It's been two years, now, since I wrote the first of what turned out to be a series of educational articles about taxes, and I am indebted to The Citizen's editor for his willingness to publish them, in the form of letters to the editor.

Many readers have told me how much they appreciated them, and as I thank these readers, I can but rejoice with them that The Citizen should have been so progressive as to have allowed us, as local citizens, to avail ourselves of our First Amendment right of free speech. (Other newspapers think they should have a monopoly on speech, and some think they have one on wisdom.)

My first letter came about in response to another citizen's letter about the sales tax. In his letter, he expressed willingness to exchange some property tax for a sales tax. Since the property tax is deductible on income tax returns, and the sales tax is not, I didn't see much wisdom in that position, and said so. I have obviously had many other things to say since. But there is a point I never brought up before that needs to be brought up.

I personally know the writer of the letter to which I was responding. He's a personable older man, and a knowledgeable former corporate executive, now a few years into retirement. The funny thing about the premise of his letter is that, in this county, many senior citizens pay no property tax for education. Zero tax for school maintenance and operations. Zero tax for school bonds.

The first school SPLOST vote, in March 1998, promised to lower school property taxes if a sales tax was adopted. But, for senior citizens who didn't already pay it, there was no property tax to be lowered. On the other hand, these senior citizens would have had no personal reason to oppose the issuance of bonds repayable through a property tax, because they wouldn't have had to pay that property tax. But that's not what they were asked to vote on then.

All of this leads me to think that many people (starting with the school board) could benefit from reviewing the tax situation for our senior citizens here in Fayette County. So here's the story.

In Georgia, we have general laws and we have local laws. The general laws apply to everyone in the state and can be found in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. The local laws apply to a limited area like a county, and differ from county to county; they are harder to find, as they are published in annual compilations of Georgia Laws. (They are also good hiding spots for county officials' salary increases.) That might explain people's unfamiliarity with local laws.

A 1985 local law applicable to Fayette County (found at 1985 Ga. Laws p. 3992) exempts property owners who are 65 or older, or totally disabled, from 50 percent of the school tax, or even 100 percent if the taxable income on their Georgia income tax return is less than $15,000. For people who are 65, the Georgia taxable income excludes (1) Social Security benefits, (2) personal exemptions ($5,400 for a couple), (3) the standard deduction ($5,600) or itemized deductions, and (4) non-wage income up to $24,000, which means an elderly couple could earn $50,000 (not even counting Social Security) and not pay a penny in school tax.

What is significant about this is that (1) most seniors citizens have nothing to fear from school bond issues, and the wealthy ones among them need worry only half as much as the rest of us, and (2) any school bond tax stops at age 65 for many of us, which means that people over the age of 40 need not fear having to pay for the whole 25 or 30-year duration of the bonds.

If you're getting on in years, please note that another local law, from 1996, increased the personal exemption on the property tax for schools from $2000 to $4000 after you reach age 62. You need to apply for this exemption at the county Tax Commissioner's office. Then once you reach age 65, apply each year for either the 50 percent or the 100 percent exemption, as may be appropriate.

If the school board can overcome its SPLOST fixation and come to its senses, and if we ever have a bond election for schools (instead of a SPLOST election), our older citizens need realize a school bond issue is unlikely to affect them personally. The honest truth about a school SPLOST, though, is that it essentially takes away from our older citizens a good part of the school tax exemption given them under our 1985 local law.

If the school board never realized that fact, it was grossly negligent. If it knew all along, and kept silent, I can only say, “Shame, shame, shame!”

I thought you'd appreciate this bit of tax education. Education never hurts.

Claude Y. Paquin
Fayette County
cypaquin@msn.com

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