Being charged to make a deposit???

[Texas Proud]

Reading this it stands out that all the limitations listed are specifically applied to private businesses but not government. So it would seem they are required to accept their own fiat currency? History of this state (Arkansas) is that during the depression some teachers were paid with IOUs even though that was strictly prohibited by the state constitution. So, law or no law, they do what they please. Still I've never heard of them turning down any US currency. Of course, if they just said no, I don't think the story would have garnered much attention.

I have heard of them turning down the money... someone tried to pay their school taxes with change... the person in charge refused to accept and said that if they did not pay the penalties and interest would accrue... do not know what happened after that... a school district is not the federal gvmt and can make up their own rules it appears...

As my other link said, there are very few court cases that have had to interpret what is written...

 

[Texas Proud]

Talking about legal tender.... I just remember a story that a tax attorney told me....

Said that someone 'paid' their tax bill by writing a 'check' using their shirt... IOW, they made their shirt into a check.. IRS cashed the shirt....

Do not know if this is a tall tale or not... but it sounds good....

 

[gauss]

Talking about legal tender.... I just remember a story that a tax attorney told me....

Said that someone 'paid' their tax bill by writing a 'check' using their shirt... IOW, they made their shirt into a check.. IRS cashed the shirt....

Do not know if this is a tall tale or not... but it sounds good....

I have heard that for a check to be legal, it only needs to contain the required information, but it does not necessarily need to be what we are use to seeing. All fields could be handwritten for instance including the routing and account number. I have not tested this personally however.

The wrinkle with this strategy is that many financial institutions will charge the depositor a manual processing fee (I have seen $5) if the computers/automation system cannot directly read the check and a human has to be involved (ie obsolete routing number).

-gauss

 

[2017ish]

B of A has been great for me. Came to town 20 years ago and dropped $5k in and got a free safe deposit box, free checking, free ATM, free everything....never paid a dime in fees yet. Of course I get no interest to speak of on my 5K, and they drag their feet on all transactions to they maximize their float. But I don't really "use" the account, it just sits there and I have the free safe deposit box, access to their ATM's and live tellers (should I need them). 99% of my business is done through a credit union.

Me too. Got it for convenience (ATM and branch in our building), but no complaints after nearly a decade. 10 years ago, in the days we still used cash regularly, the ATM network was attractive. Now, with the Preferred customer tiers (and ability to buy/warehouse cheap ETFs in the Merrill Edge account to maintain status), it provides some attractive options. (and the electronic banking/access options appear to be far better than those of our local banks and C.U.s)

 

[Mulligan]

I have heard of them turning down the money... someone tried to pay their school taxes with change... the person in charge refused to accept and said that if they did not pay the penalties and interest would accrue... do not know what happened after that... a school district is not the federal gvmt and can make up their own rules it appears...

As my other link said, there are very few court cases that have had to interpret what is written...

I assume that would be the local county government making the rules not the school since they are the collector of school taxes, not the school itself. Unless it is different in other states.


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[Texas Proud]

I assume that would be the local county government making the rules not the school since they are the collector of school taxes, not the school itself. Unless it is different in other states.


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It is different here in Texas.... we write a separate check to the school district.. and it is by far the largest check for property taxes...

 

[Mulligan]

It is different here in Texas.... we write a separate check to the school district.. and it is by far the largest check for property taxes...

Interesting....They are sneakier up here....Its all buried together with all other local taxes and you only write one check. I wouldn't want to be the school district tax collector since it is the biggest and most painful to write!


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[MRG]

I have heard that for a check to be legal, it only needs to contain the required information, but it does not necessarily need to be what we are use to seeing. All fields could be handwritten for instance including the routing and account number. I have not tested this personally however.

The wrinkle with this strategy is that many financial institutions will charge the depositor a manual processing fee (I have seen $5) if the computers/automation system cannot directly read the check and a human has to be involved (ie obsolete routing number).

-gauss

I've heard that too. Don't know if they still accept them, but I recall people saying they did so. The fee makes sense too. If you've ever been in a check processing area it's scary to see how fast checks are processed. I never knew paper could move that fast. Occasionally one won't process and a human gets involved, slows down everything.

Do banks still supply counter checks? You had to write your routing and account numbers on a check like form either as starters or if you forgot your checkbook.

 

[Texas Proud]

I've heard that too. Don't know if they still accept them, but I recall people saying they did so. The fee makes sense too. If you've ever been in a check processing area it's scary to see how fast checks are processed. I never knew paper could move that fast. Occasionally one won't process and a human gets involved, slows down everything.

Do banks still supply counter checks? You had to write your routing and account numbers on a check like form either as starters or if you forgot your checkbook.

You must not have been in a modern one... the one I was at, the checks kept flying through the machine... if there was a problem that check was just sorted in a different pile... someone would look at the scanned image and make the necessary entries and then it was whisked away.... it usually took 3 to 5 seconds of a human to fix it... unless it was something wrong with the check coding....

 

[gkstick]

It is different here in Texas.... we write a separate check to the school district.. and it is by far the largest check for property taxes...

That's not true in all of Texas. In our county (Nueces) we write one check to the county, who then divides it up to the various taxing entities, such as the county, the city you live in, your local school district, the community college and others.

 

[meierlde]

That's not true in all of Texas. In our county (Nueces) we write one check to the county, who then divides it up to the various taxing entities, such as the county, the city you live in, your local school district, the community college and others.

Agreed it depends on where you are. I once sent a message to my state rep suggesting that the state move to the tax assessor collector doing all tax collections for the entire county as it would save money (the county has to send a bill to every property owner in the county, so to add the schools would be relativly trivial, and at a minimum save a set of postage costs, plus the costs of processing the payment). It did take with my local school district, but he did not push it in the leg. It seems a waste to have multiple tax bills.

 

[audreyh1]

That's not true in all of Texas. In our county (Nueces) we write one check to the county, who then divides it up to the various taxing entities, such as the county, the city you live in, your local school district, the community college and others.

Same here. We right one check for all and it goes to the county tax assessor-collector.

 

[REWahoo]

It is different here in Texas.... we write a separate check to the school district.. and it is by far the largest check for property taxes...

Interesting, I've never run across that. I've lived in five separate counties in TX and only had to write one check to the County Tax Assessor, who divvied it up to all the local taxing entities.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting, I've never run across that. I've lived in five separate counties in TX and only had to write one check to the County Tax Assessor, who divvied it up to all the local taxing entities.

I remember in Austin writing a separate check to the ISD, but all other counties I lived in it was just one check to the County Tax Assessor.

 

[aja8888]

Interesting, I've never run across that. I've lived in five separate counties in TX and only had to write one check to the County Tax Assessor, who divvied it up to all the local taxing entities.

Harris County, TX:

Check #1 - County property tax
Check #2 - ISD (school district)
Check #3 - M.U.D. (Municipal Water District)

 

[audreyh1]

The MUD isn't taxes is it? - thats a utility. It was in my Austin suburb at least.

 

[aja8888]

The MUD isn't taxes is it? - thats a utility. It was in my Austin suburb at least.

The MUD statement indicates it's a tax paid annually and it is a water/sewage utility.

http://activerain.trulia.com/blogsview/1261511/what-s-mud-taxes-in-houston-texas--harris-county-

 

[audreyh1]

The MUD statement indicates it's a tax paid annually and it is a water/sewage utility.

What's MUD taxes in Houston Texas, Harris county?

Interesting.

Of course we pay taxes on all our utilities too. They are just charged monthly.

 

[meierlde]

The MUD statement indicates it's a tax paid annually and it is a water/sewage utility.

What's MUD taxes in Houston Texas, Harris county?

To boot the MUD tax is deductable as a property tax used to pay off the bonds for building the water sewer infrastructure. When the subdivision eventually gets annexed the mud tax turns into the city property tax, and the city takes over the bonds.

 

[audreyh1]

Interesting. I think I didn't know to add that when itemizing deductions. But I also don't remember a separate annual bill.

 

[Texas Proud]

That's not true in all of Texas. In our county (Nueces) we write one check to the county, who then divides it up to the various taxing entities, such as the county, the city you live in, your local school district, the community college and others.

OK... good to know... I have to write 3 checks... the county that distributes to a LOT of taxing authorities, the school and our water district...

 

[meierlde]

Interesting. I think I didn't know to add that when itemizing deductions. But I also don't remember a separate annual bill.

At least that is how the mortgage company did things when they sent me the annual statement way back when. (The taxes and insurance were done by escrow). By the time I paid it off it was in the city and the MUD tax was replaced by the city tax.

The tax qualified as a property tax because it was based on a rate times the assessed value of the home.

 

[Koolau]

Back to the OP for a second. I've relayed in this forum at one time or another about a bank which began charging my business $3 for opening the night-deposit bag. I had been with this bank perhaps 25 years. I complained and the folks at the branch shrugged. I closed the account (IIRC it was in the 30K to 40K neighborhood - all checking). I moved to a competing local bank. 6 months later I got a call from a bank executive asking why we closed the account. So I told her what had happened. I think she knew it was too late, so she simply apologized and that was that. YMMV

 

[Totoro]

I have heard that for a check to be legal, it only needs to contain the required information, but it does not necessarily need to be what we are use to seeing. All fields could be handwritten for instance including the routing and account number. I have not tested this personally however.

In Europe (sorry, I live here) this is correct. It's one of these gimmicks they teach you in economics 101 at university.

Could imagine it's the same in USA.

Also: since it's funny Thursday:

 

[MichaelB]

It is different here in Texas.... we write a separate check to the school district.. and it is by far the largest check for property taxes...

That's how we paid when we lived in NY. We paid more in the school district portion 12 years ago in NY than our total property tax bill in Fl last year.