Only half a stor(e)y Last late fall we found a small 3- bed- room house on the outskirts of a hectic, dirty and noisy city in Upstate NY. Set in a fairly quaint neighborhood, the size of the house built in 1929 comprises around 1100 square feet of living space - or so we thought. When it was time to pay our first tax bill, we learnt that in fact we had 1600 square feet. What a neat surprise!
It turned out that the crawl space in our tiny attic was considered additional living space due to the fact that there was an even tinier window. A sole picture had created the base of both that assumption and assessment. On inquiring we were told that that dead space was interpreted as a half storey, no matter what, and that we had to remove the window to relieve ourselves of that kind of tax burden. This small window though clearly adds to the flair of the house and would have generated an additional cost to take it out. I'm asking you, where is the common sense here?
Okay, let's do some math here. In the Empire or rather 'Vampire' State of NY every home owner is obligated to pay two different classes of taxes, property and school taxes. Property taxes is just a third and pays for communal services such as police, fire, ambulance, sewer, road and highway work, etc. In our case the tax bill was around $ 980. School taxes make two thirds and depend on the school district ranging somewhere from a grand to $ ?. Only the sky is the limit here. So generally speaking, the square footage of your house is the pendulum of taxation. The bigger the square footage, the higher the taxes. Hence, we are anxiously anticipating our upcoming school tax bill to be between $2500 and $3000 for this year. Sure, there are ways to apply for tax reliefs such as the STAR- program for seniors and a tax cut for veterans, but even those have shrunk considerably.
I asked my husband if we could expand our kitchen space. Sure, he said, but then the taxes will go up. I guess, I will strike this idea from my wishing list and continue working in my super small kitchen. Since any living space addition will automatically be allocated at a higher tax rate, lots of home owners are forced to become dishonest and sneaky about their home improvements which clearly takes on an illegal character. Countless building code violations as well as hazards fuel this vicious circle on end. In urban areas thousands of houses are abandoned for tax reasons which snowballs onto those who are still holding their fortresses as this kind of tax loss calls for compensation by additionally burdening the remaining tax payers in the community.
This again spirals out of control opening the spill ways for homelessness, crime and last but not least welfare fraud. Sometimes it literally starts with something stupid like a half- storey and a raised tax burden that puts you overboard and right onto the streets because the government could care less. Nice indeed!
It turned out that the crawl space in our tiny attic was considered additional living space due to the fact that there was an even tinier window. A sole picture had created the base of both that assumption and assessment. On inquiring we were told that that dead space was interpreted as a half storey, no matter what, and that we had to remove the window to relieve ourselves of that kind of tax burden. This small window though clearly adds to the flair of the house and would have generated an additional cost to take it out. I'm asking you, where is the common sense here?
Okay, let's do some math here. In the Empire or rather 'Vampire' State of NY every home owner is obligated to pay two different classes of taxes, property and school taxes. Property taxes is just a third and pays for communal services such as police, fire, ambulance, sewer, road and highway work, etc. In our case the tax bill was around $ 980. School taxes make two thirds and depend on the school district ranging somewhere from a grand to $ ?. Only the sky is the limit here. So generally speaking, the square footage of your house is the pendulum of taxation. The bigger the square footage, the higher the taxes. Hence, we are anxiously anticipating our upcoming school tax bill to be between $2500 and $3000 for this year. Sure, there are ways to apply for tax reliefs such as the STAR- program for seniors and a tax cut for veterans, but even those have shrunk considerably.
I asked my husband if we could expand our kitchen space. Sure, he said, but then the taxes will go up. I guess, I will strike this idea from my wishing list and continue working in my super small kitchen. Since any living space addition will automatically be allocated at a higher tax rate, lots of home owners are forced to become dishonest and sneaky about their home improvements which clearly takes on an illegal character. Countless building code violations as well as hazards fuel this vicious circle on end. In urban areas thousands of houses are abandoned for tax reasons which snowballs onto those who are still holding their fortresses as this kind of tax loss calls for compensation by additionally burdening the remaining tax payers in the community.
This again spirals out of control opening the spill ways for homelessness, crime and last but not least welfare fraud. Sometimes it literally starts with something stupid like a half- storey and a raised tax burden that puts you overboard and right onto the streets because the government could care less. Nice indeed!
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