New Ill. law pushes 'fair' taxes on mobile homes

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-30/new-ill-law-pushes-fair-taxes-on-mobile-homes.html

By JIM SUHR - Dec 30, 2010 1:36 PM CT
By The Associated Press

FAIRVIEW HEIGHTS, Ill. (AP) — Larry and Carolyn Herrin bristle at chatter that a future highway construction project could cut through their one-acre spread, forcing them to move their mobile home along with its two covered porches and attached two-car garage.

A new state law could make them pay dearly for it.

The measure, scheduled to take effect Saturday along with nearly 200 other new Illinois laws, requires a factory-assembled home on private property and not part of a mobile home park to be assessed and taxed as real property. Gone would be the days of such affected properties being taxed by counties at 15 cents per square foot — a rate that drops over time as the home ages.

how much money do they really think they can squeeze out of people living in mobile homes?

higher taxes because of mobile home owners not paying their fair share.

They do have a distinction between mobile homes that are in trailer parks vs owned land.

The land it sits on is taxed as unimproved property.

This seems to me to be a reasonable approach, as it's hard to rationalize something which could be towed away in about an hour as a permanent improvement. No bank would lend on the property on that basis.

And these are not trailer park mobile homes.

If you have a mobile home, with its wheels and license tag, its personal property and taxed accordingly. If its off its wheels and on a base, its a manufactured house and is treat like real property and taxed like it. The status also impacts what kind of load (and rate) you can get.