While some Doomer porn "survivalist" would write about ravaging hordes of looters or millions of rioting EBT recipients going crazy when their cards stop working. I have long said the real danger facing us prepper and sustainer types is going to be the bloated government and the millions of government welfare employees screaming for "What they were promised". We are going to have to survive these types just to make it to a true physical survival situation.
If I was in the market for a nice parcel of land that contained all the natural resources needed to build a sustainable life after a financial collapse, one important point on the list of requirements would be just how much pension debt and property taxes that location carried with it. Make no mistake the largest threat to your continued survival right now is just how much the government is going to put the screws to ya before the final collapse hits. If you think your local, state and federal government welfare recipients are going to just take a pension cut for the team you are totally wrong as has been shown many times already.
Special Report: Multitude of Local Authorities Soak Illinois Homeowners in Taxes
In many Illinois cities and towns, high taxation still isn’t enough to keep up with increasing outlays, especially soaring pension costs, and some services have been cut. For example, in the state capital Springfield, pension costs for police and fire alone will this year consume nearly 90 percent of property tax revenues, according to the city's budget director, Bill McCarty. Since 2008, Springfield has cut 11 percent of its police force, closed three libraries, and tapped into other funds to pay pensions, McCarty added.
This is an ongoing problem that is just going to continue to get worse until the entire house of cards finally comes crashing down. You might think a loss of electricity, good roads, police and fire departments, emergency medical services etc. as a scary proposition but look at the quote above and realize we will be suffering under those losses WHILE paying taxes. Paying and paying and yet seeing nothing out of it.
To me that is a much scarier proposition.
It may not be glamorous like writing about how many rifles you have to hold back the looting horde or taking snap shots of all the food you have stockpiled that will reach it's good by date long before it is needed, but for this phase of survival avoiding as much government tax as possible it the key.
I think I mentioned not too long ago that even my rural county is seeing some local government tax manipulation going on. Recently my county has started taxing moveable storage units at a rate almost equal to permanent structures. What's next?
If you have a gate you can lock so the assessor can't just drive onto your property and look around I would jump on that. There is no telling what new taxes will be sprung on a property owner as the economy continues to shrink. Avoid large dollar purchases and try and buy as much as possible second hand if you can. Keep as much of your equipment and livestock hidden as you possibly can too.
A few starving looters ain't got nothing on the Tax Man let me tell you.
Keep Prepping Everyone!!!!!!!!
It probably depends on the location as to how things will play out, I mean if the tax man is used to counting suburbanites then they have a soft target. If the tax man has to go out into Appalachia where people have been rebelling against government since the 1700s, well it might be a little hard going up some hollows and even harder getting back out. It all depends on how much respect the government loses and how fast. You are right to stay below the data tracking, if you buy used stuff with cash, it will not show up in some database. I just saw a thing on Windows 10 and that system is nothing but a scam to steal personal information, one would want to go with anything but that system as they keep track of who you talk with, text and voice, it is going to be available to the government when they want it. It is becoming time to lay low as they used to call it.
ReplyDeleteSf - I have been hearing some horror stories about Windows 10 as well. I wonder how many other ways the government is going to continue to use technology to control us.
DeleteSo many see a collapse as a horrible thing. I often think it might be our only savior if things keep going the way they are.
Our taxes went down at the cabin, I think that's a first time in my life I've ever seen property taxes decrease. We still worry about how much improvements we should do, if you have the best looking property, the tax man wants you to pay them for the privilege.
ReplyDeleteIf the fed puts the screws to the states, its a trickle down to the local level. No more 'free' money, leading to an increase in taxes so the locals can keep things seeming normal.
We just got a huge grant and used tax money to install high speed WiFi on main street. It works for shit and they actually think it's going to somehow attract tourists. Nothing but places to eat and places for tourists to buy stuff at. Everyone thought the WiFi was a great idea (the government and the voters) because they can't see the big picture, that this type of thing doesn't matter and its only a distraction to issues that need to be addressed.
All across America.
Sorry for the soap-box. Cheers!
Max - My taxes went up again as usual here. They added about 400 bucks to the agricultural value for some reason. Up until recently my county had managed to avoid the big government intrusion and growth with the accompanying regulations but that is slowly changing as the suburbs push out from the local liberal college town.
DeleteThe city tot he South of us managed to spend Millions on a foot bridge saying it would bring in tourism. It would take a steady flow of people years to pay off the debt that bridge took to build but they still swear it was worth it. Of course the bridge is locked up now a lot to keep the wrong element off it.
Funny how all the public stuff, paid for at the point of a gun, isn't accessible to those who paid for it (for safety and other such crap reasoning).
DeleteMakes the old tractors and equipment make sense, less book value to tax.
ReplyDeleteI'd also recommend people find a good accountant because before wholesale inflame the masses with tax increases they'll probably go after "tax cheats" to scavenge revenue to feed the pension beast. You want a good CPA with a big set of books explaining why "No he doesn't owe that plus interest and penalties so go pick on someone who has maybe half he receipts left in existence and those are in a shoebox."
I actually had an accounting class on defined benefit pensions, and I'll tell you from the inside it's crazier than IRS code. It also almost by design encourages kicking the can down the the road.
Ody - Well I still swear the old tractors are better anyway but yes it does help in the tax department.
DeleteI hope to stay under the radar far enough to avoid being targeted but when the dimes run out they will come after anyone they can I imagine.
That is very interesting on the pension design. Can you explain in more detail? I would love to hear it.
Good lord, explaining defined benefit pension accounting.........this will take a blog post of my own to even try, it was by far the nastiest chapter in my Intermediate Financial Accounting III semester. Mainly because unlike the rest of non-tax accounting it is utterly devoid of sense.
DeleteHere locally, the City Administration figured out that the tax rates on homeowners will eventually prevent anyone from buying anything. They complained to the Tax Authority who shrugged their shoulders and said "Not up to us - we don't set the rates, we just enforce them". Their solution was to try to get commercial owners to pay more, which went over like a ton of bricks in this economy (which is doing okay right now). The whole matter just seems to have quietly died away.
ReplyDeleteand I bet nobody knows where all the collected money is going. Infuriating.
DeleteTB - Ya they are very closed mouthed about how the rates are set. It's always some mythical "State Law" excuse with no explanation.
DeleteThey always say they are going after the rich or the businesses too but they still come after the little guys with just as much gusto.
Good Post......I agree property taxes are a huge issue and certainly need to be looked at as how they will play into ones retirement budget. Or pre - retirement budget.. They just keeping wanting more and more. We looked a town home once years ago, A middle class townhome, it was in Dallas County (horrible tax base) taxes back then on that townhome were 10000.00, yes ten thousand a year! We both just laughed and said not in this lifetime. Why would you give ten thousand dollars of your hard earned money away in taxes we thought, well we wouldn't. I can only imagine what the taxes are on that same townhome now! When you think over a lifetime what you pay in taxes, think what a nest egg that would be..... geesh.... Here where we live rural, the tax person actually calls and says I need on your property when can you let me in, (we have a locked gate) as do most everyone out here. They come out and look around at least every other year. Welcome to Texas. They also use the satellite and if they see something on your property that wasn't there before they ask you about it. They called the year we did the hoop tunnels over our gardens that we put the shade cloth on. DH said that is my vegetable garden, your welcome to come see it. We built shade tunnels for it. They didn't come out but they surely did want to know if they were a structure so they could be taxed. We did not get taxed on them.
ReplyDeleteTexan - I was replying to comments at lunch and blogger just stopped letting me. So now I am back.
DeleteInteresting. I guess since my place is so wide open I have never had them call but that makes sense that they would. I am not sure my county assessors office is smart enough to figure out the google earth thing and besides I checked just a few days ago and the picture they have up for us is still pretty old.
Not sure what will happen if they update it here.
Property taxes are one of the main items that force people to stay connected to the greater economy. With income tax, your tax will generally adjust to your income, or with sales taxes, to your spending. Put with property taxes, much like the old pole taxes, you have to earn cash to pay the taxes, and the tax doesn't adjust to value of your earnings.
ReplyDeleteRuss - Yep they are. The one's here are still low enough that I could probably manage to pay them just picking up empty cans along the side of the road if I needed to. Yet in general you are 100% correct.
Deleteugh. PP. i hate to say this but the last time a tax person was out here was like in 1911 or so. you don't even want to know what we pay in property taxes. and having lots of junk laying around, and our tires, is for a reason...capiche?
ReplyDeleteyour friend,
kymber