[Lawdog]

It's time to dispense with the gibberish. It's insane to claim that private property cannot be taxed. The term private property is used as a counterpart to public property, which is government owned. How could the government raise any revenue if it could only tax property IT owns? Can money be raised if they tax themselves? Of course not. That's like moving money from your left pocket to your right pocket. Nothing has been gained.

Real estate, aka land, is the term used in contradistinction to personal property, aka chattels, which is pretty much everything else. Your car, your clothes, your jewelry, your stocks...all personal property.

Saying the land and house which sits on it that you own are personal property is true...you're a person, and you own it. But it doesn't get you out of taxes. If you do not record your deed, the county Tax Commissioner will send the bill to the previous owner of record. He will, of course, then say he sold the land to you, and he will probably have a copy of the deed he gave to you to prove it. At that point the Tax Commissioner will ask you why you never bothered to record, out of curiosity, but you will owe the tax regardless.

As far as recording goes, at least one of you needs to re-read what I posted about recording laws, especially race and race-notice.

Let's use a scenario here. You live in a state where race or race-notice is the law. You buy a piece of land and the house it sits on from someone who, unbeknownst to you, is not the most honest person in the world. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, you never record your deed.

The guy who sold you the land learns a few months later that you never recorded your deed. Feeling like double dipping, he sells the property a second time to a new buyer. The new buyer had no notice that you previously bought the land, both because you never recorded the deed, and no one ever told them about the previous sale of the property. The second buyer records their deed.

Guess what? They are now the rightful owner of the land, and if you refuse to vacate, they can use the sheriff or other legal processes to have you removed forcibly. You might be able to nail the guy who sold you the land for fraud, if you can find him. Chances are someone who pulled a stunt like this would not stick around.

So don't be a schmuck. Not recording your deed doesn't get you out of paying taxes, and it might end up costing you the land.