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New Hampshire - Proposed Taxes Are Not Good for Homeowners or Businesses

transfer tax

New Hampshire Citizens - Call to Action

Raising taxes on Real Estate and Business during a recession doesn't make sense in this economy!

While New Hampshire has a budget shortfall, adding these taxes would do more harm than good.

One Proposal gaining momentum in the State House is to levy a transfer tax on refinancing. New Hampshire has the highest statewide real estate transfer tax in the country. A further tax on refinancing would make it more difficult for homeowners to stay in their homes and to prevent foreclosures. The tax would not be good for the commercial sector either. It could result in developers delaying or stopping construction, which may lead to layoffs, loss of health benefits and business closings.

Another proposal gaining steam would suspend what is known at the business enterprise tax credit. [The credit was created in the 1990's to address a loophole that allowed some businesses to avoid paying the more traditional business profits tax.] It is incomprehensible that the legislature would want to add an additional tax burden on New Hampshire businesses that are struggling to stay afloat in this economy. Business leaders believe suspending the business enterprise tax credit would result in companies having to lay off workers, close or leave the State.

For those of you who may not live in New Hampshire, I am just wondering how your state is handling budget shortfalls. One proposal has been for limited gaming... slot machines. Although gaming was accepted in the NH Senate, it has been rejected so far in the House. Any thoughts?

You can find your legislator and let him or her know you oppose these proposals; or call the numbers below.

Office of the Governor 603-271-2121
New Hampshire State Senate 603-271-2111
New Hampshire House of Representatives 603-271-3661

Act now and let your representatives know what you think!

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Disclaimer: Information herein may come from various sources, some of which may not be reliable and may change without any notice. Joan Whitebook does not guarantee or is any way responsible for the accuracy of the information in this blog and information provided is without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. Information on this blog represents the opinions and ideas of the author; comments by others may not express the views of the author.
Copyright © 2009 By Joan Whitebook, all rights reserved.*copyright "New Hampshire - Proposed Taxes Are Not Good for Homeowners or Businesses"

Whether you are relocating to New Hampshire or already live in New Hampshire and you seek buyer focused representation, contact me, I would love to show around.

Posted by Joan Whitebook, ABR,e-Pro,CEBA Southern New Hampshire on 06/15/2009 12:09 AM

Comments (30)

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new hampshire, real esate, tax, transfer tax, business, business enterprise tax, house, senate, governor lynch

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30 Comments on New Hampshire - Proposed Taxes Are Not Good for Homeowners or Businesses

JUN

Joan - It seems like bad economic policy to tax more - when tax relief is what most businesses need to stay in business. In Missouri, we are facing attacks on the historic tax credit and other economic incentive programs - plus there are proposals for transfer taxes and flat taxes on services.

Ryan ~ It is interesting to hear about what other states are doing to meet budget shortfalls. The bottom line is that it is all of us who ultimately have to determine the priorities for our states with regarding to spending and taxaction. It looks like there are no easy answers.

Interesting stuff Joan. I did not think NH would be using Mass as there role model. They don't call us Taxachusetts for nothing:)

Joan, how in the world could a refinance be considered a "transfer" no sale has occurred and no property has changed hands. What DONKEY thought this one up.

Here in Connecticut they have tried to impose a "Connivance Tax" on Buyers, but it has failed the last three years. We have one on Sellers, that was suppose to sunset after three years, but I believe that we are on the fifth year of that tax and it is here to stay for ever.

Bill ~ I guess we have too many people in New Hampshire that have moved up from Massachusetts (lol)! Well, we don't have a an income tax or a sales tax, but we have every other type of "tax" fee etc.

George ~ GOOD QUESTION! I am not sure who came up with this one! The Union Leader called it "a doozy"! That is the nicest thing I have hear it called to date.

Joan, Here they just cut back on everything and raise the taxes. It's not even a question that the taxes go up, we just never know the amount.

JUN

Joan~

Seems as if many things simply do NOT make sense to a person with commonsense these days...least of all, as you say..."Raising taxes on Real Estate and Business during a recession doesn't make sense in this economy!..."

janeAnne ~ I wrote to several of the legislators in my district and so far the response has been great! They do not intend to vote for these 2 ideas... I hope they can convince some of their colleagues.

Joan,

We're running into similar problems in Rhode Island, having already high tax rates, and slow business growth. I can only hope the Governor and the General Assembly will find a way to help the state become more competitive. I think this problem is there are too many obligations and not enough money to go around. I hope there are some solutions soon!

Dan

JUN

Joan--It seems that is the way of "fixing" everything everywhere...Tax, tax and more tax. It is not being well received in MN. Our Governor is in the process of "un-allotment" to avoid tax increases voted in by our legislators. Not pretty but effective.

Dan ~ It will be interesting to see how New Hampshire end up dealing with the shortfall. You will have to keep us posted on Rhode Island! It seems that there are a lot of different points of view and I hope the legislators can work together for the good of it citizens and not just divide along political lines.

Teri~ Very interesting. I have not hear of an "un-allotment" before. These certainly are some difficult times. It seems that many feel mere belt tightening is not enough and the belt is already tightened. It is going to take a lot of effort and hard work to do the right thing. Unfortunately, too many times those in office just punt the ball and hope to deal with the problems in the future.

JUN

ToulaRosebrock,com

Hi Joan:

Transfer tax on re-financing?

What a bad idea!

What will they come up with next?

Hi Toula ~ The reports in today's Telegraph are promising, but this is not over yet! I think the Realtor(r) adds in the major newspapers have made a difference. We wlll hav eot see what happens over the weekend. No one wants taxes ... and the cuts at this point are pretty deep... so where is the money going to come from? Now, that is the BIG question.

JUN

Hi Joan,
It's happening all over the country! Property owners are being burdened with a tax load that could be the straw that broke the camel's back.

Cynthia~ It would seem with the hit that the real estate market has taken, the refi's should not be taxed. I guess no one is safe!

JUN

Joan, I see it happening every where. Home owners are trying to get taxes to be lowered by appealing them and school districts are increasing taxes.

Gita ~ With the housing crisis far from being over, it doesns't seem to make sense to have a transfer tax on refinances. The last I heard this proposal may be coming off the table, but it is not certain yet.

JUN

UPDATE ~ The NH legislature passed the budget without the transfer tax on refinances! This is a great victory for all homeowners and citizens of New Hampshire! Good Work!

JUN

Great call to action for people to be politically active Joan! WOO HOO on the update that the transfer tax will not be passed on in a refi!!

Renee ~ The good news is that the transfer tax will not apply to refis... however, we still have to figure out a way to solve the budget crisis... and most would agree it is not as simple as cutting spending.... I think many states are faced with this challenge.

Hi Joan, Seeing what we are going through here in California and reading about the other states and NH, it seems the tax paying people are getting a real dose of reality. The states can't keep adding the new programs ad infinitem. Here in out state we have programs for illegals non-citizens ( I almost forgot we are not allowed to use that word or we are considered racist) from free health care all the way to free education at the college level. Can you believe it? Tax payers in general may be the new minority and I wonder when or if they will just say, "enough". So far ,no indicators that will happen. So might as well just keep raising the taxes and allowing those that don't pay them to decide how they should be spent.

We have such a huge budget shortfall here in California that no one can decide what to do, so they do nothing. It's easy to say "cut goverment," but when you cut goverment, you cut government jobs, and then all those people are in the unemployment line, so it's kind of a "Catch 22." The whole economy feeds off itself, so if one part breaks down, it has a ripple effect. And it's not going to get better with a worldwide economy, as we have seen with the current economies throughout the world. One country fails and it has a ripple effect throughout every other country.

William and Jim ~ My husband and I lived in San Franciso for over 20 years and we both still have real estate in the Bay Area. I can't believe what has happened over the years. I think you make so many good points. California is a wonderful state, but they are going to have to make tough choices. As I always saw California been on the boarder with Mexico had to carry a burden which really is a national issue which Congress needs to deal with.

JUN

Joan, that one cracked me up. " I guess we have too many people in New Hampshire that have moved up from Massachusetts (lol)" At least you don't have an income tax like us in FL. That transfer tax on refinancing is plain non sense and at such a bad time.What is the % of the tax? Geez and cutting that business loophole?That is not good business sense. People will loose their jobs. How they handling the short fall in my area? cutting back spending in every department. That is rough.Again its the homewoner who is hurting here like in many other states. The property value dropped but the property taxes do not reflect that drop. I guess they have their own loophole! Luckely the deals are tremedous here so its a toss up.

On the flip side I just heard that the Government is puting a freeze on raising interest rates on the credit cards of existing accounts.What rate it was in the first place is another question. But you are so right we have to be pro active.

JUN

Lloyd ~ While the budget crises seems to have eased for the next budget cycle, the underlying issues have not been addressed, but merely postponed. So, we all will have to be hypervigilent. These problems have not been solved!

Joan, the fact that someone even thought of a transfer tax on refinancing is a pretty scary thing! Yikes! That could spread!

Patricia ~ It looks like this idea could spread. I am sure your state realtor group will be keeping an eye on this!

JUN

I also read through all the comments. I'm wondering about Steve's comment (#25) about Florida having an income tax. They don't. In fact, seven states don't have income taxes: Alaska, Florida, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming. Interestingly, New Hampshire and Tennessee tax residents only on income earned through interest and dividends.

Also interesting is that Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon currently charge no sales tax.

Looks like New Hampshire has it pretty good. Hmmmmm. Maybe I need to move there. LOL

Russell - After having lived in San Francisco for 25+ years, I have come to believe that one has to pay for infrastructure and services one way or the other... at times it seems like a semantics game! We have lots of fees on things... It will be interesting to see how the various states tackle their budget deficits. Let me know when you plan to move to NH (lol)!

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