I subscribe to Money magazine (free with Coke points) and in each issue, I find something helpful.

Property taxes.

(I can hear you all groaning)…

If you do yours separately from your Mortgage payment (Mortgage+taxes+insurance), pay them this year-why?

To reduce your taxes.

Example:

Let’s say you live in downtown Houston and pay $10,000/year in property tax on your little condo. Yes, really, they are very high here.

You get back a % of that tax from the federal government.

Wait. Not ALL of it?

No.

$10,000 property tax

You get back (or as a credit) your earned income tax rate bracket * property tax.

20% = $2,000

30% = $3,000

40% = $4,000

So, perhaps you owe $6,000. At 30% tax bracket, you now only owe $3,000.

Woop!