When paying property tax, we can always hear such complaints from homeowners. China people's enthusiasm for buying a house in the United States has only increased, but many people are still worried about the high property tax. How to pay the US property tax? How to make rational use of American property tax exemption and reduce property tax expenditure? This article is for everyone to interpret one by one. This paper focuses on how to reasonably reduce the property tax of owner-occupied housing.

To analyze how to reduce the property tax in the United States, we must first locate the nature of the house, and the policies that can be used for self-occupied housing and investment housing are very different.

How to reduce property tax for self-occupied houses?

According to statistics, about 4 1% of American families spend on housing every year, and housing has become the largest expenditure item for American families. Except for house maintenance and daily expenses, most of the rest comes from house property tax. It is the best choice to calculate the taxes to be paid when buying a house in the United States, including the expansion of home insurance tax, and to avoid some of them reasonably.

Underestimate the value of real estate.

Because the property value of American houses determines the tax base of property tax, the valuation of houses plays an important role in reducing property tax. First of all, we need to know the main influencing factors of real estate appraisal.

Real estate appraisal mainly considers two parts: one is the value of the house itself (mainly based on the value at the time of purchase, the added value of decoration and the added value of the market), and the other is the value of the land.

The main factors that need to be considered when estimating: the surrounding house price, building area, housing area, room type, room age and supporting facilities. At the same time, American school districts also have high value, which is generally considered to have considerable appreciation potential.

From the above main factors, we can find that many things can't be changed, such as the surrounding housing prices and supporting facilities.

But we can start with the value of the house itself and choose an old house with a suitable area within our own ability. Maybe we can consider more American second-hand houses with a certain age when buying a house. The second-hand housing in the United States has a long development time, usually located in a convenient transportation area, and the supporting resources are no less than some new houses.

Different lots also have great influence on the valuation of real estate, and lots belong to land value. Our economic capacity is limited, and we don't have so persistent yearning for hot areas. Perhaps you can also choose some less popular areas, and the land value in remote areas is often very different from that in the popular areas in the center.

Different regions have different tax rates.

The amount of property tax is not only related to the property value, but also related to the property tax rate. In different regions, the tax rate gap is also very large.

For example, New Jersey, which has the highest property tax rate among American states, has a tax rate of 2.35%, while Hawaii, which has the lowest tax rate, has only 0.27%. The property with the same value of 1 10,000 dollars needs to pay more than 20,000 dollars regularly in New Jersey, while it only needs more than 2,000 dollars in Hawaii.

Escape from the school district and avoid high taxes and fees.

Property tax in the United States is also called "welfare tax" by many people. Literally, we can learn one or two things. In the United States, property tax is mainly used to build school districts and public facilities. For example: paying students' meals, school bus fees, teachers' salaries, changing teaching facilities, etc. Therefore, the place with the highest property tax is also the best place for school districts.

Aiming at the problem of childless education, rather than focusing on the return of subsequent investment in housing. When buying a house, you may wish to avoid those popular school districts and let yourself spend less useless money.

Pay the property tax to a certain value and get compensation.

This is a relief policy formulated by the local government of the United States for self-occupied houses. When the property tax to be paid exceeds a certain value, the taxpayer can get the corresponding state personal income tax credit or cash compensation from the state government.

For example, in California, taxpayers' main self-occupied houses can be exempted from the property tax of $7,000.

Special social groups, tax relief.

The property tax in the United States is not an iron and blood bill, and the government also provides corresponding benefits for special social groups.

American veterans have a certain tax allowance. At present, there are 30 States in the United States, and the government provides certain tax allowances when evaluating the property of veterans' self-occupied houses. Not only that, if the car owner belongs to one of the elderly aged 65 and above, the disabled, the victims of disabled crimes, the courageous disabled and the clergy, he can also enjoy certain tax reduction and exemption concessions.

For example, in Florence, if you are an elderly person or a disabled person over the age of 65 and only own a self-occupied house with an annual income of less than $52,000, you can enjoy the benefits of property tax exemption; If the income is between $52,000 and $62,000, the elderly or disabled over 65 can enjoy a 50% property tax reduction.

If a friend who is about to turn 65 wants to go to the United States for retirement, he can also plan as early as possible and use this policy to save taxes.

Self-occupation for two years, value-added relief

According to American tax law, the owner has lived in the house for more than two years within five years of purchasing the house. After selling the house, you can reduce some taxes and fees for the appreciation of the house ($500,000 for couples and $250,000 for individuals). Of course, friends who regard American real estate as investment should keep their eyes open. If the house does not appreciate in five years, this method will not work!

House incidentals are tax deductible.

Self-occupied houses will certainly produce various miscellaneous expenses in the process of living. Knowing this item can save you a lot of money.

Q: What expenses can be used for tax deduction?

A: Property tax, loan interest; Housing depreciation expenses, decoration expenses and decoration depreciation expenses; Maintenance cost of the house; Management fees of real estate companies; Agency fees for real estate agents; Real estate advertising fee; Support for their minor children and so on.

For high-income earners, the federal government's tax savings can be as high as 40%, and California's is 13.3%, which is equivalent to the government giving you half of the expenses.

Reminder: you need to provide relevant certificates when deducting taxes, and try to avoid cash transactions in maintenance and decoration.

How to reduce the property tax of American investment houses?

Consider "103 1" tax extension for American real estate?

The exchange of "103 1" refers to the purchase of real estate according to Article 103 1 of the US federal tax law, so as to realize the purpose of delaying the payment of value-added tax.

Because "103 1", if the investor sells the old house, he will buy a house in the United States with the money earned from the appreciation of the old house. Then the money earned can be temporarily exempted from US property tax. Of course, the "103 1" tax extension method needs to meet not only these requirements, but also the operation requirements of "103 1" are very professional. ?

Tip: "103 1" is a tax extension, not a tax exemption. If you want to take advantage of the "103 1" tax deferred policy, American real estate investors must make preparations in advance and exchange in strict accordance with the requirements under the guidance of special personnel to avoid unnecessary losses.

Investment in rental housing, depreciation issues should be carefully considered.

Many friends will face the problem of whether to accrue depreciation expenses for buildings when they apply for tax returns for rental houses. This problem is complicated and varies from person to person.

For example:

Purchase cost: 800,000 USD.

Rental income: 2000 USD/month, so the annual rental income: 24000 USD.

Other expenses: suppose that the local tax is 4000 dollars a year, and then the management fee, water and electricity fees are calculated at 5000 dollars a year.

Rental profit: 15000 USD (24000-4000-5000) a year.

Tax amount without depreciation: assuming the tax rate is 15%, it means paying $2,250. Moreover, many landlords also have their own work income, so the tax rate may exceed 15%, so they will have to pay more taxes.

Tax amount after depreciation: The house is depreciated according to the standard fixed number of years of 27.5 years, and the depreciation expense is USD 29,090 (USD 800,000 /27.5). Then the rental profit will lose $65,438+$04,090 ($24,000-$4,000-$5,000-$29,090). This means that the rent part of renting a house is tax-free. And you can also use this loss to offset your other income in that year and reduce your family's tax burden.

However, depreciation only postpones this part of depreciation until the sale of the house to pay taxes, assuming that ten years later:

Price: $950,000.

Housing cost: 565,438+000 USD (800,000-800,000 USD /27.5 * 10).

Profit from selling the house: 440,000 USD (950,000 USD-565,438 USD+0,000 USD).

Tax amount after depreciation: if it is $440,000 from the sale of houses, the tax rate can be as high as 65,438+05% (the maximum profit of long-term capital investment is 20%), that is, the tax is $66,000.

Tax without depreciation: the cost of the house is still $800,000, so the profit from selling the house is $65,438+050,000, and the tax paid is $22,500.

When selling a house, the house with depreciation paid $43,500 more in tax than the house without depreciation. However, in the past ten years, the tax saved by homeowners through depreciation was also 40,000 dollars, but in the past ten years, the tax paid by undepreciated houses was 45,000 dollars (2250 *10+22,500 dollars), so it seems that building depreciation is more economical.

But the above only provides a calculation method, and different families have different situations. When selling a depreciated house, the accrued depreciation will be taxed according to the tax rate of the family's income in the current year, so it is generally necessary to think carefully and make a plan for the income in the current year before selling the house.

? Investment real estate is used for rental, and loan interest can be deducted.

The IRS has many policies and preferential policies for homeowners who are overseas but still actively participate in housing management, that is, taxable income = rental income-expenses (loan interest, property tax, maintenance fee, depreciation fee, etc. ). Therefore, due to the low loan interest, the owner of the rented house considers borrowing money to buy a house, and keeps all kinds of expense vouchers during the rental process to offset the property tax.