My name is Thaddeus Schiltz, and I am the founder of Untax the Roof.
I have never agreed with the idea that anyone should lose a home, land, or other property because of an unpaid property-tax bill. To me, the threat is always present: pay the tax every year, or the government can eventually take the property.
My involvement began when I learned about the Kansas Property Tax Freedom Coalition. I joined the organization and began working on its website. That experience gave me an opportunity to study the issue more closely and helped me recognize that property taxation is not merely a Kansas problem. It affects property owners throughout the country.
That realization led me to establish Untax the Roof as a separate national initiative dedicated to ending recurring property taxation across the United States.
I do not believe that temporarily lowering, limiting, or capping property taxes solves the underlying problem. As long as the tax continues, the threat of losing property for nonpayment remains. Tax rates and assessed values can also rise again in the future. I also object to being taxed on an assessed property value that I have not actually received through a sale.
For property owners, the yearly obligation creates continuing financial pressure and uncertainty. Whether a mortgage is still being paid or has already been paid off, failure to pay property taxes can ultimately result in the loss of the property. I believe true ownership should mean that people can keep property they have lawfully acquired without making recurring payments to the government indefinitely.
I currently work in trucking while building Untax the Roof. My goal is eventually to devote myself to this effort full time because achieving change on a national scale will require more work, research, organization, and dedication than I can provide in only a few hours each day. I believe that ending recurring property taxation could benefit millions of Americans.
Untax the Roof is being built to educate the public, document how property-tax systems operate, organize people across political and geographic lines, and pursue lasting change. This is not a campaign for a temporary reduction. The goal is complete abolition of recurring property taxes on homes, land, farms, businesses, and other privately owned property.
I know that reaching that goal will not be easy. An issue this important deserves a serious, sustained national effort, and I am committed to building it.