Gloria Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 Are you only deducting the amounts on the property tax bill that have a percentage allocated to each Taxing Agency and not deducting the amounts that do not have a percentage (school bonds, garbage, sewer, land use, etc.)? Just want to make sure I am not short-changing my clients. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FedupCPA Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 You deduct everything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joanmcq Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 Not garbage & sewer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxxcpa Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 Itemized charges for trash collection, water, sewer, etc. are not deductible. I suppose if they are not itemized you would not have to make some seat-of-the-pants reduction to the amount charged for taxes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OldJack Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 Oh... just deduct the whole thing, you got to leave something for the IRS auditor to find and justify his work. Better it be something small rather than a larger issue. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lion EA Posted February 10, 2013 Report Share Posted February 10, 2013 Sewer and water can be usage fees and not property taxes; if usage fees, not deductible on Schedule A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloria Posted February 11, 2013 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 Sewer and water can be usage fees and not property taxes; if usage fees, not deductible on Schedule A. I was pretty sure about the usage fees, but what about amounts charged for school bonds (in many areas where new schools are being build, taxpayers pay for a portion of the bond with the property taxes). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jainen Posted February 11, 2013 Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 >>amounts charged for... << A couple of years ago California came up with a clever idea. They would require the Assessor's Parcel Number for any property tax deduction, so they could cross-check because the rule is that only "ad valorem" taxes are deductible. Those are the ones that are based on property value. Then an interesting thing happened, which shows that the IRS is not such a monolithic evil as we usually think. Some government lawyer pointed out that the LAW doesn't actually limit it to value-based taxes, just whatever is "for the general good." Of course, nobody knows what that means because nobody can agree on what this country needs. And (in my opinion) Congress will be the last ones to figure it out. So we just deduct everything. If you pay it to the tax collector, it's a tax. Not counting late fees. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
michaelmars Posted February 11, 2013 Report Share Posted February 11, 2013 Oh... just deduct the whole thing, you got to leave something for the IRS auditor to find and justify his work. Better it be something small rather than a larger issue. TOTALLY agree with Jack, only once did i have an agent look at the tax bill, usually they just look at the 1098. Besides, our bills here are on fiscal years so getting the correct deduction would be a process for a $100-$200 adjustment to average tax bills of $$10-15.00 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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