Loophole hits home

Legal loopholes are allowing hundreds of owners of million-dollar-plus homes in Nassau County to gain property tax breaks meant for low- and moderate-income seniors, county Assessor Harvey Levinson said ...

[dennis]

If the owner of the home has the senior status and meets the salary requirements - then they followed the regulations. A home is not a salary, even if it is overvalued by the Assessors office.
If the Assessors office has valued a home at $800,000 (and the property owner is paying taxes on that value for 4-5 years) and then the owner goes to sell it but can't get any more than $500,000, who has reaped the benefit of the higher assessed value? Can the owner sue the assessors office for over inflating the value of their home to re-coop the $300,000?

[Joe Q Public]

So isn't this the counter argument for Levinson's call for an income tax to fund schools? If folks "hide" income for this program, what do you think they'll do when you're going after a bigger chunk for schools?

[Bite Me]

dennis wrote:

If the owner of the home has the senior status and meets the salary requirements - then they followed the regulations. A home is not a salary, even if it is overvalued by the Assessors office.
If the Assessors office has valued a home at $800,000 (and the property owner is paying taxes on that value for 4-5 years) and then the owner goes to sell it but can't get any more than $500,000, who has reaped the benefit of the higher assessed value? Can the owner sue the assessors office for over inflating the value of their home to re-coop the $300,000?

well put. My home is so overvalued by the assessor as to be laughable. If I could sell it for anything NEAR what they claim it is worth I'd be out of here by tomorrow. So who is taking advantage of who?

[Hector Gavilla]

The real problem with our government is that the politicians want to increase our taxes. Instead of demanding that "rich" homeowners, who already pay the lions share of the taxes, should not get breaks, they should figure out a way to decrease all of our taxes. These idiots who run our government fail to realize the increasing taxes are driving people away from Long Island.

[Hector Gavilla]

We as a society are being infiltrated by socialists propoganda. The idea that the rich should be punished for having more money and pay a higher rate of tax is unfair. Everyone should have the same formula regardless of their income. The socialists want us to redistribute the wealth so that poor people get the same benefits without earning it.

[dennis]

Joe Q Public wrote:

So isn't this the counter argument for Levinson's call for an income tax to fund schools? If folks "hide" income for this program, what do you think they'll do when you're going after a bigger chunk for schools?

JOHN Q - what do you do about those individuals who own a home (or 2) work and get paid cash - claiming no income at all - how are you going to tax them? Loopholes are everywhere! What govt' should do is cut the number of overpaid appointee positions! If you could write this into a budget as a line item you would see how much govt.' wastes on those appointed positions.