Dear Editor,
We would like to deed our house to the State of Vermont. We have a nice home in a “gold town.” Our house has been listed for sale for over a year. We have lowered the price significantly and still draw little interest. Although we had never planned to move out of Vermont, the place we love and raised our children, we can no longer afford the taxes. I am sure one of you will have a favorite non-profit that could use a good real estate parcel at state expense.
In order to pay our exorbitant property taxes and state income tax on Social Security we have had to take money from our ever shrinking IRA, which is also then subject to federal and state income tax. Our IRA draws also disqualify us from qualifying for a state payment. We are between a rock and a hard place. We are not alone in this predicament. In two or three years, we will be out of money.
Due to the poor job market and the undesirable business climate there are few buyers interested in homes like ours that would sell readily in other states.
Please instruct us how we are to transfer this property and assign the mortgage to the state. Doing so will help us relocate more quickly, with what we have left, to another state to live out our lives somewhere we can afford. Regards,
June and Bob Butner
