Community Chat

[WenGirl42]

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@winamac1wrote:

My accountant said nothing about a 10 K figure cut off.  My property taxes are not 10 K.

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That's why people were pre-paying...because the new tax law limits what you can claim as a federal deduction for your combined total state and local taxes (including but not limited to property, income, and sales taxes) to $10k.

It wasn't until 12/27/17 that the IRS clarified that you wouldn't be able to claim pre-paid 2018 property taxes as a deduction to your 2017 taxes unless they had been assessed in 2017, so that may be why your accountant didn't mention it.  Or it might be that his or her advice to estimate and pre-pay your 2018 property taxes in 2017 was not based on the new $10k limit in 2018.

[sunshine45]

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@cbritewrote:

I'll list a few of those..

clean river, beaches tax

county mosquito and disease asessment

storm water enterprise tax

library facility 

high schools

elementary schools

college bonds

1. Basic Property Taxes

2. Other Charges 

It says:: First Installment paid Dec. 1.

Second Installment due before April 10.

That is only 4 months in between....

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it has been like that for YEARS now. if you want to pay your california property taxes in two installments, one is due in december, the other is due in april. that is how my s/o pays them.

[Lynnster67]

I prepaid the 4th qtr installment for my state income taxes and my mortgage company paid the 2nd installment of my FY18 propery taxes in Dec.

However, in MD, FY19 property taxes will not be levied until July 1st 2018.  Even though I know what my assessed value is (we're reassessed triennially), the tax rate millage won't be set until sometime in the spring.  So you can't deduct prepaid property taxes for FY19 b/c they haven't been offically levied.

My bigger concern is that in MD you can only itemize for state if you've itemized for fed'l.  Std deduction for singletons is only $2K and my property taxes alone exceed that.  So the legislature either needs to decouple from fed'l law or seriously increase the std deduction (which has't changed in decades and isn't indexed for inflation).

[winamac1]

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@WenGirl42wrote:

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@winamac1wrote:

My accountant said nothing about a 10 K figure cut off.  My property taxes are not 10 K.

---

That's why people were pre-paying...because the new tax law limits what you can claim as a federal deduction for your combined total state and local taxes (including but not limited to property, income, and sales taxes) to $10k.

It wasn't until 12/27/17 that the IRS clarified that you wouldn't be able to claim pre-paid 2018 property taxes as a deduction to your 2017 taxes unless they had been assessed in 2017, so that may be why your accountant didn't mention it.  Or it might be that his or her advice to estimate and pre-pay your 2018 property taxes in 2017 was not based on the new $10k limit in 2018.

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@WenGirl42. Thanks for the information.  I am super confused on this as my property taxes are nowhere near 10K.  I also did not get a bill in 2017 for property taxes.  He's a CPA, etc. and when I questioned him late last year he said to just do it.   

I don't know why he encouraged me to go ahead and prepay.  He certainly does know the laws.

It's not a big deal anyway as I love paying my bills early--I always pay my property taxes for the whole year in May--I just paid in late Dec. to get rid of that bill.

Thanks

[WenGirl42]

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@winamac1wrote:

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@WenGirl42wrote:

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@winamac1wrote:

My accountant said nothing about a 10 K figure cut off.  My property taxes are not 10 K.

---

That's why people were pre-paying...because the new tax law limits what you can claim as a federal deduction for your combined total state and local taxes (including but not limited to property, income, and sales taxes) to $10k.

It wasn't until 12/27/17 that the IRS clarified that you wouldn't be able to claim pre-paid 2018 property taxes as a deduction to your 2017 taxes unless they had been assessed in 2017, so that may be why your accountant didn't mention it.  Or it might be that his or her advice to estimate and pre-pay your 2018 property taxes in 2017 was not based on the new $10k limit in 2018.

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@WenGirl42. Thanks for the information.  I am super confused on this as my property taxes are nowhere near 10K.  I also did not get a bill in 2017 for property taxes.  He's a CPA, etc. and when I questioned him late last year he said to just do it.   

I don't know why he encouraged me to go ahead and prepay.  He certainly does know the laws.

It's not a big deal anyway as I love paying my bills early--I always pay my property taxes for the whole year in May--I just paid in late Dec. to get rid of that bill.

Thanks

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Either way, sounds like it was good advice for you and is one less thing to worry about later   My property taxes aren't anywhere close to $10k either, but adding my state & local income tax gets me a lot closer.  I should still come in under the cap though, if it still makes sense for me to itemize. 

[winamac1]

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@WenGirl42wrote:

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@winamac1wrote:

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@WenGirl42wrote:

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@winamac1wrote:

My accountant said nothing about a 10 K figure cut off.  My property taxes are not 10 K.

---

That's why people were pre-paying...because the new tax law limits what you can claim as a federal deduction for your combined total state and local taxes (including but not limited to property, income, and sales taxes) to $10k.

It wasn't until 12/27/17 that the IRS clarified that you wouldn't be able to claim pre-paid 2018 property taxes as a deduction to your 2017 taxes unless they had been assessed in 2017, so that may be why your accountant didn't mention it.  Or it might be that his or her advice to estimate and pre-pay your 2018 property taxes in 2017 was not based on the new $10k limit in 2018.

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@WenGirl42. Thanks for the information.  I am super confused on this as my property taxes are nowhere near 10K.  I also did not get a bill in 2017 for property taxes.  He's a CPA, etc. and when I questioned him late last year he said to just do it.   

I don't know why he encouraged me to go ahead and prepay.  He certainly does know the laws.

It's not a big deal anyway as I love paying my bills early--I always pay my property taxes for the whole year in May--I just paid in late Dec. to get rid of that bill.

Thanks

---

Either way, sounds like it was good advice for you and is one less thing to worry about later   My property taxes aren't anywhere close to $10k either, but adding my state & local income tax gets me a lot closer.  I should still come in under the cap though, if it still makes sense for me to itemize. 

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@WenGirl42

I'm wondering if it differs by State.  I'm in IN.  I know my "guy" knows the laws.  He's told me that all he's done for the past 6 months is study the tax changes.  

It is super confusing though.  Either way, it's a win for me as I like paying my bills early!

Thank you, though, for your attempt at clarification.