Nassau County reportedly owes over $400 million to local property owners for real estate tax refunds. What is being done about it, how can you avoid paying more than you owe, and what other ways are there to reduce the cost of homeownership for Long Island residents and investors?
According to a Garden City attorney’s blog Nassau County owes more than $400 million in back refunds, plus interest. Worse this has been accumulating over the last couple of years, while proposals are still underway for creating a fund to come up with the money to make these payouts. That means unless you avoid overpaying on your Long Island property taxes ahead of time you could wait years to get what you are owed back, if ever.
Fortunately, this can be achieved by working with a local property tax adjuster to remedy and challenge your property tax bill in Nassau or Suffolk County.
It’s no secret that Long Islanders are among the highest taxed in the nation, and it’s not just property taxes either. There are other potential ways to reduce the cost of homeownership, such as better income tax planning, using self-directed IRAs or 401(k)s for investment property purchases, finding cheaper insurance or refinancing home loans.
Sadly of course, none of these methods are nearly as straight forward or easy as they may sound for most on Long Island. While interest rates are low, access to mortgage credit is tighter than ever. Bloomberg News reports many major insurers are ‘retreating’ from Long Island (and will certainly be increasing premiums), while new laws make it tougher than ever to dodge income taxes, even on retirement savings.
So for those serious about reducing the cost of homeownership on the island and that don’t want to be bled dry overpaying on real estate taxes consider contacting a property tax grievance specialist for help today…