Battleford waives one per cent September tax penalty

Rather than paying the one per cent penalty that comes with paying property taxes late, property owners won’t be charged a penalty for paying taxes in September.

“It’s not necessarily the town’s fault, it’s definitely not the residents’ fault that tax notices weren’t out previous to Sept. 1,” Mayor Ames Leslie said.

Tax penalties increase by one per cent every month normally from September to December. The penalty for taxes outstanding at Jan. 1 of the following year is 10 per cent. Tax discounts, meanwhile, begin at an eight per cent discount in January and decrease each month until June, in which no penalties or discounts are applied.

Leslie attributed the town being unable to get all tax notices to residents before Sept. 1 to Vadim, the town’s new operating system that issues tax notices.

The decision to waive the tax penalty passed unanimously.