I think you misunderstood my statement, which was that technically renters do not actually pay property taxes through their rent payments. Although most rental property owners would not be making mortgage payments on the property if rents were not collected. That just simplifies it for the municipalities due the taxes they only need to collect from the landlord. It is the same as a pack of cigarettes, the smoker does not pay the tax, it is the tobacco company that pays the tax, and just passed on to the consumer. A simple way to look at it is that if a pack of smokes gets robbed from a store the Gov. already got their taxes from that pack.