7 ms·

What is most unfair about prop 13 is that the lower tax rate can be transferred to your descendants. It's one thing to pay 10x the taxes of your neighbors, it's

What is most unfair about prop 13 is that the lower tax rate can be transferred to your descendants. It's one thing to pay 10x the taxes of your neighbors, it's another thing altogether to have a class of people benefiting from lower taxes over generations! Also, I know there are probably better ways to finance a city, but that's how we currently do it. It should be done fairly, ideally we should meet in the middle. It's fundamentally unfair that some folks pay up to 10x or more than others. I'm speaking personally, but it really bothers me that my neighbors are actually OK with this. Also, there are lots of ways to ensure elderly/retired folks can stay in their homes. Taxes can be deferred.

bdowling 6y ago
> What is most unfair about prop 13 is that the lower tax rate can be transferred to your descendants That’s mostly gone now with Prop 19. It used to be that children could inherit apartment buildings, multiple houses, commercial buildings, with no new tax assessment. Now, children can only inherit a parent’s primary residence without a new tax assessment. Even then, they can only avoid a tax increase up to the first $1m in value and only if the children live in the property. If they keep it as a rental, they lose the benefit. The change should result in more properties being sold after inheritance, which will increase market supply and lower prices.
- ClydeBruckmans 6y ago
  Oh that's right, prop 19 makes this a lot better. Thank you for the precision.
  - bdowling 6y ago
    The very wealthy will avoid the tax increase by holding property in corporate entities and passing the stock to their children. Moderately wealthy people (e.g., working professionals who also own small properties) will be affected the most because they often don't do the same kind of estate planning that the very wealthy do.
onislandtime 6y ago
Prop 13 needs to be reformed because taxes need to be fair. Taxes can be deferred for those who cannot afford to pay the full tax so they don't have to move. The benefit should be restricted to a primary residence, no vacation, investment, or commercial properties. Deferred taxes can be paid when the owner sells the house if there is enough equity. At some points victims of prop 13 will out number those that benefit from it. One can only hope people will wake up and do the right thing.
- eweise 6y ago
  Taxes are fair under Prop 13. What's fair about making people pay more tax just because the market value of their house has increased? They will pay taxes on those gains (over a certain limit) when they sell.
  - avidiax 6y ago
    How is it fair that two houses built side by side in the same year with the same floorplan might have one pay literally 10x the property tax than the other, merely because it changed hands? What's worse, the 10x house actually realized those capital gains, so the state also got that cash.
    - eweise 6y ago
      Simple, the people in the houses moved in at a different time. A house isn't just a thing you buy and sell. You live in the house, raise a family, become part of a community. My neighbor across the street bought her house 30 years ago. She's an artist and doesn't make much money. She is well known in the community. Should she be forced out of her house so that some rich tech worker can move in? If want to cry unfair, then it would be better to aim at commercial real estate. That's a pure money business. Why should they get protection under prop 13? Make no sense at all.
      - refurb 6y ago
        You don’t force her out of her house, you simply allow her to defer the taxes until she sells or dies. Why should some whose house went from $200k to $2M be getting a tax break?
rcpt 6y ago
> It's one thing to pay 10x the taxes of your neighbors, it's another thing altogether to have a class of people benefiting from lower taxes over generations! And, surprise surprise, that class is white people. https://twitter.com/alfred_twu/status/1327821019931787264?s=21 https://twitter.com/alfred_twu/status/1327821019931787264?s=... Makes sense given that minorities were at large disadvantages to buy property in the past so mostly whites have been able to take advantage on the low tax rates. I'm surprised this isn't getting challenged in court. Nordlinger v Hahn didn't consider race.

bdowling 6y ago

> What is most unfair about prop 13 is that the lower tax rate can be transferred to your descendants That’s mostly gone now with Prop 19. It used to be that children could inherit apartment buildings, multiple houses, commercial buildings, with no new tax assessment. Now, children can only inherit a parent’s primary residence without a new tax assessment. Even then, they can only avoid a tax increase up to the first $1m in value and only if the children live in the property. If they keep it as a rental, they lose the benefit. The change should result in more properties being sold after inheritance, which will increase market supply and lower prices.

ClydeBruckmans 6y ago
Oh that's right, prop 19 makes this a lot better. Thank you for the precision.
- bdowling 6y ago
  The very wealthy will avoid the tax increase by holding property in corporate entities and passing the stock to their children. Moderately wealthy people (e.g., working professionals who also own small properties) will be affected the most because they often don't do the same kind of estate planning that the very wealthy do.

onislandtime 6y ago

Prop 13 needs to be reformed because taxes need to be fair. Taxes can be deferred for those who cannot afford to pay the full tax so they don't have to move. The benefit should be restricted to a primary residence, no vacation, investment, or commercial properties. Deferred taxes can be paid when the owner sells the house if there is enough equity. At some points victims of prop 13 will out number those that benefit from it. One can only hope people will wake up and do the right thing.

eweise 6y ago
Taxes are fair under Prop 13. What's fair about making people pay more tax just because the market value of their house has increased? They will pay taxes on those gains (over a certain limit) when they sell.
- avidiax 6y ago
  How is it fair that two houses built side by side in the same year with the same floorplan might have one pay literally 10x the property tax than the other, merely because it changed hands? What's worse, the 10x house actually realized those capital gains, so the state also got that cash.
  - eweise 6y ago
    Simple, the people in the houses moved in at a different time. A house isn't just a thing you buy and sell. You live in the house, raise a family, become part of a community. My neighbor across the street bought her house 30 years ago. She's an artist and doesn't make much money. She is well known in the community. Should she be forced out of her house so that some rich tech worker can move in? If want to cry unfair, then it would be better to aim at commercial real estate. That's a pure money business. Why should they get protection under prop 13? Make no sense at all.
    - refurb 6y ago
      You don’t force her out of her house, you simply allow her to defer the taxes until she sells or dies. Why should some whose house went from $200k to $2M be getting a tax break?

rcpt 6y ago

> It's one thing to pay 10x the taxes of your neighbors, it's another thing altogether to have a class of people benefiting from lower taxes over generations! And, surprise surprise, that class is white people. https://twitter.com/alfred_twu/status/1327821019931787264?s=21 https://twitter.com/alfred_twu/status/1327821019931787264?s=... Makes sense given that minorities were at large disadvantages to buy property in the past so mostly whites have been able to take advantage on the low tax rates. I'm surprised this isn't getting challenged in court. Nordlinger v Hahn didn't consider race.