Please Just Pay The Taxes You Owe

Below is a great letter to the editor that ran in the Houston Chronicle.  There’s nothing I can add that can improve this letter. All I’ll say is that you can’t have a decent society without people paying the taxes they owe. 

The letter—

 Do the tax protest math

Every year many people blindly hire property-appraisal protest firms to save on their property taxes by lowering their appraisals. But, most don’t truly understand the math involved when doing this. So here is a simple example:

If you saved $500 in tax-deductible property taxes by lowering your appraisal, you really only saved about $350 after taxes. But, you then had to pay the protest firm the standard $250 nondeductible fee that they typically charge.

So, bottom line, you saved $100, but you took $500 away from our public schools and other government services that we enjoy.

For me, I would rather see the schools get the $500 if it only saves me $100. Just do the math.

— Joseph M. Pace, Houston

Mr. Pace is a wise and excellent citizen.

Here is the link to the Houston Chronicle. Please consider buying a newspaper each day. Both you and your community will be better off with a strong daily newspaper.