Just because they say “This part of what you must pay for the privilege of living here is labeled ‘water’” doesn’t make it so.

In any case property taxes are treated differently in terms of being deductible than utility fees, so once it’s moved from being labeled “water fee” to “extra property tax” then it’s definitely a deductible tax.

“As a result of [Walter Sharpe's] delayed actions in this matter, DPW is forced to suffer unfair and irreversible injury.”

Jesus FUCK these people are UNBELIEVABLE! What utter, contemptible audacity! This government agency has spent 7 years ruining a man’s life, and they claim that they have suffered unbearable injury?

Not at all. You are paying the operating cost of the utility plus debt service etc. What you are getting is water service to your property. Even if you never use a drop, there is still value in having that water service. For one thing, the Department of Health Services will let you build a house there. For another, fire protection. If you had a meter and were billed on your consumptive use, would you consider the fixed portion of the bill a tax?

FWIW, the “Utility” is water and sewer, and the bill from “last” fiscal year covered usage into July of this year, 4 months ago. If the bills are semi-annual, there hasn’t even been a second bill to roll it onto yet; if they’re quarterly maybe one bill has gone through. In any case, it’s a rolling balance, there’s no reason for the city to have done anything except let it go by.

Is this a real lien, like you have to go down to the Registry of Deeds to get rid of it? My city published their scam ^h^h^h^h process: Recall that utilities are for value received and are not deductible the way property taxes are. If a resident of my city doesn’t pay his water tax (and in my city there are no residential meters, so it is a tax, not ad valorem, maybe) then the city will add a 10% penalty, and add that amount to the property tax. I’m not sure if there’s a recorded lien in that, but they get 110%, and the home-owner gets a deduction equal to more than 10%.

Here is an article from Cardplayer Magazine that states Eastgate moved to London during the 3 month delay for the final table. The “November 9″ were all paid 9th place money in July while he was still a resident of Denmark, but during the break from the final table he established residency in London, where gambling winnings are completely tax free.

So, it is thought he will only have to pay the 73% on the money paid during July and not the remaining ~$8 million he was paid in September.

Good for him if he gets to keep it.

http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-news/article/5527/governments-take-huge-bite-out-of-wsop-final-table-pool

The woman is blind. See any reason why she might not even know she owes a penny?

That’s a good point. Though she must have made one hell of a guess when paying her bill in the first place, eh?

The woman is blind. See any reason why she might not even know she owes a penny?

I think setting the standard at a dollar is just fine as well. It should be up to the company. I did not say people would short their bills for .99. I said they would for $10.00. And they would.

So as you say, set the limit at $1.00 like the IRS. Fine. But if this exact same article was not about 1 penny, but instead the whole article was “Utility company threatens property lien on blind woman’s home over $1.08!” it would be just as outrageous. All the comments would be the same. What a waste, why bother, why isn’t the cutoff at $2.00?

With the current economic situation, there are plenty of people out there getting liens on their property because of $100.00 they owe and cannot pay. Why not make 10,000 people that all owe a penny pay up and give that guy a break? If you are within one penny of not having a lien on your property, a whole lot of people think you should just shut up.

Which brings me back to my original statement that there is nothing wrong with everyone just being expected to pay what they owe in full, and everyone that did not pay in full gets a letter. I find it amusing that, on a Libertarian website, suggesting that everyone should just pay what they owe would get so many thumbs down, lol.

Bob, I think you and I are in the minority with our views on this one.

You owe a penny. A computer churned out a couple thousand of these at a small cost. 42 cents per, plus the cost of return postage, plus the minimal cost of a simple system that automatically churns out bills.

Of those 2 thousand, probably a tiny handful were for less than a buck.

Write a check for .01, pay the 42 cents postage. Total cost? 43 cents and 2 minutes of your time. Case closed. No stress. No federal case, no employees whose 40K a year job is to save a few postage stamps.

Until some dumb ass makes a federal case out of it.

The cost of the reporter’s time ALONE probably doubled the total cost of the whole deal. Forcing the people in charge to even reply adds more cost.

Ok, it MIGHT have been better if the system were smarter and didn’t send the tiny handful of bills that were less than a buck in the first place. But it did. Deal with it.

The whole Lien thing? That’s not the penalty for owing a penny. It’s the penalty for not paying what you owe. What utter moron wouldn’t spend 2 minutes and 43 cents to stop a LIEN on their home?

Eric, I don’t doubt you but there are so many people in the world that know how to work the system that I think if it ever became common knowledge that you ignore up to 10.00 of payment shortage then a whole lot of people would start shorting their utility bill. Hell, companies would figure out the exact threshold below “full payment” they could get away with and stick to it.

Yes, the limit must be set somewhere. Why is it wrong to just keep it simple, and fair for everyone, and say we have two categories “Paid in Full” and “Not Paid in Full”.

No guesswork, no BS. Equal treatment for all.