Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis said this week that, if you haven’t paid your 2020 property taxes yet, you’re past due and the county will soon be in touch with you. 

Chavis said that, starting on Wednesday, Jan. 20, the county is going to send notices to late payers reminding them that taxes are due.  Anyone who has not paid will also have to pay a penalty.

Chavis said that tax collection rates in Guilford County had been good in 2020 despite the pandemic, but he added that, as it is every year, there are some people who didn’t get their payments in on time.  He said he would know an exact number later in the week, but, based on what he’s seen, he expects the county to send out about 30,000 delinquent notices.

Property owners in Guilford County were required by state law to pay their local property taxes by midnight on Tuesday, Jan. 5.  That deadline applied to taxes on all real property and all classes of personal property except vehicles that are licensed in North Carolina.

If you haven’t paid yet, you will be subject to interest penalties.  And, if you don’t pay that bill soon, you may be on the losing side of other collection methods such as the garnishment of wages and attachment of bank accounts.

Each year, Tax Department staff makes sure that people have plenty of time to pay.  They send out the bills in early July.  Tax staff sometimes work over the July 4th weekend and tell stories of being at the office in downtown Greensboro on the evening of the 4th and seeing fireworks from there as they are preparing the bills.

Property owners who pay tax bills before August 31 each year receive a 0.5 percent discount for early payment.  After that, the taxes are due on or before January 5, after which time interest begins and enforced collections become a possibility.

If you don’t want to get in any deeper in hot water, you can mail your payments to:

Guilford County Tax Department

P.O. Box 71072

Charlotte, NC 28272-1072

You can also pay your taxes online with credit or debit cards from American Express, Discover, MasterCard or Visa – by going to www.officialpayments.com, or by telephoning this toll-free number: 877 717-7679.  However, you’ll pay a convenience fee of 2.5 percent of the amount of your payment for online or telephone payments using credit or debit cards.