Normally property taxes are due by Dec. 31, but this year procrastinators will get a break and get a couple of extra days.
Tax collector, Joy Wiggins, said that as the New Year holiday falls on Sunday, and the offices are closed for the weekend, property owners have until Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012 to pay their taxes.
“They have a couple of extra days to get the fees in and will not have to pay a late fee if they come in and pay on Tuesday or have their payment postmarked by Jan. 3,” Wiggins said. ” If the taxes are not payed by Jan. 3, those property owners will be sent a letter and in addition to the taxes, they will be charged a $5 fee and three percent of the unpaid taxes will be added to the amount due. If taxes are still unpaid by the end of February, the office will mail out certified letters on March 1. These will have a $10 fee added and four percent of the amount of taxes due. They will also have to pay for the certified letters that were sent.”
Wiggins said that people have been coming in pretty steadily for the past couple of weeks.
“We we’ve been pretty busy, and have collected almost as much as we did this time last year,” Wiggins said. “Last year at this time, we had collected $10,618,377.08 and this year we have taken in $10,596,626.01. If taxpayers don’t want to pay more, I would advise them to pay their taxes when we open back up on Tuesday morning.”