Jefferson County Online A part of the IAGenWeb and USGenWeb Projects Delinquent Taxes - 1974

The Fairfield Ledger
Tuesday, April 9, 1974
Page 1, Columns 6, 7, and 8

Monday Is The Day--
Tax Collections To Begin

Jefferson County residents may start paying their 1974 tax payments Monday, April 15. That announcement was made today by George Harden, county treasurer.

Total amount of tax collections certified for payment during 1974 and the first six months of 1975 is $5,991,138.94. Payments may be made in three equal payments.

In order to compare the new tax payments with those for 1973 it is necessary to figure them according to 12 months and 18 months.

On a 12-month basis, or for the year 1974 only, the amount is down approximately $100,000 when compared to tax payments payable in 1973.

The 12-month payments for 1974 amount to $3,994,092.72 compared to $4,094,340.13 payable in 1973 which is a reduction of $100,248. After the 12-month basis, there will be $1,997,046 to be paid during the first six months of 1975.

The first payment which will begin April 15 will need to be paid by July 15 to avoid penalty. Penalty is assessed 90 days after tax payments start.

The second payment will become delinquent after Sept. 30.

The third payment period, an additional six months, has been added. This third payment will be due Jan. 2, 1975 and will become delinquent after March 31 next year.

The 18-month period and three tax payments is required because of a change in the Iowa law switching tax payments to a fiscal year starting July 1, 1975. In order to make this change the present 18-month period is necessary.

Taxpayers may make their tax payments in three separate payments, one for each six months, or they may pay all three payments at once in a lump sum.

The penalty on unpaid taxes is three-fourths of one per cent per month, the same as it has been in the past, with penalty on the first half reverting back to April 1 after they become delinquent.

Beginning July 1, 1975, tax payments will revert to a 12-month or fiscal year basis.

Jefferson County tax payments climbed above the four million dollar mark for the first time in 1970. That year the figure was $4,109,178.37.

They were $4,007,412.12 in 1973, and this year, on the 12-month basis, they are $3,994,092.62.

Tax payments are late in getting started this year because of a delay in getting necessary levies and figures from the state and from school districts which dip into Jefferson County from surrounding counties.

The tax payments were figured in the office of the county auditor and certified to the treasurer's office for collection.