From the category archives:

Tax / Law

Free Help Appealing Your St. Joseph County, Indiana Property Tax Assessment

November 17, 2009

Editor’s note: Effective 11/26/09, I am closing new requests for assistance with appeals. If you have registered for assistance I’ll contact you by the end of the week with a report. After writing about the recently mailed tax bills for St. Joseph County, which also served as notices of re-assessment, I’ve heard from a number [...]

Read the full article →

St. Joseph County Property Tax Bills Viewable Online

November 13, 2009

St. Joseph County recently mailed property tax bills for the “2008 pay 2009″ tax year. Payments are due December 11, 2009. I’ve heard reports of odd assessments and straightforward errors showing that the system needs further refinement. But the online search allows only 30 queries per IP address, which is not enough for any real study to [...]

Read the full article →

$80,000 is the New Black or How to Use the Stimulus Plans Tax Credit on South Bend Housing

February 27, 2009

Housing Tax Credit First Time Homeowners Incentive  Stimulus Plan’s Home Buyer Credit $8,000  Whatever you call it, the Federal Housing Tax Credit in the recent economic stimulus package is raising interest from first time home buyers. Housing is now so often in the news that much of it is reduced to background noise. But this [...]

Read the full article →

South Bend Property Taxes

November 6, 2008

If you’re buying a property in South Bend before the end of the year (or anytime), it’s well worth paying attention to the property taxes. One house listed for sale today had a property tax bill of $25,364. Another is listed for $17,500 and had a recent property tax bill of $2,067 – an effective [...]

Read the full article →

Lawmakers Approve Indiana Property Tax Reforms

March 16, 2008

The state lawmakers in the house and senate approved a property tax reform bill Friday, 3/14/08. HB 1001 is the long discussed and significantly modified product of governor Mitch Daniels’ October 2007 property tax proposal (overview / details). The passed bill retains the “one-two-three” percent caps on property that is residential and owner-occupied (1%), rental [...]

Read the full article →

What is Indiana’s Foreclosure Process?

March 13, 2008

Foreclosure is all the rage these days, as banks are foreclosing on homes at a record rate.  (Just recently, one lender even got in trouble for instigating foreclosure proceedings on the wrong property.)  All of this foreclosure activity is obviously not a good thing, but if you are ever faced with foreclosure, here are the [...]

Read the full article →

Public Hearing on Property Tax Reform

January 9, 2008

South Bend hosts a public hearing on House Bill 1001 to reform Indiana property taxes 11 am Thursday January 10th at IUSB’s Student Activities Center. The hearing is unfortunately timed on a weekday during working hours, but should feature local politicians thoughts on the matter as well as resident’s concerns. You can read a lengthier [...]

Read the full article →