As promised, here is my tax info from tax year 2008 to tax year 2009. In tax year 2009 we made $1,113 more as a couple and paid $1,967 more to the feds and $303 more to the state of Oregon. Bottom line: $1,113 more income, $2,270 more in taxes. All else (write-offs...) stayed the same for us. What a great country we live in. I dunno, maybe I got thrown into another tax bracket.
Damn . . . that is a lot of Blazer tickets. I will be writing my check to the gov't in April 2010. I'm in denial and don't even want to know the figure until then.
Did you take into account potential differences such as reduced interest payments on your mortgage(s)? There might be other things like this that aren't identical to last year.
That's a good point. There was about a $400 difference there. But our property taxes went up $200 (as the property value fell- go figure). GIVE ME A FLAT TAX!!!
If you live in Oregon the reason Prop taxes go up even when value goes down is because the prop tax increase % is capped each year. So likely the value of your home increased a lot faster than the % cap allowed in years passed...it would probably continue to increase for years even if the value stayed the same. You can look and your assessed value is probably still way below the basis for the tax calculation. This idiotic Oregon property tax system is why our state income tax is high...how can you fund services like schools on a budget that fluctuates wildly on the basis of how the economy is performing in the short term...(and don't reply with having the gov't "save" in the good years...everyone knows that's nver going to happen).
The reason property tax and income tax is so high in Oregon is because we don't have a sales tax. Most states rely on sales tax, property tax and income tax. Oregon is missing one of those prongs, so they have high property and income tax to try and make up for it.
here in nh there is no sales tax OR income tax, not sure if property taxes are high here, i paid $3100 for a $225000 house before i sold it.
Maybe I'm thinking of RI, but aren't there TONS of businesses "headquarters" there for just this reason? Thus giving a little bit of taxes from each.
Property Taxes in Oregon aren't high. They are right around average to below average depending on how you are comparing it. 22nd out of 50 when you look at the tax per $1000 of value...http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=3&contentID=76984&subContentID=105281 30th out of 50 when done per capita (less accurate in my opinion because it skews depending on if the state has a lot of valuable property)...http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/251.html So your 3 prong theory is not supported by the facts as I can find them. As you can see when you research taxes in Oregon, the state/local tax burden is below average... http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/topic/52.html
Property taxes in NH are 4th highest in the country per capita...http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/251.html Or about 8th on tax per $1000 of value...http://www.nahb.org/fileUpload_details.aspx?contentTypeID=3&contentID=76984&subContentID=105281
The 2 taxes are not connected in any way nor does one influence the other's rate. Besides, as you point out, even a Utopian system that somehow magically provided more funds by taxing people less would not change anything because government will always spend every cent you give them and still max out their Capital One cards too.
