Changes could be coming for Town of Bonnyville property owners who don’t pay their taxes on time.
Council requested administration write a draft policy that would see residential and commercial property owners facing an incremental penalty if they’re late paying their taxes during their Aug. 27 meeting.
“The property tax penalties were last amended in 2007, and it’s been 12 years since we amended the penalty bylaw,” explained director of finance Rene Stoyles.
Currently, if someone doesn’t pay their property taxes, they face a 27 per cent penalty from the town. Twelve per cent will be charged on the balance owing on July 1, followed by an additional 15 per cent on the remaining balance on Jan. 1.
Council compared their own rates to neighbouring municipalities, including the MD of Bonnyville, the Village of Glendon, Town of St. Paul, and Lac La Biche County. It was the City of Cold Lake’s that stood out. The city charges a penalty of two per cent each month someone is late, starting July 1.
“That bylaw is an incentive to pay it early,” noted Coun. Brian McEvoy. “Where ours, as soon as (you’re late), you might as well wait until Dec. 31. This is an incentive to get people to pay us as soon as possible, which gives us cash flow.”
Coun. Elisa Brosseau agreed, noting it could assist people who just missed the deadline.
“Maybe if we had a gradual two per cent (charge) every couple of months, those people that do take the initiative to try and pay their taxes, but maybe miss it by a day or two, aren’t charged the heavier penalty than the two per cent. I like it better for that reason,” she said.
Of the 2,951 tax accounts that were due to pay their fees to the town this year, 299 remain unpaid as of Aug. 28. This equates to just over $380,000 in outstanding fees.
The town currently has 51 delinquent accounts, which haven’t been paid for over two years, and the outstanding debt is around $1.07-million for them. Another 69 accounts are unpaid after only one year, resulting in $403,867 owed to the municipality.
Properties that aren’t paid two years after the original July 1 deadline are placed on the tax recovery arrears list, and they have another year to pay. The town will send out a notification to the property owner and interested parties that it could go up for auction if payments aren’t made before the March 31 deadline.
According to Stoyles, someone tends to come forward to either pay or make arrangements.
“We haven’t had an auction in many years because of that,” she said, adding the town only has the option to take the title of a property if it doesn’t sell at the auction.
Since 1977, the overall tax penalty percentage for Bonnyville property owners has ranged from 18 per cent to 39 per cent. A few years included a five per cent incentive for residents to pay by March 15, although the last one listed was in 1982.
The town did have an incremental penalty process when an update was made in 1986, which was when the total annual penalty was 30 per cent. It started with a nine per cent penalty on the original unpaid taxes on July 1, followed by six per cent added Oct. 1, another nine per cent on April 1, and a final addition on Sept. 1.
Administration will draft an incremental tax penalty for council to discuss during a future meeting.
