Eisenberg Alexa, Mehdipanah Roshanak, Dewar Margaret
Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
Urban and Regional Planning Program, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, USA.
Hous Stud. 2020;35(8):1415-1441. doi: 10.1080/02673037.2019.1667961. Epub 2019 Sep 25.
All U.S. states permit local governments to recover unpaid property taxes through a tax lien foreclosure process. Tax relief policies can reduce household tax burdens and prevent the foreclosure of owner-occupied homes, but little is known about their use and effectiveness. Like other cities, Detroit, Michigan, experienced a rise in tax foreclosures following the 2008 deep recession. Michigan law requires cities to exempt low-income homeowners from some or all of their property tax obligation. Implementation of this policy, the Poverty Tax Exemption, nevertheless failed to protect many low-income homeowners from dispossession through tax foreclosure. State-mandated and locally-determined procedures placed the burden of learning about and applying for the exemption on financially stressed homeowners, restricting widespread access to this critical tax relief. Eliminating institutional barriers to tax relief can prevent many owner-occupied tax foreclosures, especially in cities where a high need for tax relief occurs under local conditions of fiscal austerity.
美国所有州都允许地方政府通过税收留置权丧失抵押品赎回权程序来追讨未缴纳的财产税。税收减免政策可以减轻家庭税收负担，并防止自住房屋被没收，但人们对这些政策的使用情况和效果知之甚少。与其他城市一样，密歇根州底特律在2008年深度衰退后税收丧失抵押品赎回权的情况有所增加。密歇根州法律要求城市免除低收入房主的部分或全部财产税义务。然而，这项“贫困税收豁免”政策的实施未能保护许多低收入房主免遭因税收留置权丧失抵押品赎回权而被剥夺房屋所有权。州政府规定和地方决定的程序将了解和申请豁免的负担加在了经济压力较大的房主身上，限制了他们广泛获得这项关键税收减免的机会。消除税收减免的制度障碍可以防止许多自住房屋的税收留置权丧失抵押品赎回权情况，尤其是在财政紧缩的当地情况下对税收减免有高度需求的城市。
