European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 10, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Consumer watch Check out land sales with care stories and photo by Mary Neth consumer editor and sales firms Are Back in Europe again. Beware. Not All of the deals olt Rod or stateside property Are As wonderful As touted. Over the past five months these salespeople have begun appearing in Iho Kaisch Slauter and Heidelberg areas says attorney Jefry Shiles of the office of the Salt Jud Cje advocate 21st sup com in Kaiserslautern. We arc not saying that the companies Are nol reputable or thai the land is not Worth it. We do advise people to Check out the offer before signing on the dolled line if a Salesman cells you you should buy today because the offer May nol be there tomorrow Tell him to hit the land deals Points out Shiles. Don t change from one Day to the next. You need Lobo sure you Are nol being suckered Mlo a Slick scheme. A recent client unveiled a Clever sales gimmick that Scles believes is being widely practice. In buying the land the Serviceman had been offered two options. If he chose option a it he visited the properly within a certain period of Lime and he did not like it he could cancel the contract and his Money would be resumed. If however he Choso option a he would be Given a $15,000 credit on the Purchase of Tho property he chose option b which saved him the $15,000 and also cancelled his right to withdraw from the contract. Attorney Jerry Shallna his advice eat a m you Money and problems. The client explains Shiles was an e4 and hat contracted for parcels cd land he had been told cd it be used As credit on yet another piece of properly. This proved not to be Irue. In fact quite a number of promises by the Salesman did t hold up. They were not in the people Are misled by statements made by salesmen says Shiles. Believing they Are saving themselves a Lew dollars they tie themselves Down to bad Scals obviously someone is directing them to choose options not in their besides problems with immediate sales Shiles is being visited by people who purchased land in the past Lew years thai they now can l sell. A couple who had been paying on some land in Texas for seven years an investment of $15,000 contacted a stateside realtor and was told the property would bring no More than $4,000." Shiles otters the following rules in buying land. 1. Don t buy land you have nol seen. 2. Don t buy land you have not had appraised by an Independent appraiser 3. Don t buy land from a company you have not checked out through a better business Bureau or an Allotey general s office. 4. Have the con race checked by a lawyer. Shiles also warns against buying land of the instalment plan. When you buy by instalment you have no title to the property and no right to even demand one until you have paid in full. If you buy on a 15 year note and then discover that the company is Selling the same property to five other people there is nothing you can do but continue paying. The Only Way you can protect yourself is to go somewhere else and borrow the Money to pay off the property in full. Then you can demand the warranty his advice never pay by instalment pay in Cash or take out a regular mortgage plan ahead for the changing tax Laws Start thinking about next year s taxes now. Thai s Tho advice from Allotey so soon because As sees puts it Anvil is belter to prepare than wait until too Shiles Points Oul that Only a trained financial or lax advisor can really Tell you what to do to reduce your taxes. The ideas he presents Are Only to give food for thought and perhaps prompt a visit to a tax expert Voua Sready know the Good he says. The lax code will be reduced from the 25 or 30 different tax brackets and percentages we now have to Only two -15 and 28 percent. The bad news is that this will not occur until 19bb. For 19b7, there will be approximately five brackets. When the new Law does go into effect in 1963, you will be in the 15 percent bracket until you and your spouse s income exceeds $29,750. Then you will jump into the 28 percent bracket and remain there regardless of How High your income goes what this Means is thai in both of you work there is a Good Chance you can still slide by in the lower bracket. Once you hit the higher income though you will be taxed on the income in excess of $29,750 Al the higher 28 percent rate. Your income up to �29,750 will still Only be taxed at the is percent in his regular base newspaper column Shiles notes that quite a few changes can be expected in the next two years. The dependency exemption will go up from $1,040 Page 16 the stars and stripes to $2,000, the Standard deduction or Zero bracket amount will increase from $3,540 to $5,000 for married til arg the earned income deduction will increase up to $600, and itemized deductions will be significantly watered Down. For instance you will not be Able to deduct your interest on credit card accounts Auto Loans department store charge accounts and the like. Stale sales taxes will no longer be deductible. And income averaging political contribution deductions and charitable contributions will All be Oul unless you itemize your deductions. One of the major changes will be loss of the capital gains exclusion. Right now if you buy investment property real estate Mutual funds stocks and hold the properly Lor at least six months you can deduct 60 percent of your profit and Only pay taxes on the remaining 40 percent that will be gone. The entire amount of the profit will be taxed just like Ordinary Shiles notes however that there Are a few popular tax Breaks which will not be changed. Our bad Bas will still remain untaxed. And if we own a second Home we can still take the interest deduction for it even if we Era receiving a tax tree allowance such As bad this was a question that had been bounced around by the irs for several years but the military finally won out. We can also continue to deduct but Only As an itemized deduction As before All state real estate and income taxes we paid to our state during the what Steps can a person take now to come out Friday. October 10.1986 belter when tax time Rolls around Here Are some of Shiles suggestions first you might want to Load up on your itemized deductions while they Are still deductible. What about membership in a professional organization have you already paid your dues for this year Why nol go ahead and sign up for another three or tour years and pay in Advance and what about thai new car you have been wanting if you buy now and pay the sales tax to your Home state you can deduct it too those ideas notes Shillea will Only work if you qualify to file under schedule a itemized deductions. If you own a Home that is not being rented to someone else you certainly should qualify. If you have been thinking about buying a Home Shiles advises going ahead and doing to now. Put Down a very Small Down payment the smaller the better and increase the amount you Are he Points out thai the mortgage interest will be tax deductible and you will have More Money available Touse for something else. Aslo stocks Mutual funds or interest in a limited real estate partnership Shiles notes that if they have been making Money and gone up in value you might want to sell now while you can avoid the taxes on the first 60 percent of the profit. It could save lax dollars. He suggests talking it Over with an experience broker. a
