Changes are coming in the new year for Town of Bonnyville residents who are late paying their property taxes.
“This bylaw is an implementation of tax penalties at two per cent for July, August, September, October, November, and December,” explained director of finance Renee Stoyles, during council’s regular meeting on Sept. 10. “Then, in January, it will still be 15 per cent on anything that’s in arrears.”
The change will take effect Jan. 1, 2020, after council voted unanimously to pass the bylaw.
The previous bylaw, which saw a 12 per cent charge placed on the balance owing on July 1, and an additional 15 per cent on the residual balance Jan. 1, will remain in place until the new penalty model is implemented.
When council originally discussed the topic during their Aug. 27 meeting, they hoped an incremental fee would be an incentive to pay on time.
“I suppose people would want to pay a lesser penalty fee as opposed to not paying their taxes when they’re going to incur 12 per cent regardless of if the taxes are a day late or a month late,” explained Coun. Elisa Brosseau.
Brosseau also believes the change could assist residents who might miss the original deadline.
“There were two examples that already happened this summer where there were individuals and a business who were each a day or two late, and both times it was in regards to technology malfunctioning,” she said. “They didn’t go out of their way to be late, it was something that was out of their hands. Both of those instances were where I could see people who would prefer, and possibly not debate, paying the two per cent because they’re only a day or two (late), as opposed to the 12 per cent in the same situation if we didn’t change it.”
According to Stoyles, there are 299 accounts out of 2,951 that currently haven’t paid their taxes as of Sept. 10. This equates to just over $380,000 in outstanding fees. Another 69 are still unpaid after one year, which have $403,867 owed to the municipality.
There’s around $1.07-million currently in overdue fees from 51 delinquent accounts, which haven’t been paid for over two years.
Properties that aren’t paid two years after the original July 1 deadline are placed on the tax recovery arrears list. They have another year to pay before 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.
Brosseau was surprised when she saw how many people had outstanding taxes.
“It made me question what the reason is that they haven’t been paying. Is it the economy? Is it because they were a day or two late and they decided not to pay it right away? It made me question it a little bit.”
