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California Property Tax – An Example Of ‘Friendly’ Property Tax Rules..California property tax – an example of ‘friendly’ property tax rules.. To the best of my knowledge on the research that I have done, California is one of the more ‘friendlier’ states in terms of property taxes. Considering that property tax defaults are one of the major tax defaults giving headaches to the economy of the USA, California Property tax has re-defined the system of Property Tax. It has done well to not to rely on property tax as its major source of income to the government. The fact that since 1993, their major source of income has been from personal income taxes and sales taxes has considerably reduced Californian local governments’ reliability on Property Taxes. That does not mean at any cost that California does not collect Property Taxes from its citizens. It indeed does. But the property tax rules are so well laid out and citizen friendly that enough opportunities are given to a property tax-defaulter to pay their property taxes. For starters, there is a whole big list of Property Tax Exemptions. These include Personal Effects, Intangible Personal Property (Stocks, Mutual funds), Homeowners’ exemption (For homes which are occupied by owners, $7000 is reduced from the taxable value of the property). There are other exemptions like Church Exemptions, Welfare Exemption, Disabled Veteran’s exemption, Livestock Exemption, Free libraries exemption and many more. Honestly, looking at the length of the list, you would have come to know by now that California is indeed a ‘friendly’ state when it comes to property taxes. The fact that property owners are given five years time to redeem their property from the first date the property owner has defaulted in paying the property tax gives property owners enough time, just in case they are interested in claiming the property back after their property tax default. Of course, there are penalties and surcharges. In case, the property owner does not pay the required amount by the five years time, the property would be considered default and would be sold in an auction. With detailed rules describing each of the exemptions and property tax assessment categories, California is indeed the place where you can look to buy your property. Of course, the real estate prices are a bit high here. But you cannot ask for more when you have such ‘friendly’ property tax rules, especially when you have a very high standard of living. With so much information at your disposal, and California property tax being so friendly, you should be contacting your realtor right now to look to buy a home in California. However, you do need to know that there is a wide variance of property values throughout the state. So, check out the properties in those areas that are most closely alligned with your income level. |