1. Home
  2. Taxes General Forum
  3. Deducting property tax due in 2018

Deducting property tax due in 2018

I'm trying to figure out how much of my property tax due in 2018 I can pay the last week of December and still legally deduct in 2017.

In my town, real estate and personal property tax bills for the fiscal Year (July to June) are mailed the last week of June, September, December and March. Payments are due by 4 p.m. in the Tax Collector's office on August 1, November 1st, February 1st and May 1st or the following regular business day if the 1st falls on a weekend.

The bills due in August and November are estimates of 1/4 of the year's tax bill, then the town does it's assessment in December, so the bills due in Feb and May of 2018, which is the remainder divided by 2, are properly assessed by the last week of December 2017. The tax collectors office also told me that because the estimates for the August 2018 and November 2018 bills are based on the Dec 2017 assessment, that they could tell me to the penny how much those bills are, and that I can prepay those too.

I plan to prepay the Feb 2018 and May 2018 during the last week of December. If I also pay the August 2018 and Nov 2018 bills too, would I be able to deduct them also.

Thanks for any replies.

Reply to
jershap
Loading thread data ...

Absolutely. I called my tax office yesterday, and it didn't go quite as well. They told me their system "closes out" on the fiscal year, and payments for 2H18 are likely to be returned.

Since you have talked to your tax office, you don't have this issue. As far as federal tax goes, your plan has no issue, prepaying lets you pull the deduction in.

Note: for those who pay their own health insurance premiums, this works just as well. In Dec 2016, I paid my 2017 premium in full, and that amount was enough, when added to the years' medical expenses, to be fully deductible. In effect, a 25% return on my money, sent an average ~6 months early.

Reply to
JoeTaxpayer

BeanSmart website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.