4 ms·
For those of us not from Texas, this article informs us that Travis County, which covers Austin, charges ~2.5% annual property tax on personal property owned by
by xn 4y ago
For those of us not from Texas, this article informs us that Travis County, which covers Austin, charges ~2.5% annual property tax on personal property owned by businesses.
Bird owns personal property (scooters) worth about $6M in Travis County.
- bagels 4y agoThat's wild. They want to punish businesses that make physical things?
- arthurcolle 4y agoyeah that seems insane
- ahahahahah 4y agowell, it's not true, as noted in other comments here. i, too, can make up hypothetical scenarios that seem insane.
- SllX 4y agoPersonal property taxes/business property taxes are fairly common. If you ever want to pull your hair out, look at how BPOL (a different type of tax) is charged in Virginia, and more than that, which debt it is servicing.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoThings that a business makes in order to sell are not 'business property', and not (in most places) subject to business property taxes. But things a business uses to run its own business (e.g. laptops) are.
- wfhordie 4y agoBird doesn’t make the scooters, they just allow them to sit on the sidewalk clogging the pedestrian space and making life miserable for wheelchair users.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoFor reference, the equivalent tax rate in SF is 1.1801%
- csours 4y agoNo state taxes in Texas, so local jurisdictions that want to provide services have higher fees and taxes. (oversimplified)
- rahimnathwani 4y agoYup. I wasn't clear: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31675797 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31675797
- dahfizz 4y agoCalifornia also has a state income tax up to 12% (!!) and a sales tax of 7%. Texas has no state income tax and a sales tax of 6%.
- rahimnathwani 4y agoYep, sorry, my comment didn't express what I was thinking. My point was not that the rate here in SF is lower, but that SF also taxes the same thing. This was surprising to me, as I'm from the UK, where: - businesses don't pay ongoing taxes just for having stuff, and - businesses claim back VAT on things they buy for business use
- Justin_K 4y agoThis is a pretty standard government shakedown, done nationwide. Small businesses get hit with assessments annually on "property" values. Businesses with expensive machinery get hit really hard. If the assessor is not permitted inside a location, the assessor will assign an estimated value of property (which is usually higher than actual). Then, the business must go through an audit to show what property / equipment exists at their locations. One time, L.A. county looked to go as far as taxing taxing satellites orbiting in space, because the owners were based in the county. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1006-los-angeles-plans-to-tax-property-in-space/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1006-los-angeles-plan... I don't believe this passed though. Businesses get hit with endless fees and taxes from the gov :(
- onlyrealcuzzo 4y ago> Businesses get hit with endless fees and taxes from the gov :( So do people. Show me businesses being taxed > 40% of revenue.
- Justin_K 4y agoI don't know where you came up with that number or what kind of point you're trying to make, so I don't have any examples for you. I'm merely referring to the myriad of taxes and fees you have to stay on top of as a business.
- edmundsauto 4y agoIndividuals' income taxes.
- Justin_K 4y agoI guess it doesn't make sense to me to compare individual taxes vs corporate. They are completely different structures and rates.
- 4y ago
- tomcam 4y agoAh, thank you very much