Taxation

Everything up until now has basically been the prologue. Now on to the real thing. Commercial property tax revenue is a relatively small portion of how RI municipalities generate their funds. The major part of the story involves residential tax revenue plus state aid. An important quantity that needs to be taken into consideration, usually…

The next local tax table is a little more concrete than the previous two and their somewhat amorphous bases of “valuation” per resident. The table presented here is a list of Rhode Island communities, ranked by the amount of commercial and industrial property tax levy per resident. Again, the amount of “commercial” revenue attributed to…

Furthering the discussion from both Justin’s post on Providence and Brown University, and my post from last week on commercial and industrial property values in Rhode Island municipalities, bear in mind that Providence is already receiving state support, nominally related to some of its tax-exempt properties. Providence receives on the order of $20 million per…

Further to Andrew’s post, Providence’s very high property taxes undoubtedly result from a combination of two critical factors. One, at least, was eminently controllable and, therefore, avoidable. The first is that 40% of the city’s real estate is tax exempt. The second factor contributing to its very high property taxes, and the one that could…

To what degree is governing the City of Providence hampered by the existence of tax-exempt property within its boundaries? One way to begin answering this question is to start with readily available fiscal-data. Each year, all Rhode Island municipalities report tax assessment and levy information to the Division of Municipal Finance in the state’s Department…

On Friday, I learned of this Mr. Buffett has also already sheltered the bulk of his fortune from federal taxes by putting them into a foundation that will give the money away. which was definitely puzzling in light of this. But for those making more than $1 million — there were 236,883 such households in…

While Majority Leader Mattiello’s expressed intent is appreciated, “The last thing you want to do is raise taxes,” House Majority Leader Nicholas Mattiello said at a Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce luncheon at the R.I. Convention Center. “We have not gone there in the past and we hope this year we will not go there.…

… even federal employees are apparently finding it difficult to stay current. About 98,000 federal, postal and congressional employees owed $1.03 billion in unpaid taxes at the end of fiscal 2010, according to records provided by the Internal Revenue Service. No word on whether they also canvassed President Obama’s cabinet for tax compliance.

Warwick’s Rob Cote has been leading the charge for a car tax revolt in the state. He has brought up the inequities in the law with things like being taxed at the full clean value of a car, in spite of its mileage and condition. If you have a 2005 Honda Accord, you will be…