Free Tax Advisor receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each week / month and Our valuable advise is always FREE.
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Property Tax Money Saving Tips
There are more than ~75M single family home owners in the United States and many of them can benefit from the information that I have provided here. These are simple tips that can save you money not just one year but every year.
Exemptions and Credits
You can lower your property tax bill by applying for various exemptions and tax credits offered by tax districts (Local County). It is very simple to apply for these exceptions and credits and you will be amazed how much you can save. Here are some tips.
- Homestead exemptions. You can obtain this by calling your local county tax assessment office and generally you can save 10-20% in property taxes per year.
- Certain individual also can receive a tax credits. e.g. Senior citizen, teacher, police officer, disabled or disabled veterans, low income families and windows could receive full tax exemptions or a %credits and are allowed to(check for age limits) receive a reduction in property taxes in certain counties. Check with your local tax assessment office.
- Agricultural land is normally taxed at much lower rate so you should check and see if you can qualify for a farm land status for your property.
Addition to getting credits and exemptions, you can also check and see that your property value is properly assessed. If value of your property is listed higher than the competitive property in your area, then you are paying too much in taxes. Many people feel really good when their property value is assessed at higher than their neighbors; however person who is at disadvantage is you not your neighbor as you will be paying more in taxes. Here are the steps to fight for lowering your home appraisal value.
- Review appraisal value of properties in your neighborhood by looking at the county appraisal district web site. If you think your home value is assessed higher than homes in your neighborhood (compared similar square footage of living area and land) than consider challenging your appraised value to see if you can reduce your property taxes.
- When you receive an appraisal value Notice (Generally around Apr-May time frame) make sure you indicate that you do not agree with the current valuation.
- Next step then is to determine what actually should be the value of your property. Most property appraisals can be found on the county tax assessor’s web site. Compare values in your neighborhood homes to come up with a fair value. Make sure you consider all defects in your home which can lower the value of your property. These items are presentable to property assessor so that you can mutually agree to a value which is acceptable to both parties.
- Once you have all the information, present your case to the county tax assessor over the phone or in person what ever the method that county allows. Make sure that you have enough evidence to justify your case. (Pictures, sales price of other homes etc.) If mutually agreeable, then assessor will change the value, if not then you may have to appear in the court to justify your case in lowering the value of your home at no cost to you. (Nothing to worry about, it is a very simple court proceeding and you can easily handle this). If you do not win the case there is nothing that you can lose.
Free Tax Advisor receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each week / month and Our valuable advise is always FREE.
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Should I Contribute To 401K?
Yes … Yes and Yes. Unless you are in a bind that you have absolute 100% need for your full pay check and it is a survival type situation.
Here are the reasons why
401k savings for retirement is a vehicle set up by US government to benefit workers so that they can retire with large savings as most of the Unions are now gone and so is the company funded retirement plan. So you have to take care of your retirement, retirement burden is on YOU.
Secondly, Uncle Sam is helping you with the 401k savings by deferring your tax until the retirement, so that puts time on your side with the 401k$ investments and earnings. That means your money grows tax free until the retirement.
Thirdly, most employers match the contribution you make, that is FREE money for you towards retirement.
Fourthly, you will have tax due on the 401k savings when you retire, when you retire, most probably you will be in a lower tax bracket, saving you further in taxes.
Free Tax Advisor is here to help you with useful advice and tips for your IRS federal tax return and all aspect of Tax rules and regulations. Tax laws are complicated, however by understaning them YOU can save some serious money in tax liabilities.Free Tax Advisor receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each week / month and Our valuable advise is always FREE.
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401K Contributions and Your Future Retirement
What is 401K?
Don’t let the number 401K confused you with the plan, this plan is fairly easy to understand and I will try to provide you the best summary that you can find to understand it in a real layman term.
A 401(k) is a retirement plan that was enacted by US government to help US employees save for retirement. This plan is offered by some employers in the United States but not all. The plan received the name from the section 401 of Internal Revenue (IRS) Code it was named after.
401(K) plan is a tax-deferred (contribution is before tax) retirement savings plans for employees. The employer sets up this plan according to federal guidelines and each company has its own 401(K) plan. Amount contributed is defined by the company but bounded by IRS guidelines.
Tax Benefits
One of the top benefits of a 401(k) plan is that contributions are made on a pre-tax basis. As an employee, you are allowed to make pre-tax contributions weekly, bi-weekly or monthly directly from your pay check. Since these contributions are done on a pre-tax basis, you do not pay current income tax on the money that is contributed into the plan and tax is deferred until retirement. (Tax is not due on this money until you retire, that puts time on your side, you keep the money, and money grows tax free). You are only taxed on the money you withdraw from the plan at retirement as ordinary income.
The Employer Match
Some companies offer an additional benefit to 401K to attract good employees by providing a company match contribution. That means your employer contributes additional money into your own plan that matches a portion of your contributions. Some employers match dollar-for-dollar up to a certain percentage of pay (Example $ to $ match up to 3%) while others matches a specified percentage (Example 50Cents on a $ up to 3%) of your contribution.
Another thing to remember is most of the companies will have a vesting schedule in place that requires you to stay at the company for a certain length of time before you can collect the matched contribution. The vesting period could be a gradual scale or a one-time length of service requirement. (Example, 25% vested for each year until four years of service then after 100%, means after you are at the company for four year, 100% of company contribution is yours)
Free Tax Advisor is here to help you with useful advice and tips for your IRS federal tax return and all aspect of Tax rules and regulations. Tax laws are complicated, however by understaning them YOU can save some serious money in tax liabilities.Free Tax Advisor receives hundreds of thousands of visitors each week / month and Our valuable advise is always FREE.
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Hello!
Welcome to Free Tax Advisor. We are here to help you with useful advice and tips for your federal tax return. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to comment in any comment box on our website. We hope that this advice will be very useful when you file your return in April!
