Yesterday after our blog was posted the IRS issued a new advisory (IR-2017-210) saying that prepayments of property taxes not yet assessed will not be deductible on your 2017 tax returns. This goes beyond what the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (the “Act”) provides as it is silent as to the deductibility of these types of taxes, yet the Act did say that the prepayment of state and local income taxes would not be permitted.

If you live in a county where you have already been assessed 2018, taxes you should be able to pay and deduct those in 2017. If, however, you have not been assessed your 2018 property taxes, prepaying them is not likely to provide you a deduction in 2017 under this new IRS advisory.

Obviously the law is very new and is being interpreted day by day.