I prepaid 2018 property taxes. Mistake?

[Chris K.]

So, following the near unanimous advice of everything I could find, because I have well over 10k in state and local taxes (and will likely opt for the standard deduction under the new tax bill), I went down to the City treasurer’s office today and prepaid my entire property taxes for 2018, like so many other people throughout the country, so I could deduct that payment on my 2017 return.  It was easy.  Although no assessment had yet been issued, the treasurer’s office said that “any overpayment will be refunded” if the assessment came in lower than I had estimated.

A few hours later, I received a push alert to my phone with a news article telling me that the IRS had said that you can only do this only in the limited circumstances where 2018 assessments have been issued in the calendar year 2017, which I’m sad to say, is not the case in my town in Virginia.  Assessments come out in January every year.

Surely I’m not the only person here in this situation.  Chalk it up to a bad break?  Or is this issue not yet over?  I can only imagine the people who have prepaid where property taxes are a lot higher.