[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Laker14

I have yet to pay my first tax bill as a TV owner, a joy yet to be experienced.
I notice that the "bill" has two parts, the "tax" part, and the "assessment" portion.
I am making a few assumptions here, and perhaps someone more knowledgeable than I can correct, or give more information.

I am assuming that the process for establishing my tax responsibility is in the hands of a different entity than the process for the assessment.
Looking at the non ad valorem portion, it is broken down into some subcategories, and I am guessing that each of those categories has its own entity responsible for establishing that cost.

And my last assumption is that while one is a tax, another is an assessment, as a matter of convenience and cost savings, one entity, the Sumter County Tax Office, sends out the bills, and collects the money, and then distributes the money to the appropriate agencies.

Given that one is a tax, and the other is an assessment, are they treated differently by the IRS? Would the assessment not be a deductible item?

You are correct, the taxes come from different authorities. The county board of commissioners set the county tax, the state and the school board have a tax, the state water management district (nothing to do with the water on your water bill) have a tax. The non-ad valorem assessments include a county fee for fire protection set by the BOCC, a CDD maintenance assessment that is set by the individual CDD boards, the construction bond (if you have one) set by the CDD board early on in construction.

I can't speak for the other non-county entities but the CDDs pay a 4% fee to the county for the collection services they provide for both the bond and the maintenance assessments.

Yes, they are treated differently by the IRS, the county ad-valorem tax is generally tax deductible, the rest you should contact a tax consultant about.

You can call it a fee, an assessment, a tax, or anything else you want, if you pay it to a government body and have no choice in the matter of paying it, it's a TAX.