PhotoThe Internal Revenue Service has a message for the homeowners rushing to prepay their property taxes before new rules take effect on New Year’s Day: Not so fast. The tax bill that President Trump signed into law last week sharply limited the itemized deductions for state and local taxes while raising the standard deduction for individuals and couples. That has led some homeowners, particularly in high-tax, affluent areas, to try to prepay their 2018 property taxes before the deduction disappears. “Those individuals now are not getting the benefits of those prepayments,” Nicole Kaeding, an economist at the Tax Foundation, said of people who paid taxes that had not yet been assessed. In Fairfax, Va., hundreds of people lined up to prepay taxes on Tuesday, according to local media reports, and communities in New York, New Jersey and other states have likewise reported a rush of prepayments.

Source: New York Times December 28, 2017 01:47 UTC