Forbes Wants You To Love Your Property Taxes!

Blog June 5, 2015 By Admin
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A new debate by Forbes encourages to love, and cling to property taxes. So is this the poorest attempt at propaganda we’ve seen in a long time? Or should we love our sky high property taxes in NY? North Dakota recently tried to eliminate property taxes. The state was unsuccessful, but is reportedly working to systematically reduce the government’s reliance on property tax income, with the aim of reducing and hopefully dropping them later. Forbes writer Cara Griffith suggests we learn to love property taxes. Because without them local governments would have to get better at budgeting and inefficient schools could fail. Others would certainly disagree. Some see this tax as a huge scam. So is it possible to survive without property taxes? According to Nomad Capitalist many places don’t have annual property taxes including:

  • Croatia
  • Malta
  • Liechtenstein
  • Monaco
  • Fiji
  • Cook Islands
  • Israel
  • Dubai

Considering this list includes some of the world’s most prestigious destinations and wealth strongholds it is clearly possible for US states like NY to survive without property taxes. And to still have schools, and attract businesses. Making the transition is obviously a completely different ball game. Alaska is reportedly the only state to have successfully eliminated a major tax in the last 50 years. They accomplished this by replacing the revenue with funds from natural resources. A comprise might come in the form of improving the tax assessment system, or offering better exemptions for the right people. Unfortunately this has proven to be equally difficult for politicians to manage, despite endless debates on the topic. So what options are there for New Yorkers that aren’t happy with their huge annual property tax bills that effectively keep them as lifelong renters instead of owners?

  1. Learn to love your property taxes
  2. Move to one of the exotic locations that don’t have them
  3. Challenge your high property tax bills and get them reduced