The fraud that is property tax

[mystery-ak]

The fraud that is property tax

This form of government has become destructive to my right to life, liberty, and property, so I’d like to dissolve these political bonds now.

Olivia Murray | July 27, 2026

I have a lot of issues with property tax—so many that one essay in a weekly newsletter does not provide ample space to flesh them all out—so I’m just going to focus on one, and that’s how the system flourishes through intentional fraud.

A few months back, I received a little postcard from my local city government telling me that my tax rate was going up because they’d now be using an appraised value of $346,000 to determine my assessed value. The notice also included a way to protest this amount if I, as the homeowner, felt it to be inaccurate, which I certainly knew it to be.

So, I called the number, and the man on the phone offered me a way to “knock it all the way down” to a lower number. I quickly did the math, and it amounted to about a $15 difference annually, so I politely declined. He then noted that I could appear before the board and make my case, and I opted for that route.

A few weeks later, I received a notice in the mail that my appointment with the board had been scheduled for—the following day. Now, thank goodness that piece of mail wasn’t delayed and that I actually was in town to make the meeting. (Seems intentional, doesn’t it?)

Anyway, I quickly got all my facts together.

We all know the basics of appraisals: Your home’s value depends on its size, its condition, how many bedrooms and bathrooms it has, its location, etc.

more
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/07/the-fraud-that-is-property-tax/

[DefiantMassRINO]

The appraisers base the $/sq ft/acre by recent home sales.

The residential property tax is a unrealized capital gains tax, irresepective of income.

I could not afford to buy my home at recent real estate values. But, I am taxed as if I earn enough to pay for something I could not truly afford.

The nominal Mass State Income Tax rate is about 5%.  The sales tax and meals tax is 6.125%.  My local property tax is 8% - 10% of my annual gross income ... before payroll deductions.

[mountaineer]

I know that there must be some funding mechanism if we're going to expect our counties to provide services like schools, libraries, fire/police/ems, road repairs, parks, and the like, but I sure don't know what it is. I know we're darn tired of paying taxes on real estate we've owned mortgage-free for the past 17 years, and vehicles on which we paid tax when we registered them (including a 102-year-old car that is driven on public roadways fewer than 10 miles a week, and only in good weather, at that).

[Bigun]

I know that there must be some funding mechanism if we're going to expect our counties to provide services like schools, libraries, fire/police/ems, road repairs, parks, and the like, but I sure don't know what it is. I know we're darn tired of paying taxes on real estate we've owned mortgage-free for the past 17 years, and vehicles on which we paid tax when we registered them (including a 102-year-old car that is driven on public roadways fewer than 10 miles a week, and only in good weather, at that).

Point of retail sale only sales tax.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

The best thing government here has done in awhile is to shield property tax inflation for retirees.

These are the people who are likely to stay put and are not earning any additional income.

[Bigun]

Government is killing the goose that lays the golden eggs (the private sector)!







No telling what it is today after Obamacare!

[Free Vulcan]

What concerns me most is that in a severe downturn people in property tax states won't be able to pay them, so they are confiscated and sold for a song, enabling the FedGov to come in with worthless Fed bucks and snap them up.

And viola, collectivist ownership.

[andy58-in-nh]

Point of retail sale only sales tax.

Something like that, yes.

Consumption taxes are the only truly fair way to raise revenue for government expenditures.

Income taxes hinder investment, productivity and job creation, while disincentivizing labor.

Corporate taxes are a ruse, as companies only collect such taxes in the form of higher prices for goods and services for customers, lower wages for employees, lower compensation for vendors and business partners, and in the case of publicly-traded corporations: lower stock prices, dividends and bond yields. (Good luck explaining that to a socialist).

Property taxes hurt home values, hinder real estate transactions, and punish owners, especially those living on fixed incomes. 

[DefiantMassRINO]

That's not fair to young working families.

Older persons require more emergency services for medical issues.

This is intergenerational economic descrimination/warfare that is fueling the rise of DSA among young people.

The best thing government here has done in awhile is to shield property tax inflation for retirees.

These are the people who are likely to stay put and are not earning any additional income.

[mountaineer]

I agree that sales/consumption tax makes more sense than property tax, @Bigun @andy58-in-nh

[Bigun]

Something like that, yes.

Consumption taxes are the only truly fair way to raise revenue for government expenditures.

Income taxes hinder investment, productivity and job creation, while disincentivizing labor.

Corporate taxes are a ruse, as companies only collect such taxes in the form of higher prices for goods and services for customers, lower wages for employees, lower compensation for vendors and business partners, and in the case of publicly-traded corporations: lower stock prices, dividends and bond yields. (Good luck explaining that to a socialist).

Property taxes hurt home values, hinder real estate transactions, and punish owners, especially those living on fixed incomes.

 

[IsailedawayfromFR]

That's not fair to young working families.

Older persons require more emergency services for medical issues.

This is intergenerational economic descrimination/warfare that is fueling the rise of DSA among young people.

We older people were young once and had to shoulder the same issue of property taxes the same way.

Did you read my remark?

Younger people can carry inflation by nature of having a job and can work extra jobs if need be.  Older people generally cannot.

Younger people move more frequently so the cost basis moves upward for them,  but not for older people who stay put.

Property taxes tend to go toward schools, so why should older people have to contribute to that?  BTW, that is the main reason why property taxes are frozen for the elderly.

Why mix up health issues here as we are discussing property taxes, right?

Seems you want to bring up the whole shenanigans of older people not being as productive and dependent, so they deserve higher health premiums, weaker soclial security and medicare, eh?  If that is your premise, why not just go for assisted suicide and be done with them?

If you want to attack a group of people, don't go after those who were productive but due to age no longer can be.

Go after those who are unproductive in spite of being younger, such as a lot of those on disability who refuse to get a job and live off taxpayer tit.
@DefiantMassRINO

[DefiantMassRINO]

Older persons can get reverse-mortgages on their homes to tap into the unrealized capital gains on their homes to pay the same property taxes for the same availability of services as everyone else.

If they do not have home equity with which to pay local property taxes, they should sell the property and move an affordable appartment, if one exists.

Young working families have to move when they can no longer afford property taxes on their homes. 

Why should young working families be the victims of reverse age discrimination at the hands of a protected class determined by age?  That's reverse age-discrimination ... affirmative action for older persons.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

My mortgage when from $2000 to $2400 in a month, because of reappraisal. If we hadn't successfully fought a budget, I assume it would be higher.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

That's not fair to young working families.

Older persons require more emergency services for medical issues.

This is intergenerational economic descrimination/warfare that is fueling the rise of DSA among young people.

Agree 100% however, i don't just support lowering (or getting rid of) property taxes for only young people, but for all people.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

Point of retail sale only sales tax.

And homes would be included at that at the point of sale only imo.

[Fishrrman]

mountaineer muses:
"I know that there must be some funding mechanism if we're going to expect our counties to provide services like schools, libraries, fire/police/ems, road repairs, parks, and the like, but I sure don't know what it is."

The simplest -- and probably fairest -- way to do this is with some kind of "value-added tax" imposed on all purchases (or nearly all, with some important exceptions).

But... at what rate?
And who is going to have the political will with which to implement it?

(I see others already posted as much... but posting anyway)

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Older persons can get reverse-mortgages on their homes to tap into the unrealized capital gains on their homes to pay the same property taxes for the same availability of services as everyone else.

If they do not have home equity with which to pay local property taxes, they should sell the property and move an affordable appartment, if one exists.

Young working families have to move when they can no longer afford property taxes on their homes. 

Why should young working families be the victims of reverse age discrimination at the hands of a protected class determined by age?  That's reverse age-discrimination ... affirmative action for older persons.

So you want the money saved up by the generation who worked over their lives to be taken by banks as well as by the government?

A wonderful solution, that is.

And you must have missed where I stated unequivocally that most property taxes benefit schools, so your statement older people should payup has they get the same services as younger people is incorrect.  How many retirees do you know that have K-12 in their households?

[libertybele]

If socialism takes place, this will become a moot issue as nobody is going to own homes or property.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

So you want the money saved up by the generation who worked over their lives to be taken by banks as well as by the government?

A wonderful solution, that is.

And you must have missed where I stated unequivocally that most property taxes benefit schools, so your statement older people should payup has they get the same services as younger people is incorrect.  How many retirees do you know that have K-12 in their households?

Sounds like he just wants younger people to have the same rights as retirees?

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Sounds like he just wants younger people to have the same rights as retirees?

No, he wants older people to pay taxes on things they do not use or need like schools.

Socialism.

And it really pains me when people are attacked who were productive during their lives rather than going after those freeloading off us taxpayers.

[Bigun]

And homes would be included at that at the point of sale only imo.

Yes! A new home would be taxed at retail sale but not one screw or nail used in it's construction would be taxed. Nor would the labor involved be taxed until the home is sold  at retail.

[Smokin Joe]

The appraisers base the $/sq ft/acre by recent home sales.

The residential property tax is a unrealized capital gains tax, irresepective of income.

I could not afford to buy my home at recent real estate values. But, I am taxed as if I earn enough to pay for something I could not truly afford.

The nominal Mass State Income Tax rate is about 5%.  The sales tax and meals tax is 6.125%.  My local property tax is 8% - 10% of my annual gross income ... before payroll deductions.

Even after the oil boom here slowed down, my home is considered worth 7 times what I paid for it (I bought when the market bottomed, in 1987). I have made no substantial improvements.
I asked what that price was based on, and was told "market value", which I countered, "But my home isn't on the market."
>crickets<
We have tried to get the property tax eliminated a couple of times here, and the State took some of the steam out of that by giving credits for elderly  (me? How did that happen?) and means tested payments of the taxes, which had me down to specials only last year.
While that's welcome relief, it also undermines some of the incentive to eliminate the tax. What doesn't hurt doesn't get fixed.

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

No, he wants older people to pay taxes on things they do not use or need like schools.

Socialism.

And it really pains me when people are attacked who were productive during their lives rather than going after those freeloading off us taxpayers.

Let's pay for everything with use taxes... sure, why not? But barring the political impossibility of that, someone paid for you to be educated, I don't use medical and emergency services to the extent that elderly... i mean we can nitpick all night here. Basically impossible to fairly distribute taxes unless you have use taxes, which  probably won't happen for so many reasons. In the meantime, let's keep it fair.

[Smokin Joe]

Older persons can get reverse-mortgages on their homes to tap into the unrealized capital gains on their homes to pay the same property taxes for the same availability of services as everyone else.

If they do not have home equity with which to pay local property taxes, they should sell the property and move an affordable appartment, if one exists.

Young working families have to move when they can no longer afford property taxes on their homes. 

Why should young working families be the victims of reverse age discrimination at the hands of a protected class determined by age?  That's reverse age-discrimination ... affirmative action for older persons.

A reverse mortgage is selling your home on the installment plan.
Tapping that equity leaves little to be passed on, and pulls one of the legs out from under generational wealth. If you raised your heir(s) right they won't piss it away.
I bought my house, paid taxes on my house through the years minor children lived here.
The State (in ND) is supposed to fund the schools, but in spite of that, for decades, the largest share of the property tax was for schools. Never mind that the last kids we raised were not in the public schools. If the streets get repaired (and both --corner lot) were dug up, the plumbing and wiring replaced and new roadbed laid and paved, and I got the bill for 'my share' of that--4X the neighbor who only has one street and limited frontage.
It's like a second mortgage, after the house was paid off.
We also pay for water, sewer, garbage, street sweepers (which we might see once a year).
In the event you need an ambulance or the fire department, you will get a bill.
See if your insurance covers that.
That leaves the police department, parks and recreation (which charge fees to use the rec facility).
If I have much more than a 55 gallon drum full of trash, I load it into the pickup and haul it to the dump, where I am charged for the privilege of unloading it myself.
With all the add-ons and fees, where are those taxes going?
Plus, the idea that someone can take MY house, that I have paid for, maintained, and even improved, because i don't pay them rent?
Nope, that doesn't sit well with me at all.

[IsailedawayfromFR]

Even after the oil boom here slowed down, my home is considered worth 7 times what I paid for it (I bought when the market bottomed, in 1987). I have made no substantial improvements.
I asked what that price was based on, and was told "market value", which I countered, "But my home isn't on the market."
>crickets<
We have tried to get the property tax eliminated a couple of times here, and the State took some of the steam out of that by giving credits for elderly  (me? How did that happen?) and means tested payments of the taxes, which had me down to specials only last year.
While that's welcome relief, it also undermines some of the incentive to eliminate the tax. What doesn't hurt doesn't get fixed.

I am familiar with real estate appraisal methods and have successfully argued before our local tax appraisal board to have my real estate taxes reduced.

In variance to that poster, there are actually three methods to appraise the value of a piece of property, Ie - comparable sales, the income-producing value, and the replacement value.

Tax authorities typically use the first method as it is easiest and most common.

BTW, I later applied to be on the local tax appraisal board and was appointed by a judge.  Unfortunately I had to decline as it coincided with the detection of wife's cancer so I had a new priority for my time.