rochester taxes: a consultant's exhausted guide to not getting audited

look, i’ve crunched numbers for Fortune 500s and startups that thought they were inventing fire. but nothing prepares you for the special, soul-crushing bureaucracy of paying for the privilege of living in rochester, ny. you think you’re just doing your civic duty. you’re actually volunteering to be a human sudoku puzzle for a state that has apparently never heard of simple. let’s get into it.

*q: okay, brain, just the basics. what am i actually paying?
a: i’m glad you asked from your bar stool. it’s a layers-of-a-bad-onion situation. on your state return, the big one is the new york state personal income tax. it’s progressive, which means the state takes a bigger slice the more you make. on top of that, erie county (that’s us) slaps on its own income tax. so you’re not just paying ny state, you’re paying erie county’s version of it. then there’s the sales tax-combined state + county is 8.75%. so that $20 burger and pint you love at a place on east avenue? it’s actually $21.75. it adds up like a nightmare you can’t wake up from.

q: is it worse than buffalo?
a: funny you ask. a local in a sweaty boxing t-shirt at the lost Borough told me, “buffalo thinks they got it bad. they’ve never tried to file a home office deduction for a studio apartment in corn hill.” the property tax situation here is famously aggressive, especially if you own a house. a friend of mine, a graphic designer in the south wedge, got a letter that his house assessment jumped $40k in one year. he said it felt like being mugged by a spreadsheet.

q: what about the weird stuff? the ‘rochester-specific’ headaches?
a: oh, we have gems. there’s the city of rochester school tax, which is a separate beast on your bill if you own property. and if you’re self-employed-freelance photographers, session drummers, that guy who does caricatures at the public market-you’re paying the full self-employment tax (15.3% just for social security & medicare) on top of everything else. the state calls it “unincorporated business tax” if you’re in the city. it’s a hat-trick of pain.

data point, delivered like a gut punch: median rent for a one-bedroom in the city proper is hovering around $1,400. average household income? about $45k. you do the math on how that feels when 8.75% of every purchase vanishes.

q: any loopholes or is it all just doom?
a: there are credits. the earned income tax credit (eitc) is actually decent here because ny supplements the federal one. if you’re not rich, it can put a few hundred back in your pocket. also, if you’re a first-time homebuyer, there’s a first-time homebuyer credit. but you gotta jump through forms that look like they were designed by a sadist. someone at the bar at the venetian said they’d rather “drink a glass of lake ontario water” than file their ny state return manually.

q: where do i even get help?
a: don’t ask your cousin who “does taxes on the side.” you need someone who knows the county-specific addendums. places like Seniorзов (no, really, that’s a local chain) or a good enrolled agent. but also, just dive into the ny state department of taxation & finance website. it’s surprisingly unhelpful, but it’s the law. for the love of god, ignore those youtube “tax hacks” from people in florida. we are not florida. our weather is a damp paper towel left in a basement for a week.

overheard gossip (read: drunk advice): “my neighbor got audited because he wrote off his ‘therapy craft beer fund’ as a business expense for his vinyl record flipping hobby. the auditor apparently laughed and then sent him a bill. don’t be that guy.”

the weather right now: it’s that special rochester late-fall gray. not quite rain, not quite fog, just a personal, damp blanket of sky that makes you want to move to arizona and charge your laptop with a solar panel. breathe it in; it’s free (unlike your property tax bill).

where is this place, anyway? we’re a short drive from the beautiful, slightly less-taxed finger lakes wineries-a nice escape. and a short flight (or a very long, dramatic bus ride) from toronto, who looks at our tax code and just shakes their head in universal healthcare pity.

final, messily sincere take: rochester’s tax system isn’t malicious; it’s just profoundly complicated, like a knot tied by an over-caffeinated accountant. it demands respect and a healthy dose of paranoia. keep every receipt, even the one for that weird $3.50 coffee from the spot without a sign. and for the love of all that’s holy, if you’re moving here from a no-income-tax state, budget an extra 20% just for the cognitive load.

some stuff that might actually help you:*
- the r/rochester subreddit has a semi-annual “tax season panic” thread that is both horrifying and useful. see: https://www.reddit.com/r/Rochester/
- for local, vetted recommendations on tax preparers (skip the chains), yelp can be alright if you read the 1-star reviews first to see the horror stories: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Tax+Preparation&find_loc=Rochester%2C+NY
- the democrat and chronicle’s ‘燃料 your future’ section sometimes has ok explainers on state tax changes that don’t put you to sleep: https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/money/2023/12/29/new-york-state-income-tax-2024-how-much-you-ll-pay-under-new-brackets/71995221007/

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