LONG SAULT – The township’s CFO says she’s seeing a trend of more people catching up on their late property taxes.
A report before the South Stormont council on Wednesday shows the municipality collected nearly $6.4 million in taxes by the end of June – leading to a 0.5 per cent decrease in outstanding taxes compared to 2018.
More notable, the amount of property taxes outstanding from prior years dropped 10.6 per cent compared to this time last year. The amount of outstanding taxes was $1,079,332 as of the end of June compared to $1,206,989 during the same period last year.
Cindy Piche says there’s been “a trend of decreasing 2nd and 3rd year receivables.”
She believes its due to a change in Ontario legislation in 2017 which allows municipalities to register a lien against a property for outstanding taxes after two years of arrears. Previously it was three years. That sets the wheels in motion for a tax sale of the property.
“We’re starting to really see that in receivables, this year over last year and the year before that, receivables going down which is great because I think that accounts are up to date and property owners are paying on a more timely basis,” Piche told council.