Petty Vents

[Addie]

I use my credit union's free online bill payer service to pay all my bills. Now when I write checks it's for gifts.

I wonder if I did that would Verizon still charge? I am going to give them another call on Monday. The amount of the charge is outrageous. And I wonder if being a senior has any bearing of them possibly letting the fee go to the wayside. I am really P.O.'d about this. I am going to call my CU Monday to see if they can act as my advocate. I just get frustrated very easily now, when I find myself in a situation like this. I either start yelling or crying. Their CS sucks big time. Twice I got disconnected when I called them.

Well, so much for my vent today. Stay tune for Chapter Two on Monday.

 

[roadfix]

Thank goodness that stuff is all part of property taxes here. I don't have to do anything to pay my property and school taxes. The bank that has my mortgage does that. That's fairly common here. Estimated property and school taxes are added to my regular mortgage payments.

That's common here too. Impounded.

 

[Cheryl J]

I don't have a mortgage on my home so when I pay property taxes, I pay by check via snail mail because they want an extra $15 "processing fee" if you pay online by credit card. That's not much, but it's the point of it that peeves me off. It's ridiculous. It's high enough already.

 

[roadfix]

I don't have a mortgage on my home so when I pay property taxes, I pay by check via snail mail because they want an extra $15 "processing fee" if you pay online by credit card. That's not much, but it's the point of it that peeves me off. It's ridiculous. It's high enough already.

They need to recover their credit card fees the banks charge them.
I pay my prop taxes on line and the funds come out of my checking account. No processing fee for that. Hefty late fee if you miss the due date though...

 

[Addie]

Years ago here in Massachusetts the banks would hold back your money for your taxes and then pay them for you when due. The courts decided that they couldn't hold your money without paying interest on it. A lot of folks got some nice big checks of back interest that the banks never paid. My sister was one of them. It was for more than her mortgage payment. Now you have the option of if you want them to hold back the tax money or not. I think most banks though make it mandatory for first time home buyers. When my sister died, her home was mortgage free. And she never took out a reverse mortgage.

 

[Andy M.]

In MA, if your mortgage is 70% of the purchase price or less, you can opt to pay your own property taxes quarterly rather than paying them to the bank monthly as part of your monthly mortgage payment.

 

[Addie]

In MA, if your mortgage is 70% of the purchase price or less, you can opt to pay your own property taxes quarterly rather than paying them to the bank monthly as part of your monthly mortgage payment.

Now that is something I didn't know. Having never owned a home of my own, I only know from what my sister did with her mortgage. I do know my sister's home was mortgage free for the last twenty plus years before she died.

 

[taxlady]

That's common here too. Impounded.

Impounded???

 

[taxlady]

I get paid interest if they overestimate my taxes and there is money left in that account when all the taxes are paid. Here you get a month or two for the first instalment and the 2nd instalment is due in July.

Edit: I'm actually not quite sure how they figure it out, but I usually get paid some interest.

 

[roadfix]

Impounded???

I think it's called an impound account when your mortgage and prop taxes are combined in your monthly statements.

 

[Cheryl J]

They need to recover their credit card fees the banks charge them.
I pay my prop taxes on line and the funds come out of my checking account. No processing fee for that. Hefty late fee if you miss the due date though...

Didn't think of the credit card fees....I've just recently gone from mailing checks and paying utilities in person, to using online services on the advice of my daughters. "Mom....you SERIOUSLY need to just start paying online..." Small town here, the utilities offices are a half mile from my house and right next door to each other, I've just done it that way for years.

And yes on the hefty fees for being late...they want $100 extra for late fees....which reminds me I've got one due by the 1st so better get that taken care of.

 

[roadfix]

The 2nd installment of my prop tax is due during April. First quarterly estimated tax payment to the IRS is also due during April, plus any other money owed to the IRS. I hate the month of April!

 

[CarolPa]

Our mortgage has been paid off for 15 years, so now I have to pay my taxes rather than having them included in my mortgage payment. That made it very easy to forget that you were paying those property taxes. The tax office is 1 mile from here, so we pay by check, in person.

When they put the casinos in PA they said that the revenue from them would make property tax go away. Fat chance. Now they want to increase sales tax, saying that it will make property tax go away. As a taxpayer, I am not senile. My memory is still very good, and I remember they already used that ploy!

Of course, now I pay more to the casino than my taxes will ever be! But that's fun!

 

[Aunt Bea]

I have a telephone for my printer/fax. I fax my "at home" medical information to Winthrop. I wanted to pay the bill on line like I do for two other bills I have. Verizon wants $3.25 for every time I pay on line. No thanks. A postal stamp is so much cheaper. I am sorry, but they are not going to get rich on me.

Addie,

Could you scan your medical information to your computer and send them an email with it attached? Then you could dump the phone line.

 

[Addie]

Addie,

Could you scan your medical information to your computer and send them an email with it attached? Then you could dump the phone line.

We aren't allowed to have any of the emails. They are for inter-office personnel only. And I also use the fax line for the tenants to fax something to their doctors and other business they might have. Otherwise they would have to go to the UPS store down in the square and pay a fee. It doesn't cost me anything and I don't mind doing it for them.

Lately I have been faxing their taxes to the IRS and the state. I keep telling them if their income from SS is less than $35,000.00, they don't have to declare it. And for most of them their only income is from SS. But I guess when you are old, you are afraid of having them come for you. They have someone do their taxes for them. And why those folks don't tell them also, is beyond me. I glance at the forms when I am sending them, and the only spaces filled in are those for SS income. The Mayors office sent a supposedly Advocate for the Elderly here one day to help them with filing their taxes. I just kept my mouth shut and faxed them. Thinking about it now, I should have called the Mayor's Office and registered a complaint about the idiot. If your income is high enough that you have to file taxes, then you don't qualify to live here at a reduced rate of rent.

I am not impressed with this new Mayor at all. He has no clue regarding the elderly needs.

 

[Cheryl J]

We aren't allowed to have any of the emails. They are for inter-office personnel only. And I also use the fax line for the tenants to fax something to their doctors and other business they might have. Otherwise they would have to go to the UPS store down in the square and pay a fee. It doesn't cost me anything and I don't mind doing it for them.

Lately I have been faxing their taxes to the IRS and the state. I keep telling them if their income from SS is less than $35,000.00, they don't have to declare it. And for most of them their only income is from SS. But I guess when you are old, you are afraid of having them come for you. They have someone do their taxes for them. And why those folks don't tell them also, is beyond me. I glance at the forms when I am sending them, and the only spaces filled in are those for SS income. The Mayors office sent a supposedly Advocate for the Elderly here one day to help them with filing their taxes. I just kept my mouth shut and faxed them. Thinking about it now, I should have called the Mayor's Office and registered a complaint about the idiot. If your income is high enough that you have to file taxes, then you don't qualify to live here at a reduced rate of rent.

I am not impressed with this new Mayor at all. He has no clue regarding the elderly needs.

Addie, are you sure you don't mean $3,500? I've never heard of anyone making that kind of yearly income just from SS - but I could be wrong. lol

 

[Addie]

Addie, are you sure you don't mean $3,500?

No, it is 35K. A lot of professional elderly that saved for retirement have a sizeable nest egg. Right now we have a resident whose husband died last year. She was collecting on her retirement from the City and her husband has his own funds. Between the both of them, they were just under the wire. When he died she received the balance of his retirement fund. She had to put it in her daughter's name so that she could continue to live here.

She came to me for advice as to what she should do. I am not a financial advisor by any means. And even when I tried to tell her, she insisted I knew more that the professional people. So I went on line. You can't have more than $2,000.00 in savings to stay here. And her husbands retirement would have put her right over the top completely. So I told her what I would do. There is a chart down in the lobby stating what the income levels are, to be a resident in elderly housing. Lilly and another resident have to file income taxes every year because their incomes from retirement funds are up there. Lilly doesn't have to pay any additional taxes because she placed part of her income in her daughter's name. Pat does. And every year it ticks her off big time. You have to listen to it from April to June. They are the two residents with the most income. One is on top of her financial income and Pat isn't. Not until it is tax time. Then she bitches on and on.

I don't know how it came to be, but I know almost as much as management regarding the income of the residents here. I have seen the W-... forms that SS and retirement funds sent out at tax time with their yearly amount of funds received. This is information I really don't want to know. But when they come to me for help, I find it very difficult to say "No" to these people. Their kids don't help them. They don't even visit their parents. I have the computer and fax. Two things they need to get information. So I look it up and print it out for them. If they have trouble reading it, I will read it to them. I think I know more about how our government operates, than government workers. More than I wanted to know. I never thought that in my retirement years I would still be working and helping people.

We do have one other resident that has a computer. But, if it doesn't involve religion, then he can't be bothered. Nice man.

 

[Cheryl J]

If they have retirement income and nest eggs, that's a whole 'nuther story then. I thought you were referring to strictly SS income.

 

[Souschef]

SS and filing

I have been trained to do taxes for low income and the elderly people through an AARP/IRS program.
In the chart for who must file,if your gross income EXCLUDING Social Security is less than $11,700 and you are over 65, you do not have to file.
As an example, if your income from other sources is $10,000, and your SS is $25,000, your total income may be $35,000, but you do not have to file.
BUT, if your income is $15,000 from other sources and $20000 from SS, you have to file for the same $35000 income
Confusing???

 

[PrincessFiona60]

More confusing than dealing with Medicare...both sides of Medicare.