Did you end up deducting your prepaid property taxes for 2018?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody have an their CPA give guidance that said it was okay?

My CPA siad that it was not ok if the municipality had not assessed the tax, which Arlington didn't. I did not deduct them.

Same. MoCo.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody have an their CPA give guidance that said it was okay?

My CPA siad that it was not ok if the municipality had not assessed the tax, which Arlington didn't. I did not deduct them.

Same. MoCo.

Also same. Though I’m in NYC and my coop prepaid its already- assessed taxes, just to preserve the ability to deduct. In Feb our mgmt company and accountant advised us not to deduct, even though some 2018 taxes were billed in 2017.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Anybody have an their CPA give guidance that said it was okay?

My CPA siad that it was not ok if the municipality had not assessed the tax, which Arlington didn't. I did not deduct them.

Same. MoCo.

Also same. Though I’m in NYC and my coop prepaid its already- assessed taxes, just to preserve the ability to deduct. In Feb our mgmt company and accountant advised us not to deduct, even though some 2018 taxes were billed in 2017.

That’s actually counter to the IRS guidance. You could totally have deducted for 2017.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

[Anonymous]

My CPA in Fairfax county said No, because it was not assessed by year end.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

Except that for those people who spoke to their CPA/accountant about whether they could deduct it and said person said they could not deduct it, then doing so would be a problem. The CPA/accountant will have to attest that he advised them not to deduct and they did so in disregard to his warning.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

Committing fraud because you can plausibly but falsely call it a mistake is still committing fraud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

Committing fraud because you can plausibly but falsely call it a mistake is still committing fraud.

There were a few threads on bogleheads about deducting property taxes. I'm not sure if you ever visit that forum but there are a lot of financially savy people on that forum and was a lot of debate regarding whether the IRS guidance is correct so I would hardly call it a settled matter.

[Anonymous]

only liberals did this

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

Committing fraud because you can plausibly but falsely call it a mistake is still committing fraud.

There were a few threads on bogleheads about deducting property taxes. I'm not sure if you ever visit that forum but there are a lot of financially savy people on that forum and was a lot of debate regarding whether the IRS guidance is correct so I would hardly call it a settled matter.

I don't even know what that means. I didn't think it was a matter of correct vs incorrect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. The District of Columbia says the I can.

You know it's not their decision, right?

DC told it’s reside what they owed for 2018 in 2017. I consider that assessed in 2017.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes. The District of Columbia says the I can.

You know it's not their decision, right?

DC told it’s reside what they owed for 2018 in 2017. I consider that assessed in 2017.

This quote is from the WaPo article in the OP:

“For many, those efforts appeared to be thwarted the evening of Dec. 27, when the Internal Revenue Service announced that taxpayers could claim the deduction only if those property taxes were assessed and paid in 2017. While the D.C. government declared that its tax bills fit that criteria, many Virginia municipalities, as well as Montgomery County in Maryland, said prepayments probably would not qualify for deductions because tax assessments had not yet gone out.”

I live in DC and I prepaid with both DC and the IRS’ guidance in mind. I’m not worried.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think you people who are disregarding the IRS's 12/27/17 statement, apparently on the theory that you would win a court case against them, are insane.

Could also be banking on the IRS not having the resources for enforcement. If you look at the statistics regarding audits I would say that's a reasonable bet to make.

So why shouldn't I falsely claim tens of thousands of dollars in charitable contributions? How is claiming a deduction for 2018 property taxes different?

Because the former would be fraud and the latter is abiding by the rules that the IRS used every other year until they decided to stick it to the blue states.

Deducting something that is not allowed on the theory the IRS doesn't have the resources to detect and correct what you've done seems like fraud to me.

Very difficult to prove fraud in this fact pattern because there is a lot of confusion out there regarding what prepaid property tax deductions are permitted and which aren't. It's a different story when you claim charitable deductions that you never paid.

Committing fraud because you can plausibly but falsely call it a mistake is still committing fraud.

There were a few threads on bogleheads about deducting property taxes. I'm not sure if you ever visit that forum but there are a lot of financially savy people on that forum and was a lot of debate regarding whether the IRS guidance is correct so I would hardly call it a settled matter.

I don't even know what that means. I didn't think it was a matter of correct vs incorrect.

There was a general discussion of some case law related to taking property tax deductions and a few of the posters cited to sections of those opinions that suggested the IRS guidance may not be correct. A few others were discussing various sections of the TCJA related to property tax deductions.

[Anonymous]

I did. I live in DC. I knew in 2017 what I was going to owe in 2018 and the deadline had passed to grieve it so I believe the OCFO's guidance that it counts as assessed.