The value of the property is higher than what AT&T sold it for. The tax roll value for the property is around $600,000.00. AT&T sold the property for a lot less, because it was the only way someone was going to buy it, as it's out in the middle of the county and not really in a place that would be a good location for most businesses.
Over the past several years that we have been watching this site, we have watched AT&T continue to lower the price in order to sell it. Just because you by something at less than FMV, does not mean that's what you are going to pay the taxes on. They are taxing it at the FMV of nearly $600,000. Its not that they just said hey, lets tax him at this. But some things have changed recently in Texas, regarding taxes. Like with vehicles. According to the tax office in our county when you buy and register a used car, no longer do they go off what you say you paid or sold it for, they are going to be using the blue book value. Now, if that happens or not, we will have to see. We have talked about the tax issue and according to the county, we should be able to removed almost 100% of the taxes do to the non-profit use. At this point in time the only users of the tower would be our ARES group, our CERT program and our parent organizations emergency operations. In the future there might be other hams that can use it if they wish, but most likely that will not happen as nearly all of the 2 meter and other frequencies have already been used out here and there really is not any room for any new repeaters, but we'll see. -- In [email protected], [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > > This is deeply weird. I've never heard of (at least around here) of any > taxing entity that could assign a value to any real property in excess of fair > market value which is essentially the purchase price for the property in what is > commonly termed an arms length transaction. I believe that most states have > language in their > Constitutions to preclude valuations in excess of FMV, that, but of course, > we're talking about Texas now, where most anything can and does go. In this > case because it is going to be owned by a non-profit, there are no taxes with > some insignificant exceptions like local lighting and sanitary districts. I'll > bet the money grubbers in the assessor's office will be wailing in their > beer if and when you take title as a non-profit. > And, of course, as a non-profit, it's perfectly OK to accept charitable > donations from site users. There must be electrician blood in your heritage > because you sure seem to have this wired! > > > > In a message dated 6/17/2007 7:42:30 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > > We are talking to the new owner about the site. We might be able to > work a deal with him to get it. He is somewhat unhappy with it, as it > does not suit his needs and he is paying more taxes on it, than he > thought. He thought he would only pay taxes on what he paid for the > site, and no releases that he say to pay the determined value from the > county which is nearly 400,000 or 500,0000 dollar more than he paid > for it. Oops, maybe he should have checked first. > > > > > > > > ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. >
