People check to see if you paid your taxes
I was glancing at the
2008 Tax Sale Properties and I noticed some familiar names on the list and so, not to name names, please check. Some of the amounts are small, like a few hundred dollars small, which leads me to believe that your mortgage company didn't adjust for the taxes. So check. Seriously. Check.
Why was I looking? I was looking to see what empty lots were listed. I want a garden. More realisticly, I want to fantasize about getting an empty lot via a tax sale and turing it into a garden.
Labels: real estate, taxes
Do your own d@mned taxes
Once upon a time I had a conversation with my young college aged cousin and I told her, do your own damned taxes. She was waiting for her daddy, my uncle, to do them. I had been filing my own taxes since I was 17 and didn't see what her excuse was. She her most sophisticated investment might have been a savings account, any money she made herself was from a dinky student job, and she wasn't being claimed by her parents. If this describes you, do your own damned 1040EZ.
Also regardless of if you do a 1040EZ or 1040, you can file your individual DC taxes electronically for FREE, as I did this weekend. I had filed my Federal taxes a good while ago using one of those tax software programs. So I had that file open as I went step by step with the
Individual Income Tax On-Line page. You will have needed to have filed a 2006 DC income tax return for it to work. A lot of it is just copying from your Federal tax form (they say what line you should look at) and plugging it into the on-line page. So don't pay extra to file your 'state' taxes.
Labels: taxes
DC is 1st time homebuyer friendly
Well, not in terms of prices, but programs. So in order to do something useful with my
$50 Manolo housing rant, let me tell you of why I know DC is a great place to be a first time homeowner.
$
5000 Tax Credit (
pdf form)
OK, five grand is just a drop in the bucket, but I found the refund I got back for the two years after I bought my home (I didn't pay enough in taxes to collect it in one lump sum), helpful. Besides every penny counts.
Below Market Rate Loans From The
Housing Finance AgencyI was working with a councillor from the now defunct non-profit who steered me over to the DC Housing Finance office over on Florida Avenue. At the time they were offering 30 year mortgages at a rate so low, it was almost like an interest free loan. They were offering
something lately but the 5.6% rate with 2 points was only good till Dec 15, 2007. The process was not without its headaches. I thought the woman administering my paperwork was slow and a bit mean. But in the end I got the loan, which will be forever called the 1st mortgage that will not be touched.
Tax AbatementMy housing councilor and my Realtor pushed the tax abatement, which in those early years made my house payment affordable. If you're low-moderate income, you'd probably qualify. I was making what I'll call a starter salary in my profession, so I wasn't poor, but I wasn't completely economically stable either, and the year before I made half of squat. So I qualified, with about $10K between me and the cutoff.
The abatement is a five year period of not paying real estate taxes. The money I saved, allowed for an emergency fix-crap fund. It seems that I could have extended the abatement if I hadn't made $400 over the cutoff amount. So in year 6 I got hit with the full assessed amount, which was a lot, as the assessed value was 4x as much as it was when I bought it. I just got my tax bill and I praised G-d. My taxes have readjusted so it reflects what I would have been paying had I not taken the abatement. So I wasn't punished for taking that deal. I can't find an earlier post I made about how the RE tax system rewards long-term homeonwers who stay put AND take the Homestead Exemption. Long and short of it is, people who have owned their homes for a number of years (basically prior to the Real Estate boom) tend to pay less taxes than their neighbors who bought recently IF (big if) they have the Homestead Exemption.
There are other programs for 1st time homebuyer available to DC residents like the HPAP, but I didn't use those, so I cannot testify to their goodness or badness. Also I think there were some real estate transaction costs that were dismissed because of my status, but I'm fuzzy on that. And there is a caveat to the loan (and/or maybe another program), in that if I sold my house within 10 years of purchase I'd have to pay the city back some of the benefits.
DC looked like a better deal when I was first looking because it has various programs like I mentioned above, that I could not find for Maryland or Virginia.
Labels: housing, real estate, taxes
Wondering How Much More The DC Tax Office Can Get Effed Up
Okay on top of shopping trips with embezzled funds, dead people getting senior discounts, and vacant houses not getting taxed right, add the possibility of identity theft as
Tax Office computer servers found behind a chain restaurant in Columbia Heights.
I'm thankful they were found, and I hope, really really hope, there isn't any individual taxpayer information on them.
Labels: government, taxes
I look for dead people
At the end of the
last post I decided to check in to see if the person at 32 P St NE receiving the
Senior Citizen Tax Relief was alive. Because, well I found a person in my general vicinity who was also receiving the tax benefit but was sadly dead. Well Ms.Berrin is dead according to the Social Security Index. I'm sure it is the same woman because they had the same zip code and really, how common is the name Berrin?
So for kicks, or something to do while waiting for the Super Tuesday results, I checked a random Truxton block for dead people who own houses, and get the really sweet Senior Citizen Tax Relief. Well, let's just say it doesn't help to have a common name. For one block I found three persons receiving the tax relief, but there were several other people with the same name and the last residence at date of death did not match up. One had a different middle initial so that was a no. And I did find a matching name with matching initial of a woman who died in the District of Columbia, but because the zip codes don't match up and because she has a common last name, I won't say she's dead.
While poking around, looking for deceased Truxtonians, I did notice something odd. There were several people not claiming their
Homestead Deductions whose listed address is the same as the property address. Why I wonder? Another thing I spotted with the Senior Citizen Tax thing, was one where the person wasn't dead but instead was living in Clinton, MD but getting the tax relief. That seems to be counter of what the relief is for...
Anyway, tomorrow I will send an email to the CFOs office about the definitely dead woman and the possibly dead woman.
Now I wonder if the dead vote?
Labels: taxes
Yes, it is ugly
Prince of Pentworth has a more up to date picture and others are calling for the mighty hammer of HDs to come in and save the day. I say there is another way, but the problem is more than this one property. This is a unit block of ugly, historic ugly, plain ugly, and cheap modern fugly. Let's start with the fugly shall we?
If I have identified the house right the place is 26 P St NE, owned by Payam Mobin of Hollowerind Court, Reston, VA. Mobin bought the property 11/17/05 for $363,000 and should have known better, but some people want to make things hard on themselves. Anyway, Mobin decided to throw an ugly monster pop up on the thin property. I can imagine a nicer looking pop-up but it would have been pointless because of all the other stuff to consider.
Next door is historically ugly. The two houses to the left of 26 P is 22 & 24 P, both burned out shells. Owned by DM McCoy (24 P) and the 22 P St LLC at 137 R ST SW. Nicely, both are being taxed at the vacant property rate, and their assessment seemed to have jumped up by 2X. Next to those shells is a 'parking lot', whose assessment for 2008 is about 5x what it was for 2007. Next to the parking lot are Refuge of Hope Disciple Center's (Capitol Heights, MD) vacant lots, and those lots have not been taxed. No taxes apparently have been collected for 2007 for any of RoHDC's properties on P. Zip. Nada. And they've owned those lots for over a decade. What's up with that? How is it charitable, when there is no building to dispense the charity?
Next door to fugly is 28 P a vacant house owned by Sang Lee of Oakton, VA paying over $8K in taxes for 2007. On the end of the block, where P meets Florida, there is a gas station. Not terribly bad, not terribly pretty. There seems to be 3 households living on this unit block of P. Everything else is vacant or commercial or crap, or all three.
Going back to modern fugly, I looked at DCRA's permit list but sadly, it is only for those issued in the past couple of months (OCT07-FEB08). Might actually have to walk up to the damned thing and see if the permit is valid. Heighwise, it may be a matter of right because the area is zoned to allow that high because it is a commercial area. Across the street from this is the DDOT parking lot. Conceviably, one could knock down the shells, the lots, and the monstrosity and build a decent looking 4-5 level building that complements the Peoples Drug Building that DDOT occupies. But this thing is so skinny and so badly designed that it is ugly.
So ugly I can't imagine it being a sound investment, short of a halfway house. Then if, that, I'm sure it will go well nicely with whatever the Refuge of Hope might be planning.
Seriously, this side of the block would be better off razed, the three resident households compensated for their trouble and turned into a huge community garden. 'Cause it's just that F*ed up.
UPDATE:
Wrong about 3 households, make it 2. One household, 32 P St NE, owned by "HENRIETTA BERRIN" and taxed at the senior citizen rate of $0 for all of 2007 and $35.22 for 2005 is DEAD. Dead, dead, dead, dead. Deady-dead dead. Well according to the Social
Security Death Index. Apparently she died May 20, 2005. Well, she's now the second dead person paying taxes I know of, wait, no, she hasn't paid taxes, 'cause she didn't owe any. Ain't DC Gov generous with the departed?
Labels: development, houses, taxes
Death & Taxes
Everyso often, but not that often, someone mentions how property taxes are moving long term families out of gentrified areas. And then I counter with the fact there are oldtimers who aren't paying that much in property tax, so that can't be the reason. And to prove it I have about 5 or so properties I know of where the longterm owners pay a very small amount (between $180-$400 a year) in property taxes for houses assessed at over $300K.
I was looking at the Dc.gov site at the property of one such house (to prove the above point) and noticed (or more like remembered) something. The owner of the house, paying at a reduced rate, was sorta dead. This person kinda died a few years ago, but even in death, the owner gets the Real Estate taxes paid. In this case the dead pay less than $300 pa, a fair price for someone who can no longer make a living.
I checked to make sure the deceased was actually dead, and not just a figment of my sketchy memory, piled together by fragments of idle small talk. So I took the name listed as the owner, wandered over to the
Social Security Death Master Index (a very useful genealogical resource) and plugged in the name, and came up with one DC deceased match. Also checked the Washington Post obit archives to confirm the date, they want $2.50 or something like that for the whole obit, so I passed.
Now you might be wondering if I might be passing this on to the DC tax office, and the answer is no, not right now. Let me explain why. I have a strong feeling that the deceased failed to leave a will, and there more than likely is no obvious single heir to the estate (no surviving spouse, but several children & siblings). Which then probably means the family might be fighting amongst themselves about who gets what, and if the house is paid for with no mortgage, this fight can drag out for years.
As a homeowner, I do have a will, and in the event I should die before I get around to changing it, the house goes to a dear friend of mine..... I need to change my will, anyone care to recommend a good lawyer?
Labels: real estate, taxes
Vacant house
Well, because all the other cool blogs are doing it, I present to you a vacant house. It is 219 P St NW, built in 1906, currently owned by a Mr. Crespo of Dunn Loring, VA, who bought the place February 2007 for $265K. All this is on the DC.Gov website, and since the current owner has had it for less than a year, I'm going to go easy and not post the other public information.
I debated about blogging about specific vacant houses in the TC. There are a number of vacant houses in the TC, like the rest of Shaw, but not all of them are obviously vacant, and I didn't want to attract any great amount of attention to those. So I'm going with the obviously vacant, and 219 P is with it's busted windows and ratty looking yard.
As far as taxes go, it's had its woes. Currently it is assessed at $270,600, but will jump to $354,020 in 2008. looking at it's past tax bills and payments, whoever owned it previously let the tax bill get up to $8K in 2005 and 2006. There is a Clean City bill for $70.00 and a 1998 trash bill of $613.87. Hopefully the old obligations were cleared up when the property changed hands.
Labels: houses, real estate, taxes
Lunchtime Research: Taxes and Commerce pt 2
I've updated
part 1, adding pt 2. I would put part 2 here but people tend not to follow instructions.
Labels: taxes
Lunchtime Research: Taxes and commerce pt 1
Actually the research started before I headed to work, following up on a thought someone had brought up about people being forced out of the neighborhood because of rising real estate taxes. I've
already covered the fact that some oldtimers who have kept their eye on the ball with the homestead exemption pay a pittance in RE taxes, so no need to rehash it.
While I was poking around reaffirming that notion, I noticed something about businesses and their RE tax. We're all familiar with
the loss of the Warehouse Theater due to skyrocketing RE tax. Well they are no exception to rising taxable assessments. Over on the block that used to have the non-profit bike shop (I think a non-profit works out of that building) and currently has a Chinese take-away and a used/rent-wreck car lot, Square 476, the assessments have gone up a lot. I have to say 'a lot' because I can't do math, I flunked out of B-School. A lot, as in 1628 6th St NW going from $184,690 (2007) to $444,280 (2008). Not as bad is the beauty shop (well use code says beauty shop) at 508 RI Ave NW going from $179,380 (2007) to $331,260 (2008).
Over in my neck of the woods, in the TC, I just got confused with the tax classes. 1627 1st St NW is in the 'Residential' tax class but the use code is a 'Store' and it is $99,020 (2007) & $177,470 (2008), while next to it is 1625 1st St NW use code '49-Commercial-Retail-Misc' in the residential tax class at $263,020 (2007) & $468,460 (2008).
Down North Capitol the taxable assessments double, except for one guy. 1338 North Cap $241,180 (2007) to $585,670 (2008); 1324 North Cap $160,680 to $324,790; 1304 North Cap $264,680 to $583,170; and Brian Brown's 1334 N. Cap $437,130 to $954,920 ouch! Strangely, possibly for very explainable reasons Big Ben liquors at 1300 North Capitol's taxable assessment barely moves at $212,360(2007) to $247,670 (2008).
The thing that makes me wonder is what does it mean for the growth of the commercial corridor? And there is little relief, unlike homeowners who can claim the homestead exemption, businesses have to suck up the rises.
Labels: business, taxes
DC taxes hurt small businesses
The problem is the chains will not make the neighborhood a neighborhood, it will just make it another part of generica. Sitting with
Richard Layman at a window table at the
Big Bear Cafe we very briefly mentioned how the city actually hurts small business.
Taxes is one method of putting on the hurt as reported in today's Post article "Feeling the Pinch of D.C.'s Prosperity.
And the city does give lip service about supporting the arts. Having Warehouse consider closing down, and stressing other live action theaters, art galleries (particularly the ones that don't feature art that goes well with the living room couch), and other artsy venues with high taxes is quite unsupportive.
Come on there must be a couple of intelligent people on the council who could think of a way to properly tax businesses, small businesses, the businesses who take a chance on transitional neighborhoods like mine, without discouraging them and pushing them out. Why would a 10% cap be bad? If that's intolerable how's about a 20% cap? Well Jack (Evans, who supports a 10% cap, though no one else on the Council seems to) I support you.
Labels: business, taxes
Cutting off your nose to spite your face- a rant
When I moved here from PG County my first shock was in the form of my newly adjusted paycheck. I can't remember the exact amount now but it was over $30 bucks in increased taxes on what was around about a $36,000py salary. The second shock, I think, was the odd sound of gunfire.
The Post
reports that the City Council is looking at two tax proposals. I'm not too concerned about the inheritance tax, because of my age. However, as a homeowner I would love it if the city capped the real estate tax increase at 5%, down from 10%. However, the voice of opposition to the 5% is that it would be a tax break for the wealthy.
Honey, it would be a tax break for me, and I'm very sure I'm not wealthy. How do I know, well if I were to go out and have a car like the average American, I couldn't eat. The insurance and gas would kill me. As it stands now my mortgages with RE taxes and homeowners insurance eat up 1/2 of my take home pay. That's even after I reduced the amount I contribute to my retirement. It seems one has to plow over the middle class to try to punish the rich.
The current real estate tax system rewards people who stay put. Longtime residents pay way less in taxes for the same type house on the same block, than someone just buying a house now. Is that fair? I dunno. But I wouldn't complicate the system specifically to punish them for not trading up in house and staying put. Supposedly the system does punish abandoned properties for being abandoned properties regardless of the income of the properties' owners. Someone who has been around long enough probably knows how to play the system to evade the higher vacant property tax.
Anyway, whoever is in charge please don't take out your frustrations with the wealthy out on the middle class. You already tax my income more than the surrounding areas (for a single car-less person). You tax my property according to an amount I couldn't pay if I were to try to buy my house today.
Also the property taxes seem unfair to the small non-big chain businesses we love, but that's another rant for another day.
Labels: taxes
Quick blog before church
I don't write about everything that goes on in the hood. I still need to get out the shin-dig over at the still unopened for business Big Bear (yes, in Bloomingdale). And there was some sort of shoot out in the TC this weekend. The big items I haven't written about, mainly because other Shaw bloggers have, were:
Shaw being the 2nd bloggist neighborhoodThe Warehouse Theater in danger of closing because of property taxes
The
Shaw EcoVillage bike shop Chain Reaction closing (dang it where am I going to get my bike fixed now!?)
Okay I gotta go.
Labels: blog, business, taxes
Ingenious evil plan
I was talking with someone who has been in the neighborhood a while and mentioned something I found interesting. There is a property that is a shell, now logically it would get taxed the vacant property rate, to encourage selling or fixing up the property. Well, the person I was talking to mentioned on of the houses on their block has been vacant for a good long while but isn't getting taxed the huge tax amount. Why you may ask. Well according to the source, the property is listed for sale. So if is for sale, then you don't get taxed the $5 per $100 in value. The property has a sign. But the owner has no real interest, according to the source, in selling the property.
I see the property is listed on the DC.Gov list (
pdf file) of properties exempted from the huge honking tax rate. I noticed some other properties listed, where I wonder, wonder why would they be exempted?
Labels: taxes
Tax Assessments
I noticed something when I took a look at the
DC Real Estate Tax Assessment database. It is pretty much a given that the city will assess properties to be worth more than they were last year, so that, I expected. Yet when I took a look at the "Preliminary Assessment Roll" which breaks down the property values into land, improvements, and the total value I noticed a big change from the current value and the proposed value. DC has decided to pump up the land value.
Sample Assessment:
| What is assessed | Current Value | Proposed New Value (2007) |
| Land | $88,150 | $259,920 | |
| Improvements | $105,910 | $122,200 |
| Total Value | $194,060 | $382,120 |
| Taxable Assessment: |
$194,060 |
$382,120 |
The above table I swiped from the database to show how the land value was increased. So the 2007 assessment will make the fact that one house is a rehabbed jewel and the crack house next door irrelevant because the land (provided they are similar plots) is worth the same.
Discuss.
Labels: housing, taxes
