The District of Sicamous finance department is seeing a pattern among late property tax payers in comparing this year’s numbers with those of 2023.
In a report to council at the July 10 meeting, chief financial officer Bianca Colonna said that following the July 2 due date, 8.73 per cent of taxes remain outstanding ($843,504) just up from 8.48 per cent last year ($774,753).
“In both 2023 and 2024, the number of property owners that did not pay their current year taxes by the due date was 377,” Colonna said. “The fact that this number has not changed is an indicator that the same group of taxpayers are consistently not paying their property taxes on time.”
She added that outstanding tax letters will be sent out with utility bills at the end of July, which they started doing last year as opposed to waiting until October as they have in the past.
“Sending the outstanding letters in July drastically helped collections last year.”
Additionally, the number of properties with delinquent taxes – amounts outstanding for two years – have increased, while those with just one year in arrears has decreased. The former group is required to go to a tax sale at this point, which staff is trying to avoid by sending multiple letters over the next few months.
All those properties with late taxes will be charged interest at the provincially set rate which, as of July 1, is 9.95 per cent.
“Strong collection statistics are important for the cash flows of the municipality,” Colonna explained, adding that “overall, collections are comparable to prior years.”
The report also contained a summary of where the tax notices were mailed out to property owners, with the top three communities being Sicamous (48.3 per cent), Calgary (15.4) and Edmonton (3.1). Some also went to locations in Ontario, Saskatchewan, the U.S. and Quebec, with one even being sent as far away as Denmark.
