Should You Prepay Your 2018 Real Property Taxes?

The IRS issued an Advisory on December 27, 2017 that stated pre-payment of your 2018 real estate taxes in 2017 may be deductible in certain circumstances.  In short, an “assessment” by your county must be made in order for the pre-payment to be deductible.  Certain counties in North Carolina (including Guilford and, we believe, Forsyth) are issuing “bills” for 2018 if you go to the property tax office and request one.  It remains to be seen whether this “bill” will qualify as an “assessment” for IRS purposes, but in the absence of better information, we would take the position that such a pre-payment would be deductible in 2017 if paid by year end.  Note that there are still circumstances, such as being in an alternative minimum tax position, in which pre-payment would not help you for 2017.

We apologize for the late notice on this issue, but with the Tax Act having just been signed on December 22 and with little to no guidance available on the specifics of this, we are doing our best to get you information as it becomes available.

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