Setting the record straight

Dear Editor, 

Last week the Owego Pennysaver posted a letter I wrote which had an error, and I want to record a correction on the percentage used for calculating Personal Property Taxes paid in New York State on Fed. IRS, Sch. A-Itemized Deductions used as an alternate to a Standard Deduction for the purpose of decreasing your Federal Adjusted Gross Income. 

Meaningful as the higher percentage number is to those living in New York, California and New Jersey, results in only increasing for the majority of Federal Tax Payers in all other states of not receiving the same benefit and paying a higher percentage of their income in a Federal Income Tax.  

The portion needing correcting read: “tax friendly states have opted to use more conservative and fiscally sound practices and as a result of having much lower to zero property taxes, the majority of those tax payers eligible to use this deduction have never met the threshold for filing a deduction for the allowed IRS Federal Property Tax Adjustment due to the 2 percent cap of IRS –AGI yet are paying the same federal tax rates on their income.”

The correction should read, “tax friendly states have opted to use more conservative and fiscally sound practices and as a result of having much lower to zero property taxes, the majority of those tax payers eligible to use this deduction have never met the threshold for filing an itemized deduction for the allowed IRS Federal Property Tax Adjustment due to the 7 percent cap of IRS (10 percent if over age 65) AGI, yet are paying the same federal tax rates on their A.G. Income.”

Sincerely,

Florence Alpert

Candor, N.Y.