High property taxes are virtually inescapable for people living within commuting distance of New York—and the new tax law will make this burden even worse.
Nine of the 10 counties in the U.S. with the highest average property tax bills from 2017 were in the New York City suburbs, with Westchester topping the list at $17,179, according to Bloomberg. The sole exception was Marin County in California, where the average bill was $11,295.
New York’s Rockland County took the number two spot, while Nassau County landed at number five. Connecticut’s Fairfield County was number eight, and the rest of the spots all went to counties in New Jersey: Essex, Bergen, Union, Morris and Passaic.
Several of the counties had average property taxes well over the new deduction limit of $10,000 for state and local taxes. The new tax law limits the mortgage-interest deduction as well at new loans of $750,000.
In the latest budget, New York state legislators created two loopholes designed to allow taxpayers to convert property tax payments into charitable donations and then writing them off, effectively reducing the burden. It’s unclear if the Internal Revenue Service will permit the practice. [Bloomberg] – Eddie Small