Date: August 19th, 2018 12:30 PM
Author: Wonderful Shitlib Stain
How is California going to survive this preposterous scam?
http://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-california-property-taxes-elites-201808-htmlstory.html
Actors Jeff and Beau Bridges, along with their sister, own a four-bedroom Malibu home with access to a semi-private beach and panoramic views of the Pacific Ocean.
They inherited it from their mother, who had owned the house since the late 1950s when their father, Lloyd Bridges, first made it big in Hollywood.
Earlier this year, they advertised the “stunning Malibu dream” for rent at $15,995 a month — a hefty price tag for a house that has a property tax bill of less than half that.
Like other descendants of a generation of California homeowners, the Bridges siblings enjoy a significant perk that keeps their property tax bill low. Part of that is thanks to Proposition 13, which has strictly limited property tax increases since 1978. But they also benefit from an additional tax break, enacted eight years later, that extended those advantages to inherited property — even inherited property that is used for rental income.
California is the only state to provide this tax break, which was designed to protect families from sharp tax increases on the death of a loved one. Without it, proponents argued at the time it passed, adult children could have faced potentially huge bills, making it financially prohibitive to live in their family homes.
But a Los Angeles Times analysis shows that many of those who inherit property with the tax breaks don’t live in them. Rather, they use the homes as investments while still taking advantage of the generous tax benefits.
In Los Angeles County, as many as 63% of homes inherited under the system were used as second residences or rental properties last year, according to the Times’ analysis. A similar trend was found in a dozen other coastal counties. Prime vacation spots in Sonoma and Santa Cruz have some of the highest concentration of homeowners receiving the benefit.
The inheritance tax break, The Times has found, has allowed hundreds of thousands — including celebrities, politicians, out-of-state professionals and some of California’s most prominent families — to avoid paying the higher taxes owed by newer homeowners. The tax break has deprived school districts, cities and counties of billions of dollars in revenue.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=4055437&forum_id=2#36643470)