Guilford County property owners may have to wait an extra month or more before receiving their tax bills this year as county officials scramble to respond to state legislation.
County officials said Thursday that tax notices originally scheduled to go out around July 10 will likely be delayed until sometime in August because of Senate Bill 889, legislation that would prevent Guilford County from using its recently completed property revaluation for one year.
Assistant Guilford County Manager Toy Beninga told commissioners during a Thursday afternoon, June 18 budget work session that county staff are working to get the bills out as quickly as possible, but the state legislation has forced county officials to rework a process that was already largely complete.
“The current plan is to try to get those out by the beginning of August,” Beninga said. “The latest would be hopefully August 15.”
The county had already completed a countywide property revaluation and planned to use those values when tax notices were mailed this summer.
However, Senate Bill 889 would require Guilford County to continue using prior-year values for another year before implementing the new assessments.
As a result, county tax officials are now having to roll back to the older values while also preparing bills for hundreds of thousands of parcels.
The legislation is expected to be law soon.
Beninga said the delay creates another concern for county taxpayers: the annual 1 percent discount available to property owners who pay their taxes early.
Under county policy, property owners who pay before Sept. 1 receive a 1 percent discount.
Normally, that’s not a problem because tax notices are mailed weeks before the deadline.
This year, however, the compressed timeline has county officials racing against the calendar.
“The reason why that’s important for our residents is that the early collection period ends on August 31,” Beninga told commissioners.
He said the Board of Commissioners doesn’t currently have the authority to simply extend the discount deadline because the required public hearing process and notifications to the North Carolina Department of Revenue would have had to occur months ago.
“The General Assembly’s action on Senate Bill 889 did not give this board an opportunity to adjust that early discount,” Beninga said.
County officials are working under the assumption that bills will be issued quickly enough to allow residents to take advantage of the discount.
County staff estimate that the 1 percent discount provides approximately $3.8 million in tax relief to county taxpayers each year.
If bills are delayed long enough that taxpayers cannot reasonably take advantage of the discount, the county would ultimately collect more revenue.
However, Beninga said county officials aren’t building that additional revenue into their budget projections.
“We are assuming that the bills will get out in time for our residents to have the opportunity to make that early discount,” he said.
County officials also noted that many taxpayers may never directly see the timing issue because their property taxes are paid through escrow accounts.
According to Beninga, approximately 65 percent of county property owners have taxes paid through mortgage escrow arrangements.
Once tax bills are finalized, Guilford County provides the information to lending institutions, which then process the payments.
For that reason, county officials are working closely with banks and mortgage companies as they prepare revised tax notices.
The tax bill delay is just one of several consequences of Senate Bill 889 that county officials discussed during Thursday’s budget work session.
County officials said their goal remains to get the bills in the mail as soon as possible while preserving taxpayers’ ability to qualify for the county’s annual early-payment discount.
Property owners, of course, care a lot more about how large that bill is than when they receive it. This year’s bills will be larger – the only question is larger by how much.
