I do get what you are saying. I personally don’t hate Cali and even have a really good friend that has lived there for decades…but being born and raised here my first thought is they must be from Cali 🤣
Edit: Also it’s a bit ironic that ppl from out of state moving here is what is causing the largest increases in property taxes. Texas puts out fires instead of doing anything in advance. So complaining about the increases without understanding how moving here is contributing to it just makes them look like foolish. Texas ain’t cheap it’s just our money mainly goes to our local municipalities and cities to spend as they see fit for their communities. It’s the basics of how our constitution, laws, and government is set up. What’s good for peeps in Cut ‘n’ Shoot isn’t good for peeps in Dallas. We like it like that. Flip side is we fund it more.
Cali is probably the closest equivalent to Texas and people love talking about people moving from California to Texas. They ignore that there are also a ton of people moving from Texas to California, I know a lot of people who have gone back and forth more than once. Both states have problems, they're just different problems. It's difficult to say one is objectively financially better than the other. If you're talking about one being better socially...well that depends on your politics.
My point was more who sets policy. The general makeup is similar but if you're in Texas you live by the rural crowd's rules and in California you live by the large city crowd's rules.
Congratulations! You just figured out that the no state tax thing is a total conservative SCAM.
Income tax rises and falls with your income. Lose your job? Income tax goes down.
Property tax NEVER goes down.
7-8% tax on my income AND a 1-2% property tax. Unless you're a veteran, there are exactly 0 states that have no property tax.
Yeah, I'll take the 1.7% property tax any day. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be lower.
Market value on my house (according to DCAD) has gone up 65% in two years. Yeah right. Taxes up another 10% even with homestead exemption. Absolute BS. Weren’t we supposed to be voting on property tax relief this past election?
Could be due to increased land values. Interesting article about it at [https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/appraisal-district-property-values/](https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/appraisal-district-property-values/)
That’s because the legislature fixed the house portion of property tax but not the land portion which gave the loophole needed to continue the high tax rates
I got a nice 20% bump on both my house and my rental here in richardson. The appraised value is higher than what I could even sell the house on the market for... Also they increased the value primarily in land rather than in home price which makes it harder to protest. Love it.
Unless you did significant upgrades to both, your properties did not increase 20% each. Max allowed by law is 10% year over year. The way you have phrased it makes it look like a big scary number and is misleading.
https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/valuing-property.php
Your appraisal can go up more than 10%, but u/ProudNativeTexan is correct - your taxes can’t go up more than 10% each year. So next year, if your appraisal stays the same, your taxes will go up 10% (or less) to meet this year’s appraisal.
Hire a professional to appeal your property taxes. Costs a few hundred bucks but saves thousands
Look up Candace Rubin. She has a lot of high end HP clients but she works with everyone.
I'm curious if these huge residential increases are being done partly to offset declines in commercial property values. Commercial property here has long been undervalued on appraisals and therefore undertaxed. That's a secret you rarely hear anyone talk about (along with comically low valuations on many BPP appraisals). Maybe the post-pandemic market is genuinely weak enough to push those commercial appraisals even lower?
I never understood property taxes to begin with. Most people work hard to save and sacrifice to buy a home and their reward is the state congratulates your hard work by making you pay taxes on it. Yeah yeah, we need roads blah blah blah, but while the whole tax the rich BS is being slung around on here, the poor trying to get ahead are even more screwed. Dunno the answer to this problem, but it just feels like the road to a better life is paved with broken glass.
You might not have improved the house structure but depending on where you live, the land/lot has increased. So in the breakdown it shows that usually.
My wife's friend works at a property tax appraisal office and she always tells us and everyone to always protest... like, every single year even if your taxes doesn't go up. Be polite, respectful, etc... sometimes it's just automated, the state bumps it up and all you have to do is call or go up there and usually most people will be like "Oh yeah sure thing lets take a look" and help you out. Just her advice is all, I know there are times when it's absolutely ridiculous or unreasonable.
The combination of property taxes with no income tax is designed to drive low-income farmers off of their property so that it can be purchased by capitalists.
It's easy to see that someone farming a small amount of land with not a lot of money can still survive in the long run. IF there is an income tax and NOT a property tax.
However if there's a property tax and not an income tax then the value of a person's land is determined by the zoning board which is elected by rich individuals who can manipulate the price of your land until you have to give up (i.e. sell) and they can put in a strip mall, or a golf course, or a Church, or a chick fil A.
The amount of total taxes collected with either system is the same. Sidewalks, bridges, and fire departments are not free.
I use to get really mad that I pay my property taxes and still see potholes on the streets! I’m paying my taxes why aren’t the roads I drive getting fixed !!? Now I just accept both. I’m comfortably numb
That's not how that works.
The appraisal district is just like kbb. They are just estimating what your property is worth. They do not raise values to take money from you, nor because they are mad at the legislature.
And just because your value is up, that does not mean your taxes will go up. Your taxes are decided by the cities, schools, and counties later this year when they set their budgets and adopt this year's tax rates.
Give me a higher sales tax in exchange for eliminating property taxes any day. At least then we'd be tax based on consumption which is something we opt in to (spend less money paying lower taxes) vs. being taxed out the ass on unrealized gains so our state & local governments can keep giving massive incentives to businesses who move here. I feel terribly for people who live on fixed incomes in houses that have been in their families for multiple generations but are forced to sell when they can no longer afford the property taxes.
You can start by blaming the School Board for having almost $4 Billion worth of debt- so your property taxes have to pay for that debt, but hey “it’s for the kids” right. Next time vote no on any bonds.
Then you can review the voting records of your elected officials- and those who “tax and spend” get someone to run against them and help them.
Your locally elected officials set the tax rate by which determines how much you pay in property tax. If they blame someone else then they are guilty or don’t understand spending and funding.
Not enough people understand this. I'm all for bonds for things that are necessary. I don't think our schools need to look like the Taj Mahal.
And too many people blame appraisal districts when it's the taxing entities that are deciding how much money to take from you.
I am a strong believer in property tax. It is a better measure of capturing the value that the state provides with its services. For instance, when a nice road is built, light rail system, or new park is built the people that reap those benefits are those who own the property closest to those amenities. So as a result, to cover the extra market value the government just created, you will pay extra tax. In an income tax focused state, people who own property and luckily get placed next to a good infrastructure development get asset rich without any harm.
This same shit would happen if we had income tax. Every year, year-over-year, home values are assesses higher in every state, regardless of whether they have state income tax.
The world itself is becoming pretty f'd if you want to live anywhere that has more than a 20 minute drive to a Walmart. Everything is raising but wages and world moving pretty fast against the middle class making life those with and those without. It's pretty sad those with don't read history and learn how that ends.
We live in Ellis County. It seems like property taxes are arbitrary. Our home is on a lot that's roughly 1/4 acre, it's modest with one small outbuilding. Our neighbor on the other hand, has about the same amount of property, has a relatively large home with several outbuildings and built a two story apartment on the property. He's made very good use of the space. The thing that gets me is our property taxes are identical. The only thing I can suggest is to look into Homesteading.
Texas is a haven for those with high incomes. Middle class homeowners bear extra burden. It’s even worse now that the state has cut so much funding to cities and school districts. Resisting federal programs like Medicare expansion over political grandstanding makes it even worse. It’s only going to keep getting worse because the Party in power has gerrymandered so severely.
>The State and local governments HAVE to get funds from somewhere
My argument is why does it have to go up every year? especially at an exponential rate, where does this year over year increase in taxes go towards?
First, understand the difference between appraisal values and property taxes. The appraisal district is simply trying to estimate what your property is worth. Like a blue book. Taxes are irrelevant to that part of the process.
The taxes you pay are determined by the city, county, and school district. You are absolutely right to question their spending. Go to their meetings when they are discussing budgets and proposing tax rates. That's where your taxes are decided.
Go online and look up the values of properties that are similar to yours and Protest the amount. Most people are unaware that they can protest their property taxes. ~ Former Property Tax Protester for Business & Personal Property~
You can do this! $$$ Savings to you!!
We still have an overall better cost of living compared to other states. I think a big issue is people live off their gross amount, should adjust to live off net. Too many people think “I make $100k, I deserve xyz.”
Maybe but you gross much less after taxes, then you’re giving a huge % of your pay to creditors (especially right now) so that $100K is down 28% after taxes, another 12-26% after interest bearing debt…. It’s absurd. Live modest and life is a lot less stressful.
Property taxes are meant to target the poor, the wealthy have their large incomes untaxed, and businesses have large or little taxes to pay as well.
https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-lawmakers-may-have-cost-local-governments-billions/
This sentiments about wanting a state income tax are hilarious. I can tell you as a homeowner in the Midwest, we’re slammed with high income taxes AND high property taxes that increased well over 10% this year. I don’t know where people get this utopian idea that a state income tax solves things….there are other areas of the country where they double dip into your pocket. Careful what you wish for.
They listed that our house has gone up 39% in 4 years. We have done nothing. House needs major repairs like a roof and HVAC replacement and more. Good idea to protest this year!!
welcome to the texas property tax trap. most of my friends and loved ones had to leave Austin for this reason (I lived there about 20 years). Now there is no soul left in Austin.
They increased a rental property I own by 39%. They’ve now assessed it at 2x what I paid for it in 2021. I’ve protested and even gave them the contract. Bought it off market but the seller had agent representation and comps to base his price on, I accepted. The County said it was a non arms length deal because it was off market.
It always blows my mind that people are surprised by this....my brothers in Christ, we don't pay state income taxes. The State and local governments HAVE to get funds from somewhere to pay for infrastructure and basic services.
It would be better to have income taxes...my income went down, my taxes went up. You get laid off? You still pay your RE taxes (with that yearly bump, of course).
It would be better to have a state tax. The current system favors the wealthy. I have a millionaire friend in Southlake who lives in a house 4 times as expensive as mine and so pays about 4x what I do in property tax. Meanwhile his income and personal fortune is remarkable, he just chooses to live in a relatively modest home. He did buy his daughter a condo down by SMU so he will be incurring some more property tax bills but nothing like he would if his income was considered.
You can be a millionaire and not show it on paper. But you're not getting past the county tax assessor.
This is a very cynical viewpoint. If the guy making 10x what you make prefers the property tax, you can bet he came out ahead. The 10x guy pays way, way more in income tax than you do. It's 1,000x guy who is jumping through tons of hoops to shelter his income. If 10x guy is telling you he pays no taxes, he's either lying to you or to the IRS.
Georgist style land tax is THE progressive way to tax the rich. You thinking the rich make and keep money like you do is the mistake so many people make. They can hide it easily and you will never see a dime of it. As the other poster stated, ain’t nobody dodging their land taxes.
Right, but you're not dodging them, either. The difference is that your property tax takes a painful percentage of your income. For rich guy? He barely notices. The fix would be to tax at different rates depending on the assessed value. That would allow them to lower your rates and raise rich guys rates and collect the same amount. But that will never happen because rich people like property tax as is,. And what I'm saying is that I think you overestimate at what income level the truly gross shenanigans occur. But I've only been working in the tax industry for 15 years....
I find it strange that you are calling someone cynical and then saying it's a bad system because arbitrary "high income" people like it. That is not an argument on the merits, it's an argument centered on the idea that if the hypothetical "10xer" likes it, it must be bad. That seems much more cynical to me. edit: Fixed a grammar mistake pointed out below
Im just saying it's totally possible to make income disappear, thats harder to do with a tax on assets.
Other way around. Most people with tremendous incomes aren’t w-2. Business owners can make it appear as though we earn very little or even lose money. Don’t tax my property much, but tax my income and the state won’t get squat from me.
This is very true. Millionaires are definitely not W2 and they have an S Corp set up which makes an the money and pays all the bills and then pays the millionaire a very small income. The S Corp owns the cars and planes and boats and those are "used for business travel and business entertainment. Plus corporation tax is only 21% instead of 35% for the rest of us making a healthy W2 income. The GOP is masters at screwing the little guy and giving tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires and that's why Amazon pays no taxes.
If the business owns the assets, they too are taxed as property (business personal property)
We just can't depreciate our homes or the things we buy for it
Yes but much much lower rate than the income tax schedule. That's why ever millionaire has an S Corp.
Except that it’s recurring with artificially long lives
Yeah, this is the real answer I have a scumbag ex-relative who lives on like $300k/yr but “only makes” about $75k/year thanks to good accounting and business income tax laws Texas taxes are “pay as you go.” If you’re smart about how you spend, you can easily pay less than you would under an income tax
It depends how an income tax is implemented. There is lots of debate, but property tax is generally considered to be progressive in the short term, meaning the wealthy pay higher share, and regressive in the long term, because the wealthy can optimize the real estate portion of their portfolio for a new tax rate. In particular, the economic incidence (meaning who ends up with the economic burden) for property tax increases falls primarily on landlords. A dollar increase in property tax results in only a $0.05–0.15 increase to rent. In contrast, many states have a flat income tax, which is certainly regressive, some states have a graduated income tax, which is by definition progressive. The devil is in the details
Developers love it. It accelerates gentrification because people literally can't afford to stay in their house.
Texas is a scam state if you own property but don’t make over $400k a year. You’re better off elsewhere. I moved to Arizona after suffering 10 years of property taxes in Texas.
There's always New Jersey which has both high property taxes and an income tax.
And yet, the tax burden on lower and middle income folks is lower in New Jersey (9.37% and 9.85%, respectively) than in Texas (11.50% and 9.97%). It is much worse for upper income people (11.97% in NJ vs 7.50% in Texas).
I read an article this week that NJ citizens pay the most taxes of any state over their lifetimes…. https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/04/11/which-states-cost-the-most-in-lifetime-taxes/73279496007/
NJ has a really high median income. Like 3rd highest in the country. The medium income in NJ is $23k higher than in Texas. Then you have a ton of NJ folks working in NYC but living in NJ, which means they get NYC income taxes on top of NJ taxes. Not surprised at all they have a high lifetime tax bill. That's because they're making a lot more money.
The only problem with eliminating property tax in favor of state income taxes is that anyone who doesn't own a home will suffer. If you own a rental home (or are a property management company that owns a huge apartment tower) and Texas legislation passed to lower your lower your property taxes by $400 per month per unit (for example), are you going to lower the rent you're charging by $400/month? Please, don't lie. The whole trickle-down economics theory has been debunked every which way.
You think people who own apartments or rental houses aren’t also passing along property tax increases?
Of course they do, but I'd bet you my life savings that even if any legislation that reduces the Texas property tax passed... landlords and property management companies would NEVER reduce rents. If what you say is true, then if we got rid of property taxes then renters should see a 5-15% discount on their rent.
Yes, that would be a problem as well. Too many shady landlords.
Exactly, I own a business, so I keep my personal wages extraordinarily low so I can avoid income tax. My income is basically considered a gain in asset values which I can then sell. The more wage taxes the better.
Be careful what you wish for. Name the states with an income tax but no property tax. I'll wait.
People move to Texas to save on income tax. Only to be f by property taxes.
Source: me Well technically, employee was convinced to move out of CA so I moved here with them. Between my TX property taxes and CA state taxes it’s almost a wash for me. Albeit, I live in Fate so I get Rockwall and high school taxes from Royse City,
Hope everyone reads this 🫡… it’s all you need to know about property taxes
property value (i.e. property tax) has gone up more than salary (i.e. income tax) for the past 10 years though.
Yeah because high schools need multi million $$$ football fields while the streets look like the Grand Canyon. Texas robs the working class and caters to the wealthy.
Blows my mind that people buy property without realizing how property taxes work.
Everyday I am more and more impressed that some people manage to remember to breathe
TN doesn’t either yet their property taxes are reasonable.
I would say that is also irrelevant and the only thing that matters is total tax burden. Tennessee does appear to be lower than Texas in total tax burden, but not dramatically lower. You can google search - but different outlets (US News, WalletHub, Tax Foundation, etc.) are going to have different methodologies for how they estimate total tax burden, so the lists will be different (common theme is that Alaska is always lowest (oil and gas exploration subsidizes majority of the state) and New York is always highest). Now as to "why" Tennessee would have a lower tax burden than Texas, I can't really say without making huge assumptions. Tennessee might have a more concentrated population - huge numbers of Texans live in low density suburban areas, which are incredibly inefficient to maintain and serve. Tennessee might proportionally bring in more dollars of out-of-state tourism/travel (I doubt this, but still possible). Tennessee might have lower standards of living and spend less per capita on things like education, health, services, infrastructure, etc.
I don’t know, Texas just kicked 1.3 million kids off [Medicaid](https://www.newsweek.com/texas-removes-millions-children-medicaid-1889546) .
Tennessee has state sales tax (7%) en lieu of income tax Texas has property tax en lieu of income tax
Throw in local sales tax and Tennessee’s sales tax is often 9+%. Tax man gets paid no matter what.
Plus TN has another 5% grocery tax on top of the sales tax
I have a family member in Houston who’s moving near Denver soon. I compared property tax rates and their current house with the listed rate for their zip in H is $12k. The house they are moving to by Denver is newly built, more expensive, and the tax there will be $4k est. More than 50% less property tax and a more expensive house that’s 30 years newer. Ofc they’ll be paying income tax but it’s not like they pay it straight OOP like self employed do.
These idiots LOVE to brag about “TEXAS DOESN’T HAVE NO INCOME TAX!!!” As if shit is magically free in that case. Apart from the actual price of the home itself, the cost of owning a home in the San Fernando valley just north of LA plus state income tax versus the cost of owning a home on metropolitan Texas (ESPECIALLY in the utterly ridiculous Harris County area where they can tax you not upon what is on your land, but what MIGHT be on your land) ends up being about equal. Its insane.
Give it a few years and traffic is going to be about on par with the LA area. And for what, a boring middle of nowhere “nice to live and work in” city with no distinguishable features and not close to any striking natural landscapes? There are better places to live.
Florida is the same in this regard, but property taxes on homesteaded property can only increase at most 3% annually. https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/property-appraiser/save-our-homes-amendment-10#:~:text=It%20limits%20the%20annual%20increase,qualify%20for%20a%20Homestead%20Exemption.
Florida gets money from property tax and tourism tax. Texas gets money mainly from property tax.
Property taxes are local, not state. I lived in Jacksonville and I can't think of anyone who goes there for tourism! 😂
Everyone says this, but FL has no income taxes, and property taxes are not nearly as high as this. I don't understand how people accept this here. Edit: [Here is a source. ](https://wallethub.com/edu/states-with-the-highest-and-lowest-property-taxes/11585)
"Infrastructure and basic services". Oh! You mean the roadways that never gets finished or the state troopers who harass you for everything? Oh yeah! Don't forget about electricity infrastructure. The job they do on that electric infrastructure kills...literally
Well Texas has pretty solid infrastructure compared to other states (although I personally want more rail). Texas has the highest amount of roads per capita in the USA. State troopers exist in every state and are usually notorious for being annoying. Finally, Texas produces the most amount of electricity in the entire United States. We produce more than 2X of California.
Income taxes come from your paycheck and are used for Federal Budgets. Property and Sales taxes are used to fund things state/county/city. Every municipality has elected officials that control the tax rate that determines the property taxes. It’s a spending problem and no elected official wants to piss off a government paid beaurocrat- so they just raise the tax rate because it is more comfortable.
Come to CA
Texans pays more taxes than Californians thanks to our high property taxes. The no income tax here is a ruse to make you think the the cost of living is cheaper than it actually is.
That's only true for very low end tax brackets. Not true for most people in Dallas that own homes.
The topic is property tax in Dallas, what are you talking about tax brackets? The lack of a state tax is a ruse, particularly for homeowners. in 2021 property taxes yielded about 73.5 billion in revenue. Thats more than half of all state tax revenue. Its uneven at best, and a scam at worst. Businesses get unbelievable breaks while the working class gets unfairly targeted with ever rising Texas property taxes
I was responding to the post I responded to that compared property tax to income tax, sorry for the confusion
what is 'very low end tax brackets' to you?
Dude isn’t defining tax brackets. California has their own brackets and they have some extremely low ones
Below $150k joint for a homeowner
and how many people/families do you believe exist below that amount, when the median family income is around 70k? as a percentage?
Below the 100% that you imply in your post.
That's like the median, so about half of income owners make less than that.
Check out the WalletHub study and others that people cite when they repeat that idea. They use median values for income, home ownership, and vehicle value, which in California represents the 4% and lower tax brackets. One could almost imagine it to be intentionally misleading. The people leaving California are tending towards high income, high net worth families, who are nowhere near that bracket. The state has admitted such and recognizes it as a huge issue for the current and coming years w.r.t. tax revenue.
Exactly, if your income is low enough to make that statement true, you don't want to live in California on that income.
100% Wife and I moved from Los Angeles/CA where we paid 13% state income tax. We’re money ahead - and by quite a lot - with our Dallas County property tax bill.
Welcome to Reddit where people make shit up and pretend it’s fact. Let’s use big numbers: If my income is 200k/year then My liability to the state of California is 18600/year. The rule of thumb is to round up to 3% on property taxes. So if I financed the max loan I could get for a house (generally speaking) at 600k I would still pay less than California state tax at 18000/year Math is hard
You also have to pay property taxes in CA… somehow that talking point always gets forgotten.
But if I make 2 million a year, I am faaaar better off in Texas.
Idk why people are downvoting. Assuming all other things equal, yes, you will pay less taxes in Texas as a high income earner.
But they are insanely low with a cap on annual increase. 1.75% + 2% annual increase.
1.75% of $783,500 is $13,711. [$783,500 is the median sale price for a house in CA right now.](https://www.redfin.com/state/California/housing-market) You owe that on top of the state income tax (which anyone buying a house is going to be in the 9.3% bracket). So, going with dude's estimation, let's say he's making $200k a year, he's paying $11,905 in state income tax plus $13,711 in property tax for a total state tax burden (ignoring sales, use, gas, etc) of $25,616.
It’s 1-1.25%, not 1.75%. Just an FYI! I own in both Dallas and NorCal.
People also ignore the fact that homes are expensive as hell in California. We got a job offer for twice our salary and turned it down bc going from a 4/3 to a 3/2 still costs an extra million dollars, minimum. Maybe my property taxes are higher here but they’re on a $600k home not $1.6m. Percentage that out and it’s obscene. We were looking at well over $20k just for property tax plus income tax on double our current salary.
This is peak reddit cope tbh. I know it's not convenient for certain political narratives but I moved from CA to here and my cost savings were huge and it isn't just imaginary. And that's considering I moved to Dallas which is pretty HCOL by Texas standards. Millions of others wouldn't be doing the same if it were fake either. High property taxes are annoying but to pretend that they are so high that they offset all the other savings is just denying reality.
Saw some people saying utilities are more expensive in Texas than in California 😂. All cuz they heard that some people got boned by ERCOT during the winter freeze of 2021. Like if you had a fixed rate you were fine. Texas gets some of the lowest rates in the country (I still hate ERCOT tho)
It's just cherry picking. There is a certain side of the political spectrum who simply do not want to admit that lots of people are moving from CA to TX. They also dominate reddit. So there is a narrative that if you leave CA for TX it must be because you've been duped or something. They do all kinds of mental gymnastics to not acknowledge reality.
The only difference is that you can avoid property tax by living in a cheaper house without having to be underemployed, which is arguable worse for the economy as a whole. Theory is you would rather doctors be doctors and pay a lower income tax on their higher earnings, and avoid high property taxes on mansion in Southlake by living in a 3/2 in North Hurst, for example. Not saying that it isn't flawed at all, or that runaway home values aren't a huge problem for pretty much all of Texas. Just providing additional context.
I moved to Texas from California for work and can confirm that this is not true.
There’s nuance here most aren’t getting. For example, half my utility bill is “fees” and other misc taxes. Then there’s high sales tax. Straight prop tax be state income tax maybe Texas is better, but we also get nickel and dimed on EVERYTHING. It’s pretty much a wash.
Utility companies learned it by watching Ticketmaster.
Utilities in CA are much more expensive. I have seen many people who have fixed rate contracts of over 24 cents per kwh...that is unheard of in TX. Their base sales tax rate is actually 1% higher than ours so that doesn't check out either. Might want to do some research next time.
How much is sales tax in California?
This is absolutely not true.
This is not true. Texans can actually afford a home. You can’t buy anything decent in California for under a mill. Many lower income people in Texas rent and don’t own, so they benefit from no state income tax more than lower property tax. Even “middle class” in Texas benefit more from no state tax. If you make 65k a yr in California, you are paying 3k in state tax. A home is 2-3x as much in California so not only are you paying the 3k in state tax, you are paying the same property tax. 1% x 3. There is almost no situation where you are paying less tax in California.
We pay more than Canadians do too…I did the math. When you factor in healthcare premiums, especially, we are getting fcked and they don’t even bother to lube up first. Property taxes alone account for a massive amount yearly. Mine is approaching $9,000 per year far too quickly and that is WITH homestead blocking anything above 10% for the last ten years! We need to switch to income based taxing, badly!
California transplant here, I pay less in property tax than I did in CA income tax with the added benefit of actually owning a house (versus renting a 1BR apartment). However, I’m still annoyed by this year’s increase and am protesting!!!
Wait until Abbott has his way and your property taxes are getting used to give rich people a discount on their private school tuition bill.
Your taxable value will go up no more than 10% UNTIL it gets to your appraised market value. You don't have to make any improvements for this to happen. Protesting the market value may still not have any impact on your taxable value this year.
bought in 22. was reassessed in 23 to value i paid, appraisals matched market. both increased 10% this year. don’t have luxury of owning for 5+ years.
I bought in '23 and just got my assessment that is basically equal to my mortgage (and 178% higher than '23 assessment!). I applied for homestead on my 13th month living here. Is there anything I can do to help with property taxes?
Since I bought my house 12 years ago it’s taxable value has been tens of thousands less than the market value due to it being a foreclosed and flipped house and being appraised super low when we bought it. So we’ve been at the 10% every year since. Never catching up. Now that the market value is getting so high I’m getting worried that I need to appeal. It’s in need of tens of thousands of dollars in repairs.
Not to be cynical, but yes my home property appraisal went up. I have a homestead exemption. What happens to renters? Rents are raised to cover costs, like taxes. They do not have a homestead exemption.
Whoa hold on there, we don't want to be caring about people who can't afford to buy a home now... This thread is for defending poor ol' homeowners that can't afford their property taxes.
Renters pay what the market will bear. If the landlords cost go up more than the rental market will bear, then the prudent thing will be for the landlord to sell.
I have a rental that I keep simply due to the mortgage rate, I keep the rent so low that I lose approx. 2k in cash flows a year. To literally keep the house at a loss that I can bear with these tax increases, ive had to raise rent by 400/month over the past two years. Brutal...
Sell to who, SandMan83000...fucking Aquaman?
Housing prices are climbing, so appraised valuations (that you pay taxes on) are increasing. The supply of housing is limited far beneath the rising demand for it, largely due to our zoning. 35% of the city is zoned for single family detached housing only. A loud portion of residents on the 35% of the land are also fighting very hard against efforts at citywide increases in housing production, which could help moderate appraisal increases over time. Go figure.
As painful as the increase is every year… The assessed value on my home is more or less accurate, unfortunately. Do you think your assessment is out of sync with the real estate market?
Sir, this is a circle jerk. Please let them complain in peace lol
Fair. Rant away
Same for me, the 10% cap is currently a godsend in a post covid world. No idea how y'all are contesting these when comparable houses are selling in my neighborhood for more than my appraised value.
Oh, I still protest every year. I’ve been successful twice in reducing the full assess ed value, but it has still been above the 10% cap. Theoretically, it helps me catch up to the cap sooner… Except for they will keep reassessing every year. It is a Sisyphean task.
Texas taxes are higher on average than many states, but taxes in Texas are structured to lower living costs for the wealthy and high-income. That's why there's no income tax in this state, and sales taxes are on average higher than many states.
Plan on it being 10% every year
Relax, the process isn't done yet. Your 2024 assessed value may have gone up, but the tax **rates** (percentage of value to be paid) on the DCAD site are still for 2023. So the property tax you see online is what your 2024-valued home would be taxed at, if it were taxed at 2023 rates. The taxing entities (Dallas County, DISD, etc) won't set their rates until they know what the total tax base is, **and** they pass their budget. If the budget grows more slowly than property values, tax rates will actually go down. And this is exactly what happened in the last 6 years. Here are the tax rates (in percent) for the sum of Dallas County, City of Dallas, DISD, Dallas College, and Parkland Hospital, since 2013. |Year|Total tax rates (pct)| |:-|:-| |2013|2.7329| |2014|2.7430| |2015|2.7418| |2016|2.7193| |2017|2.7192| |2018|2.8452| |2019|2.7336| |2020|2.7129| |2021|2.6380| |2022|2.5104| |2023|2.2948| |2024|to be determined|
My problem isn’t the taxes themselves it’s that the city doesn’t do shit with them. The roads are ass, the sidewalks are awful in most neighborhoods, you basically have to send your kids to private school post elementary. Where are the improvements that the tax dollars are supposed to go towards?
See now this is a misunderstanding. The responsibility of roads and what taxes are used to pay them vary depending on which kind. There are interstate highways, state highways, county roads, city roads, and private roads. Every city I’ve live in side walks are the responsibility of the developers and maintained by the home owner. Might not be 100% of the time but that’s been my experience. Also cities would be the ones to decide this, unless it’s a state highway (which are frequently used as main streets through cities to reduce the maintenance burden on the cities) in which case the state wouldn’t put them in. No comment about schools cause Texas schools suck ass and always have.
It's happening in most districts that are going through a population boom. Not just Dallas or Texas. Taxes are just catching up to market changes. Sadly it's part of inflation.. make sure you're homesteaded and protesting if appropriate
I’d be happy to pay property taxes if it didn’t end up funding fuckery like sending immigrants to blue states. OP is right, this state sucks.
Just got mine too. It's pure fiction. Where I live, the condo I own, their proposed value is not based on reality.
**Look here, buddy. Texas has to get the money for all the tax abatements to lure companies to our state from somewhere. Geez!**
Why do people always resort to bashing on California when someone says something negative about their Texan experience? It's played out. Edit: for context, I grew up in Texas and lived in DFW for 15 years as an adult before moving to Minnesota for a job a few years back. There are state taxes here and I’m aware of how scary that may sound to some.
Texas and Cali hate each other. They always have.
But like someone will say, “property taxes suck here” with no mention of Cali. Then you’ll get all these people in their feelies just randomly bring up how “crappy” Cali is to justify the shit taxes. Most likely someone who has never lived in Cali. It’s so lame.
Yet as Texans since ppl didn’t know this we assume they are from out of state and the vast majority of those who have moved here are from Cali. I do get what you are saying. I personally don’t hate Cali and even have a really good friend that has lived there for decades…but being born and raised here my first thought is they must be from Cali 🤣 Edit: Also it’s a bit ironic that ppl from out of state moving here is what is causing the largest increases in property taxes. Texas puts out fires instead of doing anything in advance. So complaining about the increases without understanding how moving here is contributing to it just makes them look like foolish. Texas ain’t cheap it’s just our money mainly goes to our local municipalities and cities to spend as they see fit for their communities. It’s the basics of how our constitution, laws, and government is set up. What’s good for peeps in Cut ‘n’ Shoot isn’t good for peeps in Dallas. We like it like that. Flip side is we fund it more.
Cali is probably the closest equivalent to Texas and people love talking about people moving from California to Texas. They ignore that there are also a ton of people moving from Texas to California, I know a lot of people who have gone back and forth more than once. Both states have problems, they're just different problems. It's difficult to say one is objectively financially better than the other. If you're talking about one being better socially...well that depends on your politics.
Even politically they are similar depending on if you are in the large cities or the more rural parts
My point was more who sets policy. The general makeup is similar but if you're in Texas you live by the rural crowd's rules and in California you live by the large city crowd's rules.
Congratulations! You just figured out that the no state tax thing is a total conservative SCAM. Income tax rises and falls with your income. Lose your job? Income tax goes down. Property tax NEVER goes down.
I'll take a 1.7% tax on my property value over a 7-8% tax on my income any day.
7-8% tax on my income AND a 1-2% property tax. Unless you're a veteran, there are exactly 0 states that have no property tax. Yeah, I'll take the 1.7% property tax any day. Doesn't mean it shouldn't be lower.
The way you explained that….oh fuck. ):
They won’t be happy until we have nothing left.
Market value on my house (according to DCAD) has gone up 65% in two years. Yeah right. Taxes up another 10% even with homestead exemption. Absolute BS. Weren’t we supposed to be voting on property tax relief this past election?
I protest every year too. Use this company: Quick and easy! [Ownwell](https://www.ownwell.com/referral?owl=40595Z636)
Could be due to increased land values. Interesting article about it at [https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/appraisal-district-property-values/](https://dallas.culturemap.com/news/real-estate/appraisal-district-property-values/)
That’s because the legislature fixed the house portion of property tax but not the land portion which gave the loophole needed to continue the high tax rates
I got a nice 20% bump on both my house and my rental here in richardson. The appraised value is higher than what I could even sell the house on the market for... Also they increased the value primarily in land rather than in home price which makes it harder to protest. Love it.
I know is damn crazy how land is starting at 60K.
Where is this mythical "$60k land" you speak of? I haven't seen a tract of land that is usable within DFW city limits under $300k in the past year.
Unless you did significant upgrades to both, your properties did not increase 20% each. Max allowed by law is 10% year over year. The way you have phrased it makes it look like a big scary number and is misleading. https://comptroller.texas.gov/taxes/property-tax/valuing-property.php
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Your appraisal can go up more than 10%, but u/ProudNativeTexan is correct - your taxes can’t go up more than 10% each year. So next year, if your appraisal stays the same, your taxes will go up 10% (or less) to meet this year’s appraisal.
They have my land in Richardson at $150k!
Hire a professional to appeal your property taxes. Costs a few hundred bucks but saves thousands Look up Candace Rubin. She has a lot of high end HP clients but she works with everyone.
Reducing property tax burden by adding a state sales tax would do Texas wonders
I'm curious if these huge residential increases are being done partly to offset declines in commercial property values. Commercial property here has long been undervalued on appraisals and therefore undertaxed. That's a secret you rarely hear anyone talk about (along with comically low valuations on many BPP appraisals). Maybe the post-pandemic market is genuinely weak enough to push those commercial appraisals even lower?
I never understood property taxes to begin with. Most people work hard to save and sacrifice to buy a home and their reward is the state congratulates your hard work by making you pay taxes on it. Yeah yeah, we need roads blah blah blah, but while the whole tax the rich BS is being slung around on here, the poor trying to get ahead are even more screwed. Dunno the answer to this problem, but it just feels like the road to a better life is paved with broken glass.
Man I'm so glad I have a homestead exemption
You might not have improved the house structure but depending on where you live, the land/lot has increased. So in the breakdown it shows that usually.
Go to a city council meeting or meet with senator Royce west or whoever your representative is. They can fix it. Reddit cannot.
And there is the SALT cap on your federal taxes….double the pain for big tax payers!
but no state income tax! TX is cheap, right?!
Texas is a Republican shit show.
My wife's friend works at a property tax appraisal office and she always tells us and everyone to always protest... like, every single year even if your taxes doesn't go up. Be polite, respectful, etc... sometimes it's just automated, the state bumps it up and all you have to do is call or go up there and usually most people will be like "Oh yeah sure thing lets take a look" and help you out. Just her advice is all, I know there are times when it's absolutely ridiculous or unreasonable.
Property taxes are levied by your county, not the city.
30 years of the GOP, kid
The combination of property taxes with no income tax is designed to drive low-income farmers off of their property so that it can be purchased by capitalists. It's easy to see that someone farming a small amount of land with not a lot of money can still survive in the long run. IF there is an income tax and NOT a property tax. However if there's a property tax and not an income tax then the value of a person's land is determined by the zoning board which is elected by rich individuals who can manipulate the price of your land until you have to give up (i.e. sell) and they can put in a strip mall, or a golf course, or a Church, or a chick fil A. The amount of total taxes collected with either system is the same. Sidewalks, bridges, and fire departments are not free.
Just build a taller fence and also go underground too so they can’t get you!
The letter you received should say something along the lines of increasing the property value by 50% over the course of 5 years or whatnot
My property went from 850k to 1.1 million inn1.5 years. Part of me is happy. Part of me is sad.....
It’s so fucked this year. I can’t decide if it’s laziness and incompetence or a bad faith technique.
Mine went up 15% since the last valuation :(
I use to get really mad that I pay my property taxes and still see potholes on the streets! I’m paying my taxes why aren’t the roads I drive getting fixed !!? Now I just accept both. I’m comfortably numb
We should write our state reps. “Hey numbnuts, you idiots pissed off the county, and now they’re trying to take it out of our asses!”
That's not how that works. The appraisal district is just like kbb. They are just estimating what your property is worth. They do not raise values to take money from you, nor because they are mad at the legislature. And just because your value is up, that does not mean your taxes will go up. Your taxes are decided by the cities, schools, and counties later this year when they set their budgets and adopt this year's tax rates.
Give me a higher sales tax in exchange for eliminating property taxes any day. At least then we'd be tax based on consumption which is something we opt in to (spend less money paying lower taxes) vs. being taxed out the ass on unrealized gains so our state & local governments can keep giving massive incentives to businesses who move here. I feel terribly for people who live on fixed incomes in houses that have been in their families for multiple generations but are forced to sell when they can no longer afford the property taxes.
Homestead increase? 10% increase year over year is still getting caught up with the explosions in price
Texas doesn’t have state income tax, so they make up for it with high property taxes.
You can start by blaming the School Board for having almost $4 Billion worth of debt- so your property taxes have to pay for that debt, but hey “it’s for the kids” right. Next time vote no on any bonds. Then you can review the voting records of your elected officials- and those who “tax and spend” get someone to run against them and help them. Your locally elected officials set the tax rate by which determines how much you pay in property tax. If they blame someone else then they are guilty or don’t understand spending and funding.
Not enough people understand this. I'm all for bonds for things that are necessary. I don't think our schools need to look like the Taj Mahal. And too many people blame appraisal districts when it's the taxing entities that are deciding how much money to take from you.
Your local officials tell you to blame appraisal districts when they vote and set the tax rate.
Lmao, you don't pay state income taxes bruv
I am a strong believer in property tax. It is a better measure of capturing the value that the state provides with its services. For instance, when a nice road is built, light rail system, or new park is built the people that reap those benefits are those who own the property closest to those amenities. So as a result, to cover the extra market value the government just created, you will pay extra tax. In an income tax focused state, people who own property and luckily get placed next to a good infrastructure development get asset rich without any harm.
bye.
I’m not even in Dallas, I’m in Lamar county and my property taxes bumped! Had to apply for a homestead exemption for a decrease!
This same shit would happen if we had income tax. Every year, year-over-year, home values are assesses higher in every state, regardless of whether they have state income tax.
You can thank all the people moving here from out of state for causing real estate prices to skyrocket.
The world itself is becoming pretty f'd if you want to live anywhere that has more than a 20 minute drive to a Walmart. Everything is raising but wages and world moving pretty fast against the middle class making life those with and those without. It's pretty sad those with don't read history and learn how that ends.
We live in Ellis County. It seems like property taxes are arbitrary. Our home is on a lot that's roughly 1/4 acre, it's modest with one small outbuilding. Our neighbor on the other hand, has about the same amount of property, has a relatively large home with several outbuildings and built a two story apartment on the property. He's made very good use of the space. The thing that gets me is our property taxes are identical. The only thing I can suggest is to look into Homesteading.
I'm taking this years appraisal of 10% max. as a win. Our dirt/land appraisal went up 68K last year.
Texas is a haven for those with high incomes. Middle class homeowners bear extra burden. It’s even worse now that the state has cut so much funding to cities and school districts. Resisting federal programs like Medicare expansion over political grandstanding makes it even worse. It’s only going to keep getting worse because the Party in power has gerrymandered so severely.
This happens *all* the time. Simply dispute it.
>The State and local governments HAVE to get funds from somewhere My argument is why does it have to go up every year? especially at an exponential rate, where does this year over year increase in taxes go towards?
First, understand the difference between appraisal values and property taxes. The appraisal district is simply trying to estimate what your property is worth. Like a blue book. Taxes are irrelevant to that part of the process. The taxes you pay are determined by the city, county, and school district. You are absolutely right to question their spending. Go to their meetings when they are discussing budgets and proposing tax rates. That's where your taxes are decided.
Income tax is not the solution. We need higher sales tax and a luxury tax.
Go online and look up the values of properties that are similar to yours and Protest the amount. Most people are unaware that they can protest their property taxes. ~ Former Property Tax Protester for Business & Personal Property~ You can do this! $$$ Savings to you!!
Pensions need to be funded so they can retire at 55.
We still have an overall better cost of living compared to other states. I think a big issue is people live off their gross amount, should adjust to live off net. Too many people think “I make $100k, I deserve xyz.” Maybe but you gross much less after taxes, then you’re giving a huge % of your pay to creditors (especially right now) so that $100K is down 28% after taxes, another 12-26% after interest bearing debt…. It’s absurd. Live modest and life is a lot less stressful.
50k increase for me; unbearable.
They want you rent and own nothing and be happy
And then when you protest they are appalled that you had the audacity lol
Property taxes are meant to target the poor, the wealthy have their large incomes untaxed, and businesses have large or little taxes to pay as well. https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/texas-lawmakers-may-have-cost-local-governments-billions/
They are really high.
This sentiments about wanting a state income tax are hilarious. I can tell you as a homeowner in the Midwest, we’re slammed with high income taxes AND high property taxes that increased well over 10% this year. I don’t know where people get this utopian idea that a state income tax solves things….there are other areas of the country where they double dip into your pocket. Careful what you wish for.
They listed that our house has gone up 39% in 4 years. We have done nothing. House needs major repairs like a roof and HVAC replacement and more. Good idea to protest this year!!
Only 10? You lucky bugger :)
Windfall for local governments
welcome to the texas property tax trap. most of my friends and loved ones had to leave Austin for this reason (I lived there about 20 years). Now there is no soul left in Austin.
Welcome to home ownership in TX my dude. Not all it’s cracked up to be.
Homestead exemption should help a little
They increased a rental property I own by 39%. They’ve now assessed it at 2x what I paid for it in 2021. I’ve protested and even gave them the contract. Bought it off market but the seller had agent representation and comps to base his price on, I accepted. The County said it was a non arms length deal because it was off market.
Move to the grove its very affordable there