HEADLINE HEALTH – For the luxury of flushing a toilet, Maryland residents pay a monthly tax.
The state’s flush tax on sewer bills is $5 a month −− or $60 annually −− under a measure aimed at upgrading wastewater treatment facilities to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. The law exempts people who don’t live in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
Back in 2012, then-Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat, led the charge to double the ‘Whiz Tax’, formerly $2.50 a month.
Alison Prost, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, described the increase in the Whiz Tax as “a watershed moment for the bay and its rivers and streams,” while conceding that such taxes are a burden on residents experiencing tough times.
“It is going to amount to significant pollution reduction from varying different sources that are going to move us significantly toward finishing the job of finally making the bay fishable and swimmable,” Prost said at the time.
IRS denies deductibility of the Whiz Tax
IRS Publication 17 addresses the issue of toilet taxes:
Real Estate-Related Items You Can’t Deduct
Payments for the following items generally aren’t deductible as real estate taxes.
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- Taxes for local benefits.
- Itemized charges for services (such as trash and garbage pickup fees).
- Transfer taxes (or stamp taxes).
- Rent increases due to higher real estate taxes.
- Homeowners’ association charges.
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Taxes for local benefits. Deductible real estate taxes generally don’t include taxes charged for local benefits and improvements tending to increase the value of your property. These include assessments for streets, sidewalks, water mains, sewer lines, public parking facilities, and similar improvements. You should increase the basis of your property by the amount of the assessment.
What it boils down to is that for many Americans, answering the call of nature is indeed a taxable event.
Maryland is not the only state where being hooked up to the sewer system is going to produce a sewer tax on top of the sewer bill you’d normally expect to pay.
In Elmira, New York, the Chemung Co. government website explains:
What is the difference between my sewer usage bill and sewer tax bill?
For most homeowners and businesses, sewer usage is billed annually. This bill is typically mailed out in the Spring. Chemung County Sewer District uses metered water data as the basis for sewer billing. Customers receive water from one of four sources: Elmira Water Board, Village of Horseheads, Town of Big Flats, or private wells.
Except for residences on private wells, all consumption is metered and is based on the metered water used by the property. For homeowners on a well, the annual sewer use bill is based on DEC guidelines for a typical single-family residence. Only homeowners and businesses that are connected to the sewer system pay this charge.
This bill covers the operation and maintenance costs that the Sewer Districts incur treating the water so that it meets the standards to be released into the Chemung River.
Sewer tax is a separate charge and is sent out at the beginning of the year on the users’ county tax bill. This charge is based on the value of the property and is charged to all properties in the Sewer Districts whether they are connected to sewer or not.
This charge differs from the sewer use charge in that it covers capital improvement costs to improve and maintain sewer infrastructure.
For information in your area, do a Google search for ‘sewer tax’ and choose ‘results near me.’
PHOTO CREDIT: Marco Verch, Spende an den Fotografen senden, CC-BY 2.0, Lizenzurkunde anzeigen
