PENDER COUNTY — Tax bills for almost 50,000 property parcels in Pender County will be delayed by at least two months during a year when residents received new tax revaluations for the first time in eight years.
Pender County tax assessors have delayed the delivery of the 2019 tax bill to property owners while the state-mandated deadline for payment of these bills remains January 6. Accounts with outstanding balances after January 6 will be subject to penalties, interest, and collection remedies as outlined by state law, which also fixes the due date for payments.
“The tax bill calculation has been completed,” Pender County Tax Assessor Justian Pound said in a release Thursday morning. “Tax bills have been created and sent to the print vendor. Once the samples are approved — which we’ve been told should happen this week — it will take another 3-5 business days for the print vendor to mail the tax bills.”
Pound said in a phone call that his office’s initial deadline to send the tax bills was September 1, and that historically the county generates tax bills the last week of August. He said there is no concrete date when he expects the delivery to occur because he is still waiting for approval from the county’s banking partners to approve the bill’s scanning feature that links to mortgage data.
“It should happen this week,” Pound said. “I’m 99 percent sure of it.”
Pender County tax assessors have been “in the lengthy process of conducting the 2019 general reappraisal of real property” as directed by state law to occur every eight years, according to the release. The county’s last property reappraisal was last performed in 2011.
The tax assessor office sent letters to residents in mid-April announcing that they would be receiving their 2019 Notice of Value Change within the next few weeks. Meanwhile, the county’s new budget, adopted in June, decreased the property tax rate from 68.5 cents per $100 of assessed value to 64.5 cents.
“We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused our citizens and we ask for your continued patience as we complete this process,” Pound said in Thursday’s release.
Delays to the property reappraisal process were exacerbated by Hurricanes Florence and Dorian, according to the release, as well as new software acquired for county tax assessors and collectors.
“In the best of circumstances, the general appraisal of a county’s real property is a monumental task,” Pound said. “However, the Office of Pender County Tax Assessor has endured multiple setbacks beyond our control resulting in multiple delays in the completion of the 2019 general reappraisal. Consequently, the delivery of the 2019 tax bills has been delayed as well.”
Residents who would like to make tax payments on their balance can do so before receiving their tax bills, as county tax collectors accept payments throughout the year.
Tax questions should be directed to the Pender County Collections Department at (910) 259-1222 or Pender County Tax Assessor at (910) 259-1221.
