MADERA COUNTY — Tracy Kennedy, Madera County Treasurer-Tax Collector, reports that over $82 million in property tax payments were collected and posted from the Dec. 10 property tax deadline.
“All payments were posted and balanced by Thursday, Dec. 17,” says Kennedy. “That’s amazing given that we had a new electronic posting system that we had to become familiar with, together with fairly new staff. I’m so proud of them for handling both the heavy volume and the new processes.”
Kennedy says that for the last month, they have had heavy walk in traffic and the telephones have been ringing constantly.
“We answer our own phones,” she says. “To answer that volume of phone calls and wait on literally hundreds of taxpayers day after day and never skip a beat — now that’s customer service at its best! I’m really humbled at how well the staff all worked together.”
As is typical, Kennedy says most of the payments — around 63 percent or about 53,000 parcels — are made by mail, another 20 percent are paid through the property owner’s mortgage company, and the balance are paid with credit cards or through in-office counter transactions. Most payments were for the 1st installment, but over 14,000 taxpayers paid both installments, says Kennedy.
The next tax deadline is Apr. 10. All payments must be postmarked by that date to avoid penalties.
“We will be sending out reminder notices soon to those taxpayers who may have overlooked their tax payments,” says Kennedy.
Taxpayers can verify that their payments were posted to their account on the treasurer’s website at www.madera-county.com/treasurer. Follow the link and prompts at “View My Property Taxes” and your entire tax bill will be revealed together with your payment information.
