Confiscatory Taxes and Asset Seizures

From Sunday's Tribune, "Property tax wallop spurs backlash" in neighboring Indiana, as some homeowners saw their bills double or triple:

The Hoosier backlash is symbolic of growing unrest nationwide over rising property taxes, including in the Chicago area, where bills based on a county reassessment will begin reaching some taxpayers this month.

With foreclosures rising across the U.S., property values declining and tax revenues in a nose dive, governments are finding taxpayers in no mood to shell out more money on property taxes. Property tax controversies and reforms have hit at least 20 states, including New Jersey and California. Floridians last week passed a constitutional amendment overhauling the state's property tax system and cutting taxpayers' bills by about $240 per homeowner.

Nationwide, property tax payments jumped 50 percent from 2000 to 2006, U.S. Census Bureau data show, as governments took in $339 billion in property taxes -- their top revenue source.

"There is a feeling among taxpayers they are hitting their limits," said Laurence Msall, president of The Civic Federation, a tax policy research group based in Chicago. "There is not a lot of slack in these uncertain economic times for generating more revenue from taxes."

And this on the front page of the WSJ today, "States Scooping Up Assets From Millions of Americans":

States regard property as "unclaimed" if the owner hasn't had contact with the custodian of an asset for a specified period of time. In the case of bank deposits, depending on the state, that means three to five years without deposits, withdrawals or any other customer contact. For stock, it's three to seven years without cashing dividend checks, voting proxies or otherwise contacting the issuer or brokerage. [snip]

California officials stopped notifying owners whose property had been seized or listing their names in newspapers. Last June, a judge temporarily halted the program, ruling that the state wasn't following its rules for seizing and returning the property.

The ruling came in the case of Chris Lusby Taylor, a former Intel Corp. employee whose 52,224 shares of company stock had been handed to the state after he failed to cash dividend checks or vote proxies for three years. The state sold the shares. When Mr. Taylor discovered the transfer and filed a claim, the state offered him $200,000. A federal appeals court said Mr. Taylor was entitled to the current value of the shares, then roughly $3.8 million.

California also confiscated assets held by Willie Mays, Google, and Angelina Jolie.

The Journal has an online directory by state where you can check on any unclaimed property in your name.