Mailing Your Tax Bill

During this time of the year, people ask me  - when are we going to mail the tax bills?  Well, here is how it works:

The Property Appraiser certifies the tax roll to our office .  This year that took place on Monday November 2nd.  By law we have twenty working days to get the bills mailed and be open for collection.

Since we only have one shot to mail 150,000+ tax bills, it is imperative to get it right.   

We first have to make sure our numbers balance with the Property Appraisers numbers to know the data has successfully converted from their system to ours. 

Second, we create a printable file of the certified tax roll and send it to our vendor.

Third, our vendor then provides samples that we review and review again to ensure the information is accurate and in the right place.  The passage of Ammendment 1 in January 2008, has only further complicates the process.

Fourth, when we are comfortable with the bills, the mailing process begins.  We do not mail all the bills all at once; they are staggered over a three to four days.  This helps stagger your phone calls and emails so that we can better serve you in a timely manner and not over "tax" the staff, so to speak.  Many of the calls we receive have nothing to do with our office as they pertain to property assessments or issues with one of the taxing authorities for whom we collect tax dollars.  That information can be found in the tax insert that comes with the tax bill. 

And after all this, it is then up to you to decide, when and how you are going to pay the taxes.  Over 90% of the tax roll collections are done via mail or internet payments.  The mortgage companies pay toward the end of the 4% discount period.  We will collect 70% of the tax roll by the end of the year.

In recent years, we began meeting with the Property Appraiser and his staff  in January to review the tax season, share ideas, suggestions, and concerns from both offices and look for ways to continually improve the process.  In August. we meet again to follow up on action items to ensure we are moving forward. 

Then we start the process all over again for the next year.