Property Taxes
Everybody who owns a home is responsible for paying property taxes. Property taxing authorities have an automatic lien on your house and must get paid. When a Debtor filed for bankruptcy, if they owe property taxes they will have to be paid through the bankruptcy.
Many people have the property taxes escrowed with their mortgage, and they will be able to list the property taxes as paid direct since the mortgage company will pay them, but if you are past due on taxes they will need to be listed to be paid in the Chapter 13 plan.
This is an especially difficult time for Debtors when it comes to property taxes. Their ’06 taxes have just come due and are barely past due, but the property tax authorities want to be listed in the bankruptcy to make sure they get paid. The taxing authorities are also giving Debtors the option of including their ’07 property taxes in their bankruptcy or listing them as pay direct. This can be beneficial for Debtors if they haven’t started putting money away for their taxes.
Many Debtors rely on their tax refund to pay their property taxes. The only problem with that is if the refund if over $2000 it goes to the Trustee and can take an additional 2 months to receive and the Debtors will usually only receive $2000 of the refund. If a Debtor is relying on the tax refund to pay the property taxes, it may be late and cause an increase in taxes to be paid due to late charges and it might not be enough to cover the total.
The best thing to do if your taxes aren’t escrowed is to set up a savings account and deposit money in it every month or every pay check to make sure at the end of the year there is enough money to cover the property taxes.
