What are a property owner's tax responsibilities?
If you own property such as real estate, business personal property, mobile homes or mineral rights, you most likely will have property taxes to pay on that property. It is your responsibility to pay your taxes even if you do not receive a tax statement. We do mail statements every year but there are only 29 of us trying to make sure that 100,000 of you are fully aware of your obligations. It is important that you take a hint from Santa and check your list (especially if you have multiple properties) to see what statements you’ve received and paid and which ones you haven’t. We will do our best to make sure something is not “hanging out there” but to be honest with you, we are human and as such, even with the best intentions, we do make mistakes. Also when a tax is not paid we really don’t have any way of knowing whether the owner didn’t get the statement or received it and just didn’t or couldn’t pay it before the delinquency date.
Jan. 31, 2011 is the legal deadline to pay your 2010 property taxes without penalty and interest fees.
We have a couple of reminders for you. First, the lines to pay in our office will get longer as the month goes by. If you pay in the office during the last couple of weeks you can expect to wait in line fifteen (15) to twenty (20) minutes. The second reminder concerns the postmark on payments made on the last day. We will be looking for payments postmarked Jan. 31, 2011. If you put your payment in a USPS mail drop box Jan. 31 after the final pickup time, your payment will not get postmarked until February 1st and we will not be able to consider the payment timely paid. However, we do have a convenient night deposit located on the west side of our building and we will accept payments deposited in it through midnight on January 31st. Our office is located at 1301 E. Eighth Street.
If a mortgage company is not paying your taxes and you have not received your tax statement you will still be responsible for paying the tax by the legal deadline. If you should have received a 2010 tax statement, but didn’t, please contact our office by calling 432-332-6834 or come by 1301 E. Eighth St.
Confusion can sometimes occur when mortgages are paid off. If the mortgage is paid off prior to October, the current year taxes are usually not paid by the mortgage company. When you pay off your mortgage, it is a good idea to contact our office to find out if the taxes have been paid and to ensure that our records reflect the correct mailing address information.
In the same way that mortgage pay-offs are confusing, new home purchases can also have confusing issues regarding tax payments. Taxes are assessed as of January 1st each year but are not billed until October. Taxes cannot be prorated by the tax collector. That means that the owners must deal with the proration of taxes even before the actual tax amounts are known. An abstract company will estimate the tax proration between owners, but those who do not close through an abstract company will have to make their own estimation and ensure that the tax statement is mailed to the proper owner.
pay in installments
We also want to remind those taxpayers who are disabled or over 65 that you may pay your taxes in four installments without penalty and interest fees assessed, but you MUST pay the first installment this year by Jan. 31, 2011. If you do not make the first payment on time, you cannot take advantage of the installment option.
