Dear Editor:
This is in response to Ms. Judy Bax regarding my letter to the editor on taxes and renters.
I have been a renter in several different states other than Missouri and also in Missouri, and I have yet to have a landlord or rental agent ever mention real estate taxes to me, nor has it been mentioned in any rental or lease agreement I have ever signed. The only time that I am aware of real estate taxes being mentioned in a rental or lease agreement is when it was a rent-to-own or lease to own type of contract and then it stipulates who will be responsible for the real estate taxes of the said property or if a percentage of the monthly payment will be placed in an escrow type account to pay the real estate taxes, which are different from the personal property taxes that all of us who own vehicles have to pay.
On the personal property taxes that you pay, a portion of it goes to JCPS. But for real estate property owners, we not only pay real estate taxes but also personal property taxes, so we contribute to the public school taxes not once like most renters, but twice and in a higher amount.
So I suppose if you look at it in an abstract sort of way, if the landlord or rental agency increases the monthly rent that you pay based on their having an increase in their real estate taxes, then you, in an off-hand kind of way, are paying real estate taxes. But that is not a reality since you as renter do not have the deduction available to you for paying real estate taxes.