I tend to take what people tell me at its face value (unless they are after my money.) But, where I live, somewhere in Mexico, a cousin has told me that here if you do not pay taxes, they never confiscate your property. Sooner or later, there will be a transfer of ownership, if only at death, and to make that transfer it will be necessary to pay the back taxes. I cannot verify this as true or false.
However, let me put this in perspective. Our taxes have been less than $20 a year for 1.2 acres with a new 2,850 square foot house on it.
That is temporary. Coming up will be a minor title correction, involving a new property evaluation, and taxes might soar to as high as $150 USD a year if I have my way. I think the $20 tax came from a minor bribe by a cousin last evaluation.
If I bribe it will be to increase the evaluation. A nasty cousin wants the city to confiscate the private road in front of the house, which would mean they could have drunken brawls there and we can do nothing. At present we let all traffic pass, free, by permission, which means we can run off any nuisances. He wants public right of way to help him sell lots east of us. I offered at one time to give him a free, permanent servidumbre legal de paso and he didn't take us up on it. I finally realized he wants it confiscated by the town.
The problem is, if they confiscate it they only have to pay the appraised value per square meter. If the appraised value is low, they will not hesitate to confiscate it, won't even have to pay enough for us to fence it off. I went them to blanche when they see what they would have to pay for several hundred square meters, and I can pay several hundred dollars a year in taxes. So, if I pay a bribe, it will be to max out the value. That ought to really confuse the appraisers. Heh, heh.