ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, March 6, 1996 TAG: 9603060049
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: PULASKI
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
If Pulaski's delinquent taxpayers pay up between now and June 5, they won't have to pay the penalties and interest they've accumulated so far on their recent tax bills.
Pulaski officials agreed Tuesday to offer amnesty to citizens who haven't paid their taxes through 1994 - a year where a computer glitch and other problems caused a number of errors in assessing unpaid taxes.
The amnesty does not apply to the 1995 tax year, because the problems have been corrected.
The town's Finance Committee accepted the amnesty recommendation Tuesday morning from William W. "Wade" Bartlett, who became the town's finance director Feb. 6. Council was scheduled to act on it Tuesday night.
Amnesty also will be granted for people who set up payment plans between now and June 5, so long as they adhere to those plans. The resolution means, too, that some $14,600 already collected in penalties and interest from 253 taxpayers will be refunded.
In an effort to collect back taxes, the town has mailed out more than 8,700 letters to people whose records showed them to be delinquent in paying real estate taxes or personal property taxes.
Shortly after the letters went out Jan. 25, finance officials found that 67 recipients had back taxes assessed against them where none were due, apparently because of a computer glitch.
In other instances, real estate taxes were mailed to properties that had recently changed hands. Some of the new property owners assumed they were responsible for the taxes that accumulated under the old owners.
That "was never the town's intention," Bartlett said.
The amnesty period will give erroneously assessed taxpayers a chance to come to the Finance office and get the matter straightened out.
Meanwhile, the office is instituting new procedures to keep such errors from happening again.
Bartlett estimates that the town is owed $214,768 in delinquent real estate taxes and $456,919 in personal property taxes. Total penalties and interest on all that is $221,974.
LENGTH: Short : 46 linesby CNB