Reminder: County property tax deadline is TODAY

Reminder: County property tax deadline is TODAY — this Friday — Dec. 10!

Ok, now back to economic debate as Tax Collector Chriss Street reports that early collections of property taxes are still running ahead of a year ago, as of Dec. 8 …

-1st installment collections total $1.71 billion, up $297 million vs. same time a year ago. That’s a 12% increase. (As of Dec. 3, they were running 9% ahead of last year!) So far, 72% of the 1st installemnt’s tax roll is collected vs. 59% in same period last year.

-2nd installment collections — yes, some folks like to pay early on a bill due April 10, 2011 — have been $182 million, up $7 million vs. same time a year ago. That’s a 0.3% increase. So far, 8% of the taxes due have been collected vs. 7% in same period last year.

Total collections for the fiscal are then $1.89 billion, up $304 million vs. same time a year ago. That’s a 6% increase. So far, 40% of the tax roll is collected vs. 33% in same period last year.
How to pay the tax installment and avoid late charges?

In person: At 12 Civic Center Plaza Room G-58 in Santa Ana.
By mail: Orange County Tax Collector, P.O. Box 1438, Santa Ana, CA 92702-1980. Need a post office postmark of Dec. 10 or earlier!
By phone: 714-834-3411.
By Internet: http://www.ttc.ocgov.com.
If you’re late? County charges a 10% one-time penalty plus 1.5% a month in interest on the unpaid balance.

If you’re wondering when you’d lose your house? Traditionally, it takes five years of unpaid tax bills before a home can be taken by the county for non-payment of taxes and sold to pay the skipped bills.

----
Extracted from the OCRegister.com / Real Estate articles