News from the South Area (March)

Last month I talked about the new tax form 1444.  In addition, I would suggest that you create an account at irs.gov.  Simply go to irs.gov, click on the box that says “View your account” and it will take you to the page to view or create an account with them.  This year they created the new form 1444 to tell you what your stimulus payments were and this is how you can retrieve the info online.

As long as you are on the IRS site, I would strongly suggest that you establish a personal identification number (PIN).  Type PIN into the search box on the top right of the site and it will guide you from there. Why a PIN? It adds an extra, and strong, level of security to your tax returns.  The PIN will be created by the IRS and each December they will mail you a new one.  There is a spot on your tax return to list the number.  Any return without it is rejected.  Filing false returns to abscond with a large, and illegal, refund has gotten to be quite popular.

The bond on your home.  This topic gets tossed around the blogs on a regular basis.  The “bond” represents the cost of building the infrastructure of your village.  The roads, water and sewer lines, and the other amenities is what was funded by this.  Some states allow this type of dealing with the cost of development and others do not.  Florida does allow it, but counties have the option to not allow it in their county.  The most common way of this financing is to issue notes; essentially you find someone to loan you the money for a specified period of time.  After construction is all done and the actual cost is known, the bonds are issued with investors buying them as a long-term investment.  Most bonds in The Villages were issued in the 4.5 to 6.5% range of interest.

If you want specific information about your particular bond you can go to www.Districtgov.org , click on How do I? and in the drop-down tap click on the Obtain Residential Bond Assessment Information.  You can call the Bond Unit at the district offices (352-751-3900) and they will tell you what the exact payoff is. If done by March 15 you save six months interest.

Mike Dollard