Property Tax in Trinidad & Tobago

[solar_ice]

We jamming still

[Redman]

Need to raise money.....Oil might stay at low levels for a while...

The inflation adjusted price of crude oil is expected to remain steady through 2030 (12 years).

you have a link?

[bluefete]

EXCLUSIVE: NYC property taxes favor rich and white homeowners, lawsuit claims

The city says Mayor de Blasio's Park Slope properties are worth about $1.6 million apiece, resulting in a $3,581 property tax bill. (Todd Maisel/New York Daily News)


BY
Greg B. Smith
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Sunday, April 23, 2017, 12:46 AM



This year Mayor de Blasio will pay $3,581 in property taxes on each of two row houses he owns in ultra-gentrified Park Slope. The city says his properties are worth about $1.6 million apiece.

Some 14 miles away, in middle-class Laurelton, Queens, Arthur Russell, 66, who retired from computer sales, will pay a property tax bill that, at $4,569, is about 28% higher than the mayor’s — even though the city says his single-family home is worth 75% less than de Blasio’s properties, at $396,000.

If Russell were taxed like the mayor, his bill would fall by roughly $3,500 a year.

“That money could be vacation money,” said Russell, who is African-American. “It’s a substantial amount. My frustration is that it’s blatant abuse. People, if you take a look at this thing, you see disparity.”

De Blasio says property tax cap for NYC is a 'non-starter'


Victor DiPierro, 49, in front of his house in the Country Club section of the Bronx, says he paid $1,700 in taxes in 2003, the year he bought a two-story single-family home the city says is worth $512,000. (Michael Schwartz for New York Daily News)

Across the five boroughs, the city Department of Finance is subjecting tens of thousands of homeowners to similarly unequal billing — with the winners located primarily in upscale neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Brooklyn Heights and Greenwich Village and the losers located overwhelmingly in working- and middle-class neighborhoods like South Jamaica, East New York and Brownsville.

Often, the brunt falls most heavily on black or Hispanic property owners.

A coalition called Tax Equity Now NY, which includes the NAACP, the Black Institute, several landlords and homeowners, has teamed up with lawyers from the firm Latham & Watkins, including former Chief Judge Jonathan Lippmann, to file a class-action suit this week charging that the DNA of the city’s property tax system is racially biased and favors the affluent over the working- and middle-class.

“This is an insidious sort of economic oppression that doesn’t seem sexy, that doesn’t seem to pop up,” said Bertha Lewis, Black Institute’s president. “The more we looked into this, it’s just outrageous these inequities — from neighborhood to neighborhood, community to community being taxed at different rates.”

With data compiled by Martha Stark, a commissioner of finance during the Bloomberg administration, the lawsuit documents a jarring unfairness between the haves and the have-nots — particularly for homeowners.

The higher the assessed value of a property, the bigger the tax bill. To keep things fair, the state requires that appraisals be based on sales of similar properties.

That’s not what’s happening in New York City.

The data show that collectively, New York City homeowners in predominantly minority neighborhoods pay $376 million more than they would have if their properties had been accurately appraised based on comparative sales. Their properties are over-assessed by $1.7 billion, which averages to an extra $844 per homeowner per year.

Homeowners in Washington Heights, where the demographic is 83% non-white, are assessed at 141% of comparative sales prices. Homeowners in highly gentrified Williamsburg/Greenpoint (which is 63% white) are assessed at only 74% of comparative sales.

Majority white neighborhoods get this assessment break almost universally — properties in Park Slope/Carroll Gardens are assessed at 86% of average sales prices, Brooklyn Heights/DUMBO at 87% and Greenwich Village at 94%.

Of the 101 sales in Park Slope in 2015, the city assigned market values totaling $10 million less than the actual sales total of $269 million. That included a one-family on Prospect Park West that sold for $12.4 million but was given a market value of $4.9 million and one on Garfield Place that sold for $7.6 million but was appraised at $4.2 million.

Around the corner from de Blasio’s row houses, a three-family home that sold for $2.7 million was appraised at $2.2 million, while a single-family home that sold for $1.2 million was appraised by the city at $929,431.

De Blasio grilled over resistance to property tax cap



East New York homeowner Guy Sumler, 59, technically faces a $7,308 tax bill on a property the city values at $156,000. (Byron Smith for New York Daily News)

Farther into the outer boroughs homes in nearly all of the poorest neighborhoods are assigned assessments that greatly exceed comparative sales prices, including Jamaica/Hollis in Queens (111%), Crotona Park (123%) in the Bronx and East New York in Brooklyn (112%).

A two-family home on Liberty Ave. in East New York, for example, sold for $105,000 but was appraised at $438,000 by the Finance Department. Across East New York in 2015, the city assigned a market value of $232.3 million to properties that sold for $194 million.

East New York homeowner Guy Sumler, 59, technically faces a $7,308 tax bill on a property the city values at $156,000 — a property that is remarkably similar to the mayor’s: a two-story row house.

He is aware the mayor’s tax bill is half the amount of his.

Wealthy N.Y. preacher wants to sell church mansion to dodge taxes

Sumler, an African-American tech consultant, said he came across the inequities while doing research on why his tax bill was so hefty.



This property at 17 Prospect Park West, built in 1899, had a June 2015 sales price of $12.4 million, but is assessed by the city at $4.9 million. (Byron Smith for New York Daily News)

“I did see certain areas where we’re paying much more taxes than much more influential neighborhoods,” he said. “The few influential neighborhoods, those people don’t look like me.”

He lives with his 84-year-old mother so the home gets a senior citizen tax break that lowers the bill to $3,038, but even that is an annual stress.

“You have a community that’s a low income community that cannot keep up paying their taxes, plus the mortgage plus the other costs. It is not an easy task,” he said.

Up in the middle-class Spencer Estates in the Bronx, retired NYPD Detective Victor DiPierro, 49, paid $1,700 in taxes in 2003, the year he bought a two-story single-family home the city says is worth $512,000. Today he pays $6,141 — nearly twice what the mayor pays on his $1.5 million row house.

“It’s just not fair. We’re blue collar people. We’re not millionaires,” he said.

Though property assessment is not an exact science, it is math based and an error rate on appraisals of plus- or minus- 10 points is considered acceptable by appraisal professionals, experts say. New York City’s assessment error rate has a plus or minus of nearly 100, with the agency’s estimation of value ranging from 49.9% of actual sales prices to 141.1% of actual sales prices.

“That’s terrible,” said Patrick O’Connor of Texas-based O’Connor Consulting, experts in residential valuation.

He should know — he was also the head of the New York City Department of Finance Property Division back in the 1990s.



This one-family real estate at 250 Garfield Place, built in 1899, was priced at $7.6 million on June 2015 and has been assessed by the Department of Finance at $4.2 million. (Byron Smith for New York Daily News)

The inequities for homeowners, he said, are created by rules that cap increases to assessments at 6% per year and no more than 20% within five years.

Because higher value properties rise in value faster, O’Connor says the caps suppress their assessed value while actual sales prices rise higher and higher. Lower value homes tend to stay flat in value, so the 6% assessment hikes often drive their assessed value above their actual sales value.

“The higher value areas were going up faster until the caps. The higher value neighborhoods have benefited from the cap more than the other areas of the city,” he said. “That’s what the problem is.”

Pol wants Albany to allow NYC to cap property tax hikes

On Friday, Finance Department spokeswoman Sonia Alleyne said the agency “values properties based on requirements set out in New York State law. The law includes a cap on assessed values for one- to three-family homes that can create disparities in the taxes paid by owners of homes in different neighborhoods.”

This is exacerbated because the system also places a disproportionate burden on rental buildings with more than 11 units, which the lawsuit will allege is passed on to tenants. While big apartment buildings account for 24% of market value in the city, they pay 37% of the taxes.

As the unfairness of the system became more obvious over the years, property owners tried to get the city and state to fix the problem, but politicians — fearful of enraging certain classes of taxpayers — looked away.

The problem in eliminating these inequities is some taxpayers will end up paying more and some less down the line — a radioactive equation for most politicians, says Carol Kellerman, president of the Citizens Budget Commission, a good government group that’s been seeking reform for years.

Tower tax break hits city for $66M

“It’s gotten out of whack, but it’s hard to quantify and then present the bill,” she said. “The problem is, if you run them through the formula, there will be some people who are taxed more and some who are taxed less. And our political system doesn’t seem to handle well situations where there are winners and losers.”

Last week, this became obvious during a press conference when the mayor was asked about his modest property tax bills.

He conceded “there are obvious inequities” in the system and promised to confront the problem — but only if he is re-elected this fall. Asked why he couldn’t take on the issue now he replied:

“It’s because it is something that is going to take so much effort and so much of the administration’s time and energy that it’s just not a thing we’re going to do now.”

Cuomo unveils $1.6B homeowner, renter relief plan

He called any push for property tax reform as a “massive undertaking, about the most controversial thing you could imagine,” and made a point of noting that it can’t result in a loss of revenue.

“We can’t lose revenue in the bargain. We just can’t,” he said. “Let’s be real world about it.”

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/nyc ... -1.3089889

[adnj]

Need to raise money.....Oil might stay at low levels for a while...

The inflation adjusted price of crude oil is expected to remain steady through 2030 (12 years).

you have a link?

http://opendata.fcsa.gov.ae/yxptpab/cru ... and-charts

[Redman]

Need to raise money.....Oil might stay at low levels for a while...

The inflation adjusted price of crude oil is expected to remain steady through 2030 (12 years).

you have a link?

<a class="vglnk" href="http://opendata.fcsa.gov.ae/yxptpab/crude-oil-price-forecast-long-term-2017-to-2030-data-and-charts" rel="nofollow"><span>http</span><span>://</span><span>opendata</span><span>.</span><span>fcsa</span><span>.</span><span>gov</span><span>.</span><span>ae</span><span>/</span><span>yxptpab</span><span>/</span><span>crude</span><span>-</span><span>oil</span><span>-</span><span>price</span><span>-</span><span>forecast</span><span>-</span><span>long</span><span>-</span><span>term</span><span>-</span><span>2017</span><span>-</span><span>to</span><span>-</span><span>2030</span><span>-</span><span>data</span><span>-</span><span>and</span><span>-</span><span>charts</span></a>

Thank you.

[drchaos]

The "assessment" part of this property tax is how the PNM is gonna screw the middle class and help out their rich upper class friends/financiers.


Assessing someone's home is highly subjective and thus leads to an unfair system.

Why not TAX based on classification/approvals of the land based on the square footage? This would be fairer!
Eg. 40 cents a square/foot for residential property on a yearly basis. Every 5 years increase the tax by 5% or review the pricing scheme.

Wanna bet Rowley and Imps bert properties rental value get valued for less than my empty lot.

[sMASH]

Square area by land use!

[car]

So if you have a mortgage then the bank rightfully own the property. The home owner will own it after the mortgage is paid out. So property tax should rightfully be paid by the bank.

[drchaos]

So if you have a mortgage then the bank rightfully own the property. The home owner will own it after the mortgage is paid out. So property tax should rightfully be paid by the bank.

Really? My credit union mortgage says I own the land but if I refuse to pay the mortgage and after yadda yadda yadda them trying to get me to pay it they can seize the property and liquidate it to cover their losses.

[car]

So if you have a mortgage then the bank rightfully own the property. The home owner will own it after the mortgage is paid out. So property tax should rightfully be paid by the bank.

Really? My credit union mortgage says I own the land but if I refuse to pay the mortgage and after yadda yadda yadda them trying to get me to pay it they can seize the property and liquidate it to cover their losses.

Same ting they said but they have the deed for the land which was mine. Technically the house is theirs till it is paid off.

[adnj]

Square area by land use!

The assessment is based on how much the property can be rented for.

Rents follow area, location and amenities so assessments should, too. A two bedroom block house on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas doesn't rent for as much as a two bedroom condo with no land in One Woodbrook Place.

But if you built a 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom, 3 story house with a hot tub and a pool on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas, your taxes are going to be high for that neighborhood.

So if you have a mortgage then the bank rightfully own the property. The home owner will own it after the mortgage is paid out. So property tax should rightfully be paid by the bank.

The mortgagor doesn't own the property. Many mortgage agreements include payment of water, tax and insurance bills. The mortgage company only holds a lien on your property.

[nightcrawler]

Anybody fill out and submit online form for property tax, seeing a deadline date of may 22

[Dave]

Mid year review coming up....any guesses what may happen?

[sMASH]

Square area by land use!

The assessment is based on how much the property can be rented for.

Rents follow area, location and amenities so assessments should, too. A two bedroom block house on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas doesn't rent for as much as a two bedroom condo with no land in One Woodbrook Place.

But if you built a 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom, 3 story house with a hot tub and a pool on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas, your taxes are going to be high for that neighborhood.
.

and if the Intention of the for the area to fund the government amenities that u use, the way u outfit ur property doesn't affect how much of the amenities that u use.
Whether u have a hot tub or a latrine, same road have to uses, same school have to uses, same police hadda come, same hospital is utilized.

So saying that because u fix ur house nice u should pay more for tax, has already been done any the VAT stage.

For adventures provided, the area u live is the only ting determining which amenities u use.


PNM people keep thinking that people with nice house must have big wuk to get it.
They don't understand that a lot of people inherited land, and developed the house over to elevate their comfort. And they still would have done so in a small salary.

Therefore to charge people a tax proportional to how much they developed their house on a yearly basis is penalizing them.

And the money to pay the taxes derived from the factors determining the rental value. 1000 brick at 15% VAT means u pay a tax proportional to what u spend, but it is one time.
U buy at any given time according to what u can afford.
But those bricks aren't generating a revenue. So, u have to get that money from a salary.
Which may not be much.

[hydroep]

Hard to believe this is the same man whose administration is implementing the Property Tax...

Rowley hits property tax
By SEAN DOUGLAS Sunday, December 20 2009

DIEGO Martin West MP Dr Keith Rowley believes that people from all walks of life are angry at the Government’s property tax which they blame on squandermania. Rowley was speaking on Friday in the Lower House on two bills to bring the new tax, the Property Tax Bill 2009 and the Valuation of Land (Amendment) Bill 2009.

He said, “In my constituency there is anger, anxiety and resentment, at both ends of the spectrum.”

Saying the property tax is obviously a revenue-raising measure, he said people are saying if the Government had better handled its largesse, there would have been no need for this tax.

“Stop taking your own advice that nobody is annoyed...,” he advised the Government. He said they have brought the tax at the worst possible time, alluding to tough economic times. He repeatedly said that people were not against the idea of paying taxes but were upset that this measure could have been averted if the Government had acted differently previously, in its expenditure.

Rowley lamented that the Government in this bill had not taken the opportunity to begin a paradigm shift in how local government is treated. He lamented that the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) model – which holds local officials to a greater accountability to citizens – has not been adopted for local councils in Trinidad.

Saying the lifeblood of performance is money, Rowley said without such reform in Trinidad, the introduction of property tax would likely not bring improvements to local communities. Adding that the Government has not come clean over the property tax, he said the country would only have to wait until people’s bills are paid in September to find out if it is in fact a serious revenue earner.

“I suspect the three percent will be on values considerably higher than being made out to be. You’ll get good values for most properties,” he said, forewarning of high tax bills.

Scoffing at claims that some people might pay less tax than they now pay, Rowley quipped, “Don’t bother to tax me; Pass on the benefit.”

Rejecting the Government’s claim that the tax promoted equity between different people, he said there was no equity in North-West Regional Health Authority (NWRHA) CEO Agatha Carrington being sent on leave pending an audit, while Udecott executive director, Calder Hart, remains in office, despite revelations at the Uff Commission of Inquiry.

Rowley made the point that the property tax is being imposed for something that is not a revenue-earner for him, that is, his home. He said that through no act of their own, persons living on Diego Martin Main Road might have found the value of their house climb over the years to $1 million or $2 million, and now be liable to the property tax, despite never having any intention to sell it or rent it out.

“If you try to defend the indefensible, you’ll create resentment and provoke people, and that is what we have at the moment.”

Rowley said in areas of his constituency, such as Upper Cemetery Street, there are residents who must pay water rates despite the fact that no water flows in the water-pipes laid down four years ago. He said any hike in such water rates under the property tax would now amount to provocation.

Rejecting claims that the property tax won’t cause hardship, he said, “I know a lot of people for whom $100 is a lot of money. A lot are struggling to make ends meet.”

Alluding to talks this week between Acting Prime Minister Dr Lenny Saith and Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding over Air Jamaica and Caribbean Airlines, he warned the Government not to fund Air Jamaica. He jibed that he would personally “mark” the dollar bills he was paying in property tax to ensure they were used for things such as hospitals and schools, not Air Jamaica.

http://www.newsday.co.tt/news/print,0,112858.html

[16 cycles]

...politics has a morality of its own...

[src1983]

Square area by land use!

The assessment is based on how much the property can be rented for.

Rents follow area, location and amenities so assessments should, too. A two bedroom block house on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas doesn't rent for as much as a two bedroom condo with no land in One Woodbrook Place.

But if you built a 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom, 3 story house with a hot tub and a pool on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas, your taxes are going to be high for that neighborhood.
.

and if the Intention of the for the area to fund the government amenities that u use, the way u outfit ur property doesn't affect how much of the amenities that u use.
Whether u have a hot tub or a latrine, same road have to uses, same school have to uses, same police hadda come, same hospital is utilized.

So saying that because u fix ur house nice u should pay more for tax, has already been done any the VAT stage.

For adventures provided, the area u live is the only ting determining which amenities u use.


PNM people keep thinking that people with nice house must have big wuk to get it.
They don't understand that a lot of people inherited land, and developed the house over to elevate their comfort. And they still would have done so in a small salary.

Therefore to charge people a tax proportional to how much they developed their house on a yearly basis is penalizing them.

And the money to pay the taxes derived from the factors determining the rental value. 1000 brick at 15% VAT means u pay a tax proportional to what u spend, but it is one time.
U buy at any given time according to what u can afford.
But those bricks aren't generating a revenue. So, u have to get that money from a salary.
Which may not be much.

I agree with this, but this would have to take into account 95% of residential houses in St Augustine will have to be classed as commercial

You can't have a man saying "oh I build my house over x years blah blah blah" then have 20 apartments on his property renting

[pete]

Interesting point about that New York article is that you can actually find out what property tax someone is paying. I SERIOUSLY hope that our system is that transparent that you can see what your neighbour is paying etc.

[car]

Interesting point about that New York article is that you can actually find out what property tax someone is paying. I SERIOUSLY hope that our system is that transparent that you can see what your neighbour is paying etc.

Will never happen.
There will be corruption in the system. And because of this you will never see how much your neighbour or anyone else paid.
Just like vehicle inspection. You ever see a bachoe, trailer truck come in license office to do an inspection?

[sMASH]

Square area by land use!

The assessment is based on how much the property can be rented for.

Rents follow area, location and amenities so assessments should, too. A two bedroom block house on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas doesn't rent for as much as a two bedroom condo with no land in One Woodbrook Place.

But if you built a 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom, 3 story house with a hot tub and a pool on 5000 Sq ft in Los Lomas, your taxes are going to be high for that neighborhood.
.

and if the Intention of the for the area to fund the government amenities that u use, the way u outfit ur property doesn't affect how much of the amenities that u use.
Whether u have a hot tub or a latrine, same road have to uses, same school have to uses, same police hadda come, same hospital is utilized.

So saying that because u fix ur house nice u should pay more for tax, has already been done any the VAT stage.

For adventures provided, the area u live is the only ting determining which amenities u use.


PNM people keep thinking that people with nice house must have big wuk to get it.
They don't understand that a lot of people inherited land, and developed the house over to elevate their comfort. And they still would have done so in a small salary.

Therefore to charge people a tax proportional to how much they developed their house on a yearly basis is penalizing them.

And the money to pay the taxes derived from the factors determining the rental value. 1000 brick at 15% VAT means u pay a tax proportional to what u spend, but it is one time.
U buy at any given time according to what u can afford.
But those bricks aren't generating a revenue. So, u have to get that money from a salary.
Which may not be much.

I agree with this, but this would have to take into account 95% of residential houses in St Augustine will have to be classed as commercial

You can't have a man saying "oh I build my house over x years blah blah blah" then have 20 apartments on his property renting

Business levy.
I can't lean on the people who don't have much, just to catch the the ones who do, of they have a business that's not making money, they won't be able that tax just like people who inherited and have s small income . If its generating an income , go right ahead. Get the tax returns and apply as necesssry.

SSo I don't have to apply s broad brush approach to generating tax revenue, u can be more prudent and fair to how and who u do.

But essentially, a rental value is I inappropriate at best, and mostly opportunistic

[assassin]

SSo I don't have to apply s broad brush approach to generating tax revenue, u can be more prudent and fair to how and who u do.

But essentially, a rental value is I inappropriate at best, and mostly opportunistic

Yes but it was deliberately designed that way
To leave room for subjectivity, manipulation and inequity

[src1983]

This maybe why they did it like this, cause if a guy renting 20 apartments on his property just paying tax on the land, what is to stop a commercial company like a mall doing the same?

[Dizzy28]

Mid year review coming up....any guesses what may happen?

Min of Finance technocrats much quieter this mid year review than last years. Really not sure what to expect nah.

[VexXx Dogg]

Mid year review coming up....any guesses what may happen?

Min of Finance technocrats much quieter this mid year review than last years. Really not sure what to expect nah.

You can expect this.

[bluefete]

Mid year review coming up....any guesses what may happen?

Min of Finance technocrats much quieter this mid year review than last years. Really not sure what to expect nah.

You can expect this.

LOL. So true. When yuh see 'Shortman' so quiet, we should all expect the worst!!!!

T&TEC rates supposed to raise too.

[GeneralHonda]

Got my form in the mail this morning.

[kjaglal76v2]

I'm not even a PNM supporter, but come on guys y'all find them figures bad?

$81/month?

The sky is not falling, PPG should have never allowed the collection of taxes to stop & it's been 7yrs

[drchaos]

I'm not even a PNM supporter, but come on guys y'all find them figures bad?

$81/month?

The sky is not falling, PPG should have never allowed the collection of taxes to stop & it's been 7yrs

Look I have no problem with property tax, I think based on rental value is not the best way of going about this. My other issues are that sections of society will be unfairly treated by this tax. HDC delinquents not paying this, squatters not paying this and no way in hell Syrian financiers paying their fair share.

Lastly you think they gonna stop at 3% of the rental value??? 7% is where they eventually want this. They boiling the frog slowly.

[car]

I'm not even a PNM supporter, but come on guys y'all find them figures bad?

$81/month?

The sky is not falling, PPG should have never allowed the collection of taxes to stop & it's been 7yrs

What about $540 and more a month?
You think that reasonable?

Agreed that the tax should have not stopped.

[crazybalhead]

Anybody else notice Mel B spicing up her sex life?? Anybody?? Beuller? Ok...back to the tax then.