Assets taxes in anticipation of decrease

el Air resident Bryan Glaz came to the Harford County Administration Center in downtown Bel Air Friday to prepay his subsequent yr’s property taxes for one reason. “Because I’m going to get beaten next yr through this tax invoice,” Glaz stated, relating to the sweeping federal tax reform bill President Donald Trump signed into law Dec. 22. The regulation influences income and deductions starting Jan. 1, 2018.

According to the county, Harford belongings owners such as Glaz, who expect to be over a new state and nearby tax deduction cap on their 2018 federal tax returns, had prepaid belongings taxes on approximately 500 debts using the close of business Friday Treasurer Robert Sandglass.

Taxpayers all through Maryland, as well as other states with excessive local taxes along with New York and New Jersey, had been lining up at their county tax offices within the final days of 2017 to prepay their 2018 property taxes inside the wish of getting a larger deduction on this 12 months’ federal earnings tax go back before a $10,000 cap on deducting neighborhood and state earnings, property and income taxes kicks in the subsequent year.

According to Sandglass, Harford County has 96,578 property tax debts, and taxes had been prepaid on 463 of them as of Friday. Those were paid in person at the county administration construction. More have been paid online or in a lockbox, so the final general can be tabulated when the government reopens Tuesday, keeping with the Treasury workplace body of workers.

“We, in reality, have human beings in line, but it’s now not like some of those scenes that you see in other jurisdictions,” Sandglass stated Friday afternoon. Glaz, a civilian employee at Aberdeen Proving Ground, changed into one in every of about thirteen humans at the primary-floor payment middle within the county management constructing. Most humans in line stated they were there to pay their 2017 assets taxes — due by using Dec. 31 — or software payments.

According to Sandglass, people could prepay up to the same amount they owed for the modern-day 2017-2018 economic 12 months. Those tax payments went out by way of July 1, the start of the monetary year, and payments can be made on Sept. 30 and Dec. 31.

The next 12 months’ property taxes have now not been billed but. The country, which handles belongings tests, recently assessed Harford County homes within the Route 40 hall. Property proprietors can now appeal those tests, and the final amount owed will no longer be known till the evaluation method is finished. The County Council adopts the financial yr 2019 belongings tax charge subsequent spring, Sandglass said.

The council saved actual property tax quotes the same at $0.8937, consistent with $one hundred of price for property owners in Aberdeen, Bel Air, and Havre de Grace and $1.042 for belongings outside those municipalities after they followed the financial 2018 price range in May.

The Internal Revenue Service placed out an advisory Wednesday, warning that “prepayment of anticipated real property taxes which have not been assessed previously to 2018 are not deductible in 2017.”

Sandglass pressured the treasury workforce “aren’t in a role” to tell Harford taxpayers whether or not their prepayments are deductible or now not. “When it comes all the way down to the final [matter] of deductibility, that’s going to be among them and the IRS,” Sandglass said.

Even if taxpayers can’t deduct their prepayments, they might best owe any quantity closing when subsequent 12 months’ tax payments are despatched out, or they might get a reimbursement from the county of any cash they overpaid, in step with Sandglass.

Glaz said he expects to pay better federal taxes in 2018 because he will lose, below the new regulation, deductions that he has been capable of itemizing in previous years, along with interest payments on his mortgage and state and nearby prices.

“The internet result for me is a good-sized hit,” stated Glaz, who hopes he can obtain a larger refund in 2018 and shop a few money.

He even wrote to his congressman, District 1 Rep. Andy Harris, to specific his concerns. Harris, a Republican, voted for the tax invoice whilst it becomes before the U.S. House in November. However, he voiced reservations about capability effects regarding country and neighborhood tax payment deductions.

Glaz said he obtained a “well-mannered letter” from Harris’ office in response, even though the congressman’s rationalization of his aid, primarily based on predicted benefits for the middle magnificence, “wasn’t great to me.”

“There are some center elegance taxpayers like me who will now not gain, who might be extensively harmed by using this bill,” Glaz said.

Eric Mcdonell, a Bel Air resident and a lawyer with the county’s Office of the Public Defender, pay as you go a part of his subsequent 12 months’ belongings taxes Friday.

He said he made the prepayment based on the recommendation of his tax preparer, who typically itemizes “quite a whole lot whatever” on his federal return, consisting of mortgage hobby. “The new federal tax bill is out to screw the middle magnificence,” Mcdonell said.

Like Glaz, Mcdonell hopes to shop some cash with a larger 2017 deduction in anticipation of higher taxes subsequent 12 months.

“I don’t buy the fact that they are announcing this is the best component for absolutely everyone, and this may bring down taxes,” Mcdonell stated. “I suppose it’s very brief-sighted.” Mcdonell stated he expects offerings from the federal government, so he does now not mind paying “some taxes.”

He expressed frustration approximately in all likelihood Trump Administration efforts to curtail spending, specifically in the wake of the tax reform invoice. “I see government as offering plenty much less now, being concerned for its residents,” he stated.