Higher property tax bills have accompanied the rising market values of homes over the past several years. If your property taxes have reached the stratosphere, here are some tips to knock them back down to earth.
What is happening
Property taxes typically lag the market. In bad times, the value of your home goes down, but the property tax is slow to show this reduction. In good times, property taxes go up when you buy your new home, but these higher prices quickly impact those that do not plan to move.
To make matters worse, you can only deduct up to $10,000 in taxes on your federal tax return. That figure includes all taxes – state income, property and sales taxes combined! Here are some suggestions to help reduce your property tax burden.
What you can do
Your best bet is usually to approach your local tax assessor and ask for a property revaluation. Here are some ideas to cut your property tax bill by reducing your home’s appraised value.
Do some homework to understand the approval process to get your property revalued. It is typically outlined on your property tax statement.
Understand the deadlines and adhere to them. Most property tax authorities have strict deadlines. Miss one deadline by a day and you are out of luck.
Do some research BEFORE you call your assessor. Talk to neighbors and honestly assess the amount of disrepair your property may be in versus other comparable properties in your neighborhood. Call a few real estate professionals. Tell them you would like a market review of your property. Try to choose a professional that will not overstate the value of your home hoping to get a listing, but who will show you comparable sales for your area. Then find comparable sales in your area that defend a lower valuation.
Look at your property classification in the detailed description of your home. Often times errors in this code can overstate the value of your home. For example, if you live in a condo that was converted from an apartment, the property’s appraised value could still be based on a non-owner occupied rental basis. Armed with this information, approach the assessor seeking first to understand the basis of the appraisal.
Ask for a review of your property. Position your request for a review based on your research. Do not fall into the assessor trap of defending your review request without first having all the information on your property. Meet the assessor with a specific value in mind. Assessors are so used to irrational arguments, that a reasonable approach is often readily accepted.
While going through this process, remember to be aware of the pressure these taxing authorities are under. This understanding can help temper your position and hopefully put you in a better position to have your case heard.
Here are several ways to make sure that your tax return is prepared and filed as quickly (and as accurately!) as possible.
Keep tax documents in one place. Missing tax documents are one of the biggest reasons that filing a tax return gets delayed! If you receive documents via both physical mail and e-mail, it’s even more important that you have one place to store all your documents once you receive them.
Organize your tax documents by type. To help make filing your tax return as easy as possible, sort your tax documents in tax return order. Glance through last year’s tax return and create a folder for each section including income, business and rental information, adjustments to income, itemized deductions, tax credit information, and a miscellaneous bucket.
Create list of special events from the previous year. You receive a Form W-2 from your employer every year. If you’re in business, you probably receive a Form 1099 from certain clients each year. But certain tax documents you won’t see each year. Selling a home doesn’t happen every year for most people. Likewise with getting married (or divorced) or sending a kid to college. So create a list of special events that have happened over the past year, as some of these occasions may affect your taxes.
Don’t forget your signature! You (and your spouse, if married) must sign and date your tax return if physically mailing it to the IRS. Forgetting your signature could delay the processing of your return (and potential tax refund!) by up to several months. If e-filing, don’t forget to sign Form 8879. This form authorizes the e-filing of your tax return.
E-file your return. The IRS has struggled over the past 3 years to process paper-filed tax returns. In 2021, this backlog reach more than 20 million tax returns. You can avoid getting your physical return potentially misplaced by the IRS by e-filing. Even better, you can typically receive any refunds within one to two weeks when e-filing.
These are some of the more common reasons why the preparation and filing of your tax return may get delayed. Be prepared and file your return this year without a hitch!
The SECURE Act 2.0, passed by Congress in late 2022, features numerous ways for you to save more money in your tax advantaged retirement accounts. Here are several of the bill’s provisions and what they mean for you.
Money can continue to grow tax deferred. If you turn 72 in 2023 or later, you can keep money in a tax-deferred IRA or 401(k) for another 12 months to help the account continue growing before starting to withdraw funds. This retirement benefit is now available thanks to the required minimum distribution age being raised from age 72 to age 73. The age will increase again from 73 to 75 in 2033.
Action: Review your retirement account distribution needs and use this extra time to help make your distributions more tax efficient. For example, if you must earn an additional $10,000 before you hit the next highest tax bracket, consider pulling more taxable income out of your retirement account to take advantage of this lower rate. Or use the extra time to consider converting funds tax-efficiently into a Roth IRA.
Be aware of auto enrollment. The government wants you to save for retirement, so the new law allows businesses to automatically transfer a greater portion of your paycheck into their retirement plan. The maximum contribution that can now be automatically deferred into your employer’s 401(k) plan increases from 10% to 15%.
Action: While saving more for retirement is a great idea, this automatic participation does not account for your particular financial needs. So be aware of the possibility that you will automatically be contributing to your retirement account and independently determine what you can afford to put towards retirement. Make any adjustments if necessary, as you are permitted to opt out of auto enrollment. Remember, you also need to build an emergency fund and pay your bills!
Take advantage of higher catch-up limits. Starting in 2024, the $1,000 catch-up contribution for IRAs will receive an annual cost-of-living adjustment in increments of $100, while the $7,500 catch-up contribution for 401(k)s will increase to at least $10,000. This higher 401(k) catch-up limit will also be indexed for inflation starting in 2025. The additional catch-up contribution is available if you’re age 50 or older.
Action: Review the annual savings limit for your retirement savings account, including the catch-up amount if you are 50 years or older. Then make adjustments to your retirement savings plan as soon as possible to take advantage of the higher savings limits.
The beginning of a new year brings the need to recap the previous one for Uncle Sam. Here are some tips and a checklist to help get you organized.
Look for your tax forms. Forms W-2, 1099, and 1098 will start hitting your inbox or mailbox in the next couple of weeks. If you have not already done so, review last year’s records and create a checklist of the forms to make sure you get them all.
Collect your tax documents using this checklist. Using a tax organizer or last year’s tax return, sort your tax records to match the items on your tax return. Here is a list of the more common tax records:
Informational tax forms (W-2s, 1099s, 1098s, 1095-A) that disclose wages, interest income, dividends and capital gain/loss activity
Other forms that disclose possible income (jury duty, unemployment, IRA distributions and similar items)
Business K-1 forms
Social Security statements
Mortgage interest statements
Tuition paid statements
Property tax statements
Mileage log(s) for business, moving, medical and charitable driving
Medical, dental and vision expenses
Business expenses
Records of any asset purchases and sales, including cryptocurrency
Health insurance records (including Medicare and Medicaid)
Charitable receipts and documentation
Bank and investment statements
Credit card statements
Records of any out of state purchases that may require use tax
Casualty and theft loss documentation (federally declared disasters only)
Moving expenses (military only)
If you aren’t sure whether something is important for tax purposes, retain the documentation. It is better to save unnecessary documentation than to later wish you had the document to support your deduction.
Clean up your auto log. You should have the necessary logs to support your qualified business miles, moving miles, medical miles and charitable miles driven by you. Gather the logs and make a quick review to ensure they are up to date and totaled.
Coordinate your deductions. If you and someone else share a dependent, confirm you are both on the same page as to who will claim the dependent. This is true for single taxpayers, divorced taxpayers, taxpayers with elderly parents/grandparents, and parents with older children.
With proper organization, your tax filing experience can be timely and uneventful.
Here are several strategies to consider to shrink your tax bill in 2023.
Consider life events. Consider whether any of the following key events may take place in 2023, as they may have potential tax implications:
Purchasing or selling a home
Refinancing or adding a new mortgage
Getting married or divorced
Incurring large medical expenses
Changing jobs
Welcoming a baby
Manage your retirement. One of the best ways to reduce your taxable income is to use tax beneficial retirement programs. Now is a good time to review your retirement account funding. Here are the contribution limits for 2023:
401(k): $22,500 ($30,000, Age 50+)
IRA: $6,500 ($7,500, Age 50+)
SIMPLE IRA: $15,500 ($19,000, Age 50+)
Defined Benefit Plan: $66,000
Look into credits. There are a variety of tax credits available to most taxpayers. Take a look at those you currently use and determine whether you qualify for them again next year. Here are some worth reviewing:
Child Tax Credit
Earned Income Tax Credit
Premium Tax Credit
Adoption Credit
Elderly and Disabled Credit
Educational Credits (Lifetime Learning Credit and American Opportunity Tax Credit)
Assess your income. Forecast how your 2023 income will compare to your 2022 income, then review your most recent tax return and find your effective tax rate by dividing your total tax by your gross income. Then apply that rate to your new income. This will give you a rough estimate of next year’s tax obligation.
To avoid getting stuck with an unexpected tax bill, consider scheduling several tax planning sessions throughout the year. Remember, some tax saving ideas may require funding on your part. It is best to identify them now so you can save the cash necessary to take advantage of them throughout 2023.
Here’s a roundup of several recent tax court cases and what they mean for you.
Thou Shalt Not Commingle Funds
(Vorreyer, TC Memo 2022-97, 9/21/22)
Don’t let sloppy record keeping prevent you from deducting legitimate business expenses. The Tax Court agreed with the IRS that business expenses must first be deducted on that business’s tax return before flowing to the owner’s tax return.
Facts: A married couple, the sole shareholders of an S corporation, operated a family farm in Illinois. In 2012 they paid the farm’s utility bills of $21,000 and property taxes of $109,000 from their personal funds, then deducted these payments on their individual Form 1040 tax return as business expenses.
Even though the utility and property tax bills were legitimate business expenses, the deduction was disallowed because the expenses should have first been deducted on the farm’s S corporation tax return, then flowed through to the shareholder’s individual tax return.
Tax Tip: To pay an expense on behalf of your business, first make a capital contribution to your business, then have your business pay the expense. Then include this expense on your business’s tax return.
Adding Tax Insult to Injury
(Dern TC Memo 2022-90, 8/30/22)
Payments received to settle a physical injury or illness lawsuit are generally considered non-taxable income. But you better be sure that the lawsuit you file is actually to compensate for a physical injury or illness, and not something else.
Facts: Thomas Dern, a sales representative for a paint products company in California, was hospitalized for acute gastrointestinal bleeding and a subsequent heart attack. When the company fired him because he could no longer do his job, he sued for wrongful termination. The parties eventually reached a settlement.
Dern argued in Tax Court that his illness led to his firing, and therefore the settlement should be classified as non-taxable income. The payment he received, however, was to settle a discrimination lawsuit and not a physical injury. The settlement therefore did not qualify to be non-taxable income.
Tax Tip: Pay attention to the tax consequences of settlement payments so you don’t get surprised with an unexpected tax bill.
You’re Stuck With the Standard Deduction
(Salter, TC Memo 2022-49, 4/5/22)
Facts: Shawn Salter, a resident of Arizona, requested and received a distribution of $37,000 from his retirement plan after being laid off from his job in 2013. Salter failed to file a tax return for 2013, so the IRS created a substitute tax return for him using the standard deduction of $6,500 for a single taxpayer. The IRS also assessed an early withdrawal penalty of 10% on the distribution.
Salter, arguing that the distribution was to pay for medical expenses which aren’t subject to the 10% early withdrawal penalty, eventually did file a 2013 tax return with $25,000 of itemized medical expenses. The Tax Court disallowed the $25,000 of itemized deductions, stating that once a substitute return is created by the IRS using the standard deduction, the taxpayer can no longer claim itemized deductions for that year. Tax Tip: Try to avoid a situation where the IRS files a substitute tax return on your behalf. Once this happens, you have no choice but to use the standard deduction for that tax year.
