Is it too early to quit?
We received a bill yesterday for the personal property tax on my car. We receive our bills in July, with a due date of July 1 (even though we get them around the 5th, but no penalty until Aug 2). If there are 2 installments of the bill due (which would be due on Jan 1), that is in there too. Back in July, we paid our first installment on G-man's car, and the 1 installment on the van that we got rid off in Nov '11 when we got my Jeep.
The bills are based on cars that
are on the Grand list in October. So now they are charging me for the
91.7% of the year we owned the car. It has taken the tax assessor's office this long to deal with it (even though I called them a very long time ago). They have pro-rated the time we have owned the Jeep, and credited back the money we paid on the Van we didn't own. (See...I was trying to get them to do all of this in July....before I had to pay for the van. But that "isn't how it works.")
So we got a bill for $139 for the Jeep....due by the end of the month.
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And I got the electric bill. We are on a budget plan, and January is our "settle up" month. The problem is I can't figure out where they got the number from!! They say we owe $213. Our new budget rate isn't listed, so as it currently reads, this is our new budget amount. This can't be right, as our total bill for the year was just under $1400. At that budget amount, we would be paying $2556 a year.
I have added and subtracted numbers all over to get to $213. No go. Why can't they just say " X is the settle up amount for 2012. Your budget amount per month is Y. X+Y +$213."
I am estimating that our budget amount per month should be $115, based on usage and current rates (up from $104). Additionally, the bill says we owed $88 from the month before, but our billing history shows we owed $0. Even $115+$88=$203. So we still aren't at $213. With it being New Year's Day...I can't call and figure it out, which will bug me. I know I will get an explanation tomorrow, but that doesn't help me for today.
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NINE hours into the new year, and we are already behind the 8-ball. How does that work????
This was on-line. I looked at the actual PDF of the bill....the payment history....the usage history....
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world is a personal property tax for a car?? Here in Canada you buy a car and taxes are all in the price. We do have emissions tests every other year depending on the age of your car, but no personal property tax.
ReplyDeleteOur hydro bill is $191 a month, I would kill to have a budgeted amount of $115. My settle up amount was lower this year for the first time ever. Usually I end up with a bill well over $200.
Hopefully things get better for you here on out.
We have to pay taxes on our cars (just for owning the cars) every 6 months. The tax goes down as the value of a car goes down. But it is usually $250 per car, per year. Plus we have to pay a fire tax to the fire department.....just for owning the car.
DeleteElectric....that is just electric. We pay over $300 a month just for oil, which heats our home and hot water. Between the two, we pay about 425.
Theresa, to clarify what Mysti said about the "car tax", it's a state levied tax, not federal. Some states have a Personal property tax, some don't, just like some states have sales tax and some don't(plus the rate of tax varies as well). Every state has their own ways to tax you into oblivion. 8-(
DeleteThanks for helping to clarify. Here in CT we pay income taxes, personal property taxes (on real estate, cars, recreational vehicles), sales tax to the tune of 6.35%.
DeleteOur personal property taxes for the cars and the house (a small house...) are outrageous. I pay more in 6 months for my house than most people pay for a year for a house 2x as big. We escrow our real estate tax and home owners insurance.....runs us just under $600 A MONTH.
Then we have our income taxes to the state. Which is usually a few thousand total.
And shopping sales tax.
CT is one of the highest tax places in our country. And we get very little for what we pay.
And then we get to the federal taxes.....
A good chunk of our income is gone just to taxes.
HOLY Moses!! And people think Canadians pay high taxes.
DeleteThis is how I felt all year. But it is going to be a great year just wait and see!
ReplyDeleteI had an issue with CL&P as well. Although August is my "settle up" month, my bill last month went up $150 with no explanation. No matter what I did, I couldn't figure out what the heck was going on. I called the company and even the person I spoke to couldn't figure it out.
ReplyDelete