Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis is an ordained minister and a very nice guy.  However, when it comes to showing forgiveness for not paying your property taxes, don’t expect very much if you don’t pay.

The Guilford County Tax Department consistently has one of the highest collection rates in the state and, more than 99 percent of the time, the department will get that money out of you one way or another.

You should get your new tax bill soon if you haven’t already and, this week, Guilford County offered some advice on how to make it easy for you to pay on time.

This year the department is sending out about 225,000 tax notices in mid-July and it wants everyone – well, property owners, that is – to know the key due dates in the collection process and the help that’s available for some.

The first item of business is preparing everyone for the major tax bill increase they are likely to see.  That’s not the Tax Department’s fault.  That’s the decision of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners who chose to keep the tax rate the same despite the fact that the current rate will bring in a massive amount of addition revenue.

Here is one paragraph. Below, in almost all instances, you can replace the word “different” with the word “higher” in the following.

“The property tax owed is based on your 2022 reappraised value,” the press release states.  “Guilford County calculates the property tax owed by using your 2022 reappraised value, which is the market value of the property as of January 1, 2022. Guilford County reappraises properties every five years, so it is likely the 2022 property tax owed will be different from previous years. For more information on reappraisals or to view your property’s 2022 reappraisal information, visit the 2022 Reappraisal website.”

There is a way to get a tax break: If you pay by  Wednesday, Aug. 31, you will get a 0.5 percent discount for early payment and the last day to pay is Thursday, Jan. 5 of next year. Failure to pay by January 5 will result in interest payments added to your bill and “enforced collections may begin.”

If you don’t want to send a check in the mail, you can pay online like this:

  1. Visit my.guilfordcountync.gov or download the myGuilfordCounty app.
  2. Create an account or use your myNCDMV credentials to login.
  3. Locate your information and pay your property tax bill.
  4. Your account is instantly credited and you will receive confirmation that your tax bill has been paid.

Note, there are some programs that help those in certain circumstances who are unable to pay.  The Tax Department can discussion those options with you.

Also, if your property taxes are paid through an escrow account – which is about 40 percent of the property owners in Guilford County – you are still responsible for checking to see that that payments is made on time.

For more information, visit www.guilfordcountync.gov/our-county/tax, email the tax department at indtax@guilfordcountync.gov or call 336-641-3363.