Tax Arrears Drop Close To $1 Million Year Over Year
It is a good news - bad news situation when it comes to property tax arrears owed to the City of Moose Jaw.
The good news is that the amount of overall property tax arrears owed has fallen by $928,862 on March 31, 2022 compared to March 31, 2021.
Overall property tax arrears on March 31, 2022 is $2,859,803 versus $3,788,665 on March 31, 2021.
SOURCE - City of Moose Jaw First Quarter 2022 Financial Report
The bad news is there has been a shift in tax arrears from payment plans to tax liens on properties in arrears. There are more property owners owing outstanding property taxes who are not on an arrears payment plan - a shift from just one year ago.
Percentage-wise 37 percent of tax arrears had tax liens on the property ($1,395,628) on March 31, 2021 versus 55 percent ($1,564,639) on March 31, 2022.
Previously on March 31, 2020 the percentage of tax arrears with a tax lien affixed to the property was 55 percent ($1,363,227) of all arrears outstanding.
The switch away from Arrears Payment Plans to Property Tax Liens coincides with a tax policy adopted during the unknown days of what the COVID - 19 pandemic would protend.
At the time Council sought to help out delinquent property owners get onto an arrears payment plan as it would be beneficial to the property owner as well as the City with arrears coming in at a predictable rate.
“So it certainly benefitted them and it benefits the City as well because we have regularly scheduled payments with them,” Director of Finance Brian Acker said at the time.
Overall though the arrears - except for the drop between March 31, 2021 and March 31, 2022 continue their upward trend.
The amount of property taxes in arrears has been slowly growing over the past five years with last year’s high amount after being in the COVID - 19 pandemic for two years.
SOURCE - City of Moose Jaw First Quarter 2022 Report
Arrears on March 31, 2018 were $2,195,054 with the amount of arrears outstanding this year on March 31st being $2,859,803.