tax update
Feb. 15th, 2005 09:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mamajoanHere's an update on the oh-so-exciting property tax saga, in case anyone gives a crap. ;)
Brian figured out the discrepancy in the numbers; it came from the fact that when we closed on the house we paid taxes for the entire second quarter of 2004 even though we didn't close until May 5th, so we shouldn't have paid for April and the first 4 days of May. So the tax people reduced our bills for the third and fourth quarters of the year, to account for that; which explains why the amount I paid for those two quarters doesn't equal half of the yearly bill.
It also turns out, for some bizarre unknown reason, that the city will not officially consider us condos until July of this year, even though we were approved for the conversion on the day we closed (again, May 5th last year). I have no idea why this is, but it explains some of the confusion. Apparently come July they'll do a new appraisal and start sending us two separate tax bills as of Q3.
I, or to be specific my mortgage company, already paid the tax bill for the first quarter of 2005. Now Brian says that he called his mortgage company and told them to pay it for the second quarter, so we'll be "even" as far as that goes. All that remains is to settle up the amount that I paid for Q3 and Q4 of last year. Brian is consulting a tax person to find out whether we can somehow arrange that he pays me half of it and we both get the tax break. His original suggestion was to simply reduce the amount he owed me by my tax bracket -- 25% -- thus passing the tax savings on to him; but I'm actually in the 15% tax bracket and that didn't sound as good once he learned that. ;) Anyway, we'll figure that out. We also have some other bills to settle -- various house expenses that one or the other of us has paid -- and Brian made up a spreadsheet to help us resolve it.
The other thing remaining to be found out is whether we can take a deduction for the amount of taxes we paid at closing. I don't see why not, but I want to find out for sure, and also find the exact amount of course.
And then, after all that's taken care of, the time will come to ponder whether our lawyer, or our mortgage broker, or both, fucked this up somehow and should be yelled at. It kind of seems like it's something one or both of them should have known about / anticipated, and prepared us for. I don't know. I have to think about that.
So that's where that stands at the moment. Whew. I knew home ownership would be complicated, but DAMN.
Brian figured out the discrepancy in the numbers; it came from the fact that when we closed on the house we paid taxes for the entire second quarter of 2004 even though we didn't close until May 5th, so we shouldn't have paid for April and the first 4 days of May. So the tax people reduced our bills for the third and fourth quarters of the year, to account for that; which explains why the amount I paid for those two quarters doesn't equal half of the yearly bill.
It also turns out, for some bizarre unknown reason, that the city will not officially consider us condos until July of this year, even though we were approved for the conversion on the day we closed (again, May 5th last year). I have no idea why this is, but it explains some of the confusion. Apparently come July they'll do a new appraisal and start sending us two separate tax bills as of Q3.
I, or to be specific my mortgage company, already paid the tax bill for the first quarter of 2005. Now Brian says that he called his mortgage company and told them to pay it for the second quarter, so we'll be "even" as far as that goes. All that remains is to settle up the amount that I paid for Q3 and Q4 of last year. Brian is consulting a tax person to find out whether we can somehow arrange that he pays me half of it and we both get the tax break. His original suggestion was to simply reduce the amount he owed me by my tax bracket -- 25% -- thus passing the tax savings on to him; but I'm actually in the 15% tax bracket and that didn't sound as good once he learned that. ;) Anyway, we'll figure that out. We also have some other bills to settle -- various house expenses that one or the other of us has paid -- and Brian made up a spreadsheet to help us resolve it.
The other thing remaining to be found out is whether we can take a deduction for the amount of taxes we paid at closing. I don't see why not, but I want to find out for sure, and also find the exact amount of course.
And then, after all that's taken care of, the time will come to ponder whether our lawyer, or our mortgage broker, or both, fucked this up somehow and should be yelled at. It kind of seems like it's something one or both of them should have known about / anticipated, and prepared us for. I don't know. I have to think about that.
So that's where that stands at the moment. Whew. I knew home ownership would be complicated, but DAMN.
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no subject
Date: 2005-02-16 02:57 am (UTC)Brian should be able to pay you for half of last year's post-closing taxes, and then claim that deduction for himself. Just make sure you give him some sort of documentation (a signed and dated receipt, for instance) to keep with his tax files so he can prove that he did pay you for the property taxes.