Utah property owners have until the end of the month to pay their property taxes – or face interest and penalties being tacked on. KPCW’s Leslie Thatcher has more.
State law requires all property taxes to be paid the last day of November each year and even though the taxes are being collected at the end of the year, they’re paying for the services already received since January.
Summit County Treasurer Corrie Forsling says the tax notices and bills have gone out. If you don’t have your taxes being paid by a mortgage company, then you’ll need to make sure your personal check is in the mail because penalties are assessed immediately.
“We attach a 1% penalty the next day and then you basically have a 60-day grace period and if they’re still not paid by January 31st. we add an additional 1.5 % penalty and then we start to accrue interest on February 1st and this is also dictated by state law."
Property owners have up to 5 years to pay off taxes owed or risk having the property sold. With the interest rate at 7.5% this year, Forsling says it can get expensive, quickly.The county sees a good collection rate -- about 96% of the property taxes are paid on time every November.
“ And honestly we have very few properties that get to that point. Especially if you have a primary home. If you live in a property that you’ve had a hard time paying taxes for, we really try and help you through the process and give you opportunities to make sure those taxes are paid. We don’t want anyone to loves their house.”
For those who are delinquent with their taxes, she says they’re willing to work with property owners. The county offers a number of ways to help manage payments by going online to summitcounty.org\treasurer.
"This year we have a new payment platform that allows property owners to create user accounts and they can establish their own payment method. It can be dates if they want to make monthly payments, want to arrange an annual payment so they don’t forget next year. All of that is available on this platform.”
Summit County Treasurer Corrie Forsling. She added that November 30th is also the deadline to file a challenge to your tax bill. Contact the county treasurer or assessor’s office for more information.