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Message-Id: <5.2.1.1.0.20050106164723.04d54078@mailsrvr.al.noaa.gov>
Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 16:49:45 -0700
To: "Rotary motors in aircraft" <flyrotary@lancaironline.net>
From: Bill Dube <bdube@al.noaa.gov>
Subject: Re: [FlyRotary] FW: [c-a] Orange County CA Cozy Tax Nightmare
In-Reply-To: <list-593595@logan.com>
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Offer to sell it to the tax assessor for 1/2 of what he claims it is worth. 
When he turns down this "deal" it is your proof that it is not worth what 
they claim it is.

At 01:53 PM 1/6/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>All you guys on the left coast building planes, this may concern you.
>Bulent
>
>
>------ Forwarded Message
>From: "lgjohnsonus" <lgjohnson@adelphia.net>
>Date: Thu, 06 Jan 2005 01:44:05 -0000
>To: canard-aviators@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: [c-a] Orange County CA Cozy Tax Nightmare
>
>
>
>This is kinda long- it's about taxes in Orange County, CA on
>my Cozy MKIV. It's relevant to anyone in OC, and may soon be relevant
>to everyone in CA, given the tax assessors are now sharing data.
>Basically, OC has just assessed me $90,000 for recreational labor.
>Read on, or skip...
>
>Some of you might remember my tussle with the O.C. CA Tax Assessor in
>2003. They wanted to assess my plans-made, homebuilt airplane at
>$250,000! They agreed to reassess it at $37,400 (35K plus sales tax)
>after I presented a prior appraisal performed by Dick Ruttan showing
>that as the actual value. Well, they just changed their minds again.
>They have just valued it for 2005 at over $140,000. This despite
>knowing it was in a hard landing, after seeing proof of an insurance
>claim, being told that it is still disassembled in my hangar as
>it has been for more than a year, and knowing that this is far above
>market value for a perfect, flying airplane.
>
>The assessment goes like this: they figure the materials at $40,000
>(today's market). They are then assessing the value of all the
>labor for the time it took to build, a total of a little over
>$90,000. They are supporting this estimate with the info on the
>official Cozy website on the time it takes to build, while ignoring
>the stuff on the cost of materials. Then, they add sales tax to the
>total. This is called cost-based assessment. It could apply to any
>hobby, art, or what have you. It is not based on market value, in
>other words. So, when you retire (or if you're retired already) spend
>all day polishing your car for 10 years and it will be worth several
>million dollars.
>
>They completely ignore their previous assessment, Dick's
>appraisal, the damage history, and that the plane is not even flying.
>If they pull this off it may spread through the rest of California
>like wildfire, and anyone with a productive hobby will all have to
>flee the state. They did this a few weeks ago, but waited until today
>(Jan 5) to spring it on me, so I'd be legally bound to the 2005
>taxyear. The woman on the phone told me so- can you believe that?
>When I told her I'd fight it, she threatened to reassess back to
>2003 as well.
>
>Anyway, I know of no other experimental anywhere in the country that
>has been assessed this way. This is close to a 4 fold increase. It
>makes you wonder- do these folks have any clue what this looks like?
>250K to 37K to 140K? Is anyone going to believe them, given they
>can't give a single corroborating example? This is a brand new
>form of taxation.
>
>Help me out here, guys. I need some ammunition. We desperately need
>to get government at all levels involved to nip this in the bud, or
>California is going to put experimental aircraft dead in their sites.
>
>-- Len
>
>
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>
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>
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>------ End of Forwarded Message