Image Credit: TN General Assembly & Canva.
Article by David Seal, Tennessee Conservative News –
Visionary legislator Bud Hulsey (R-Kingsport) was successful in persuading the General Assembly in 2022 to enact legislation that enables Tennesseans to prepay their property taxes for future tax years.
The idea of having a system to prepay property taxes years ahead of schedule is designed to protect property owners that may not have a means of paying their taxes in the event of a currency collapse, economic meltdown, or if the Federal Reserve converts to a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) system. Hulsey described all these things as falling within an “evil category.”
In the global war against cash, the legislation protects property owners and was the brainchild of the late Mike Carter who served in the Tennessee General Assembly. In fact, Public Chapter 848 is named after Carter and is known as the “Representative Mike Carter Preservation Act.”
To hear Hulsey’s explanation of HB2467, a video to the Property and Planning Subcommittee is linked here.
Senator Paul Rose (R-Lauderdale, Shelby, and Tipton Counties) sponsored the Senate Companion Bill SB2772.
So far 30 county trustees across Tennessee have filed a plan with the Comptroller of the Treasury to accept prepayment of property taxes in accordance with the permissive legislation. To set up the escrow account to hold property tax prepayments, the County Trustee is required to provide the Comptroller’s Office with the following.
(1) A description of the accounting system technology or manual processes to be used to record prepayments and partial payments of property taxes for the current tax year prior to the date the tax rate is established;
(2) A statement indicating whether such a process of collecting property taxes will be implemented within the existing operating resources of the office or an indication of prior approval by the county legislative body if accounting system upgrades or additional operating resources are needed; and
(3) Documentation of the internal controls that will ensure all property tax payments are being recorded and accounted for as required by law.
(c) (1) The delinquent date for property taxes and interest applicable to delinquent property taxes is not affected by application of a prepayment or partial payment system established in such county.
(2) Interest applies only to the amount of delinquent property taxes remaining due as of the date property taxes become delinquent.
(d) If a prepayment or partial payment of property taxes is accepted, such prepayment or partial payment does not release the tax lien on the property upon which the taxes were assessed and such prepayment or partial payment is non-refundable.
To see if your county is qualified to accept property tax prepayments, a list is provided below.
Hulsey encourages other county trustees across the state to make arrangements for prepayment of property taxes to protect property owners from financial uncertainty and forced property takings.
About the Author: David Seal is a retired Jefferson County educator, recognized artist, local businessman, 917 Society Volunteer, and past Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party. He has also served Jefferson County as a County Commissioner and is a citizen lobbyist for the people on issues such as eminent domain, property rights, education, and broadband accessibility on the state level. David is also a 2024 winner of The Tennessee Conservative Flame Award & has received an accolade from the Institute For Justice for successfully lobbing the TN legislature to protect property rights. David can be reached at david@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
5 Responses
Seriously? Why exactly are property taxes not deemed part of the “evil category”? If the monetary system crashes, let the property tax scam crash along with it! ALL TAX IS THEFT!!!!
Property taxes reduce “owners” to renters.
My Opinion: I think I agree with the previous comments – taxes are theft. What I would rather see is that there is a statewide law that property taxes cannot be increased by any county over a certain percentage per year, and if property values go down in a given year, the tax rate must be re-evaluated down within a reasonable percentage the same as they are adjusted up when the values go up. I understand there is a burden for the people to help pay the cost of local government; but property tax is an attack on private ownership of property — government costs need to be assessed to all, not directed at property owners.
Most American’s cannot afford Food, Housing or Health Care and the legislators think they can pre pay Taxes? Doesn’t surprise me at all, this legislative body has tried to destroy the hemp industry, put thousands of people out of a job and keep those with terrible health conditions, like Seizures, PTSD, Pain and many other health issues that Big Pharma only gives you additive pills that have destroyed millions of lives. Big Pharma has Big Pockets, this should be investigated. The people of Tennessee VOTED YES for Medical Marijuana by a large percentage and they refused this as well, something smells.
Kind of a silly scenario to pre pay taxes for?
Let’s say there is hyper inflation or collapsing dollar, you still have to pay in dollars. TN isn’t going to require something like gold so you are paying in the inflating currency which you can offset now with hard assets like you should have been doing when they printed 7 trillion for Covid.
Second, it takes time for TN to revalue the properties and propose the new rates, so if you have something like gold you just dodged one to two years of inflation which you could sell gold to pay off when it happens. Right now in Knox everyone is complaining about the revaluing of properties, doubling their value… its taken 3 years for them to catch up and the law is they can’t collect more revenue when revaluing. So they would need to pass something else to increase the budget… that all takes time which is the window where you cash in on the hard assets. And if we are 3 years in on a collapsed currency, we have way bigger issues like having to fight off roving gangs while growing all our food.
Third, is the state of TN going to evict everyone because now they all owe millions in property taxes on their billion dollar homes? Who would buy? That would collapse the value of property thus lowering the taxes. Also, what politician was would be like yeah I didn’t do anything to stop 90% of the people from losing their homes? Government is about slowly stealing your money, if they do it to fast they lose power.
You also lose in rapid deflation.
The only reason to prepay is that I never have to pay again. Give me a number, I’ll pay it, and I’m done for the rest of my life and my children’s life. That number should be less than a standard investment, else probably doesn’t make sense.
Property taxes should just be eliminated… they don’t need the revenue, but a sales tax on the sale of property is what we do in TN so charge the money there. I know the realtors association won’t like that though.