Businesses are scrambling as taxes rise, their tax breaks are stripped away, and workers bear the brunt of it all with rising living costs, and vanishing home equity.
While remote work is now the preferred way to work for many workers and many very successful businesses, you’ve seen some big companies desperately trying to drag workers back to the office. While it may seem to make little sense on the surface, it may be largely about the tax breaks those corporations face losing. Even though they haven’t volunteered to share that money with their teams.
We most notably saw Amazon walk away from its big tax breaks in NY after it couldn’t employ 100 people.
Other big institutions are trying anything and everything to threaten workers back to the office. Even if it will be their downfall in the long run. This may be partially because they invested billions in office space they need to keep occupied. Though also because tax break agreements written pre-COVID lockdowns required their workers to be in the workplace.
States like California and New York are likely to get more aggressive in collecting as they bleed out tax revenues to companies and residents heading to lower tax destinations.
Small Businesses Are Often Hit Hardest
It is often the small businesses that suffer the worst. Despite the fact that small businesses actually employ the most people overall, they don’t get the big tax incentives and property tax breaks that big national and global corporations do.
In turn, they are often bearing the brunt of higher property taxes to pay for their bigger competitors to have an advantage over them.
This gets even worse for small business owners who also own homes in places like NY. They are paying more than their share on their business property, and often on their home’s property tax bills too.
Vanishing Wealth
Retirement savings are being destroyed by high inflation, and stock market volatility. It shouldn’t be a surprise if many find those savings afford 80% less by the end of this year.
Bloomberg also reports that existing home sales have now fallen for 12 months straight. While declining home values have already erased over $2T in home equity.
So, your business is being taxed more, living costs are up, it’s nearly impossible to sell your home, and all the equity you built up in it is vanishing.
Appeal Your Annual Property Taxes
If you can save money by working remotely, then absolutely embrace it. It can save so much in travel costs, lost time, and more. You may even take your small business remote. All of this can help offset rising taxes and living costs.
Just beware of exit taxes if you are considering joining everyone else in fleeing the state for cheaper places to live and work.
Save your home if you can. Historically property values have always come back. It is just a matter of finding a way to hang until your equity returns.
One of the best ways you can deal with all of this is appealing your annual property taxes.