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The Privilege of Paying Property Taxes

Feb 10, 2010 Taxes Property

Property taxes-ugh! You can ask just about anyone and this will not be their favorite thing to talk about…or it will start a rant that you will be very sorry you every started.

Simply put, property taxes, a.k.a. millage tax, is an ad valorem tax, which is Latin for according to value and is based on the value of real estate or personal property. I’m assuming the Latin translation is included to show that this has been going on from the beginning of organized government, be it in the form of an elected king, a dictator or a democracy. In the ‘olden’ days this tax was more often in the form of bounty of some kind. For example, a farmer paid tax on his land by giving up a portion of his crops, or the proceeds thereof, in exchange for the privilege of farming that land. Yep, he put in all the hard work, he plowed and planted and harvested and fed the ox and maintained the wagon…yet he had to pay for the privilege of working his fingers to the bones.

Has it changed much? Nope, except that if you are a farmer you cannot get away with giving the tax man a bushel of wheat. Instead you better be paying what you owe, on time, or your property is liable to have an auction sign out in front and the sheriff waiting to evict you from your land.

So, you get to bear the cost of maintaining your home, so the roof doesn’t fall down around your ears or the sewage doesn’t back up in your basement. You get to mow and edge and fertilize and spend gobs of money on landscaping so you can briefly forget that you live in the concrete and mortar world of the suburbs. You keep your property clean so that the health department isn’t knocking on your door or taking you to court for the dandelions that you are growing to make wine with. You go to work day in and day out and sometimes on the weekends to meet these expenses and still be able to make your mortgage payment…and still…you get to pay for the privilege of owning your own home and you get to pay that amount every year and once in awhile the tax man cometh and decides that you have to pay more, because now that you’ve put all that work into making sure your neighbors and the health department are happy and you have added that built in swimming pool to defray the cost of belonging to the Y, your house is now worth more money and you get to pay for the privilege of paying to make your home your castle.

Tags: Taxes Property