The House of Representatives this week passed legislation that seeks to lessen the tax payment burden on Hoosier homeowners, allowing them the option to pay their property taxes in installments as opposed to a lump sum. The legislation passed the House by a 93-0 vote, bringing it one step closer to becoming law, but several counties in Indiana have already offered this option to residents.
The bill now goes to the desk of Gov. Mike Pence for approval. In the meantime, every county in Indiana is gearing up to send out property tax bills, and it’s keeping the treasurers in Starke and Pulaski counties pretty busy.
Pulaski County Treasurer Lynn Wilder said her office is currently printing the bills and she estimates the bills will be out by the third week of April. She said approximately 18,000 bills will be sent out by her office, and the payments are due by May 10 and Nov. 12.
Starke County Treasurer Kasey Clark, meanwhile, said their tax bills will be sent out early next week.
“Basically, we’re just going through and proofing everything, making sure that the bills look right as a proof, and then we will extract the files and send them over to our printer to get them printed. So we’re not too busy, but we’re getting all of our ducks in a row,” said Clark.
Clark said that typically after the bills are sent, many people have begun paying their bills by April 15, making her office extremely busy; she said the closer it gets to May 10, the more traffic her office gets. Fortunately, she said there are drop-off locations at a variety of locations.
“We have drop-off locations all over, and if people don’t want to wait, we definitely encourage them to drop it off at the different banks that are listed on the back of the statements,” Clark said. “Also, they can mail them in and they get processed at First Source, which is our bank, and it goes directly into our account, so we encourage people to do that, that way they don’t actually have to come up here and wait in line.”
Delinquent taxes are charged a fee of five percent for the first 30 days past due and another five percent after those 30 days.
