Whether you own a property in one or more of the states having the lowest property taxes or not? If you own real estate, you must know this especially when the tax season is coming up. Even though every state imposes property tax, the rate greatly varies for each state. The property taxes can be very low in one state and very high in another. And hence you must be aware of the tax rate of the state or states where you own real estate.
What is property tax?
The property taxes are the ones paid by the property owners. The property owners can be legal entities such as corporations or other businesses or individuals. The tax amount to be paid is decided by the local government where the property is listed.
Even though the property tax is for the real estate, few of the states also assess property tax on other personal property like boats and cars. The property taxes can be termed as the key source of income for the local governments. These collected amounts can be used to fund the municipal projects such as road improvements, schools, parks and recreation and the public transportation.
Calculation of property tax
The property tax is calculated considering the value of the property. Specifically, the value to any property is assessed based on its type, structure and the land that it sits on. For instance, a vacant land or plot will have a lower tax compared to its neighbor plot having a house and guest cottage over it. If the property assesses the public services or has the potential to further development, higher taxes could be imposed on such premises.
Each state have its property tax rate calculated using the unique formulas. However, there stands two common factors in all the states: the assessed value of property and the percentage tax rate. This makes it easy to look and the tax rate and compare and contrast property taxes between states.
For instance, if person A owns a home worth $1 million and was assessed a property tax of $10,000 last year, the property tax calculated is 1%. Whereas a person B in some other state owns a condo worth $150,000 and was assessed $10,000 as property tax last year i.e. same amount as person A. here the rate is 7%. Even though person A and B paid the same amount of money, it can be easily seen that B paid a heavier tax when looking at the tax rate.
Setting home value
Tax accessors are the entities who exactly determine or set the home values in each state. The tax accessors are the government agents who value the properties every 1 to 5 years. They look for similar properties in the market and even compare the recent sales prices to determine a property’s exact value. A lot of formulas are involved to find the correct and exact values for each property.
One can expect an increased tax bill with any added value to the home such as adding a pool or building a second story. Most of the states tend to offer appeal process that allows any recourse if one feels that the property value assessment is unreasonable or unfair.
States having no property taxes
This question might give hope that there might be states having no property tax at all but sadly, there are no such states. The property taxes are essential and they are used to fund the municipal and government services for public good and welfare. Hence every state assesses property tax in some of the other form. However, few of the states tend to have a lower property tax rate than others that can be a good news.
10 states having the lowest property tax
Here is the moment to release the list of ten states having lowest property taxes. If you own a property or more than one properties, you would be knowing the pain to having had to pay high property taxes every year. However, if you own the property in one of the states listed below, you annual expense will be a less of burden. If you are planning to buy a real estate, you might consider investing in real estate in one of the following states, even if you don’t wish to live there.
- Hawaii: 0.30%
- Alabama: 0.40%
- Louisiana: 0.52%
- Wyoming: 0.55%
- West Virginia: 0.55%
- South Carolina: 0.56%
- Colorado: 0.56%
- Delaware: 0.58%
- Utah: 0.62%
- Arkansas: 0.64%
Conclusion
Josh Welch and his team is working to bring awareness among people. They are working on few major issues regarding taxes and are planning the betterment of people. Josh Welch is a founder of Americans for Growth Coalition and runs a Houston based real estate firm having almost $200M assets. Being a successful business owner who has created hundreds of jobs, he is passionately fighting for the issues he care about. For more details please contact Americans for Growth Coalition.
