Real Estate across the world is plagued by taxes. For buying and selling, you have taxes, in some countries, for renting, you have taxes, for even owning a home or land, you pay taxes. This they say, attributes from the fact that Real Estate is one main area where the Government of any country gets revenue-true! but do you think that taxes in relation to Real Estate in your country is too much? and please do share the taxes in your country as it relates to Real Estate for the knowledge of others. In Jamaica, if you want to buy a home, you better have 5% of the house cost, plus monies for other fees, if you are selling, you better be ready to deduct about 15% of the value of your home to see what you'll be left with. 10% for renting and 10% of the unimproved value of the land for property tax!
It is true that taxes are increasing day by day and I believe that it can be quite tough in the upcoming days. I am sure that once a person makes enough money he will still have to spend quite a lot on spending a huge amount on taxes. I am sure nobody likes it that.
The taxes on my property are about $4200 a year, this has doubled since I purchased my property in 1995 but in all fairness so has the assessed value. Yes it is true we live in a time when everything seems to have a tax associated with it. You cannot even buy a roll of toilet paper without paying a tax. I don't know about all the additional taxes related to selling a property, here it is just about negotiating or refunding parts of the property tax and paying the fee for the brokers and lawyers. You can do it without a lawyer or real estate company but you will probably still need a lawyer. Really in the U.S one of the best things you can do to save yourself tax wise is get a good accountant that can steer you to ways to save some of this overhead. they know the loopholes and what you can and cannot do. Well worth the cost in the long run.
