Pettis County Collector Marsha Boeschen is busy this time of year making sure everyone gets their tax bills paid by Dec. 31.
“Typical tax season,” Boeschen said. “We mailed out our bills, we usually try to mail them out the week of Veterans Day – that's our target date to have them in the mail. This year, they got mailed on Nov. 13.”
Anyone who has not yet received their tax bill is urged to contact the Collector's Office immediately.
“We're still getting returned mail each day,” Boeschen told the Democrat Tuesday, Dec. 12. “If someone has personal property and they've put their phone number on their assessment sheet when they send it in, we go back and look at those phone numbers and attempt to contact someone.”
If people unfortunately did not give good contact info and don't have personal property, the Pettis County Collector’s Office will still take efforts to track them down.
“We try to use every avenue to figure out where they might have moved,” Boeschen said. “The printing company that does the tax bills for us runs two different reports before we ever send the bills out to update all the addresses ahead of time.”
Address changes are made to the tax bill, and everyone is alerted to the change.
“We have a large transient population,” Boeschen said. “People in and out, with the college and the base and just different groups of people that move in and out of the community, so it's hard for them.”
Boeschen said it would be most helpful if taxpayers would let them know if they have moved or haven’t received a bill.
“If they have not received their bill, contact us,” Boeschen said. “They can also go to our website and pull up a bill to see if there is one.”
The website shows the status of real estate and personal property tax bills for Pettis County and is easily searched by name.
“They just put their last name in, a comma and the first initial of their name,” Boeschen instructed. “If they've had a 2023 bill, if it's out there, they can print it from that site or call us and we'll send them a bill. Same way on personal property. To select personal property, they don't have to put an account number in, last name, comma and then the first initial.
“If they have a question about the bill or the items that are listed on there or their values, please contact the Assessor’s Office before they pay the bill so we can make the correction for them.”
This will keep people from underpaying or overpaying, forcing the County to keep sending bills that might get crossed in the mail.
‘We have transferred all deeds that were recorded up to the end of September,” Boeschen said. “If somebody bought or sold a house, we have almost 8,000 bills that go to escrow accounts, to mortgage companies, and those bills were not mailed. If somebody has recently refinanced their house or purchased a new house and they didn't get a bill, notify us because everything must be postmarked on or before Dec. 31, and that's a weekend.”
Boeschen stressed tax payments sent by mail must be postmarked in 2023, and many post offices will be closed.
“The post office will not be open,” Boeschen warned. “They need to go in and have it hand canceled, so it's got that postmark date. If we get it after Jan. 1 and it has the postmark date that's after Jan. 1, by law, I must charge late fees.”
This is especially burdensome for rural areas because a mailed payment could be delayed even longer.
“If a carrier doesn't get back before the postal truck comes and picks up the mail,” Boeschen said, “that may not even get on to the truck until after January, even though they might have put it in their mailbox on or before Dec. 31.”
Another item the collector wanted to address was split payments. In short, they are not accepted.
“This year, we may have caused a little confusion,” Boeschen said. “We did a pink insert. We have multiple people that have other family members or children on their bill, and they want to pay a portion of the bill.”
For instance, parents have children who drive a car and it's their responsibility to pay their taxes.
“We can't split those tax bills up,” Boeschen stated. “We have to have one form of payment because we cannot take partial payments.”
The Collector’s Office can help people calculate their portion of a tax bill or show them how to crunch the numbers themselves.
“But if they're going to pay it with a check, they need to pay with one check for one bill,” Boeschen said. “They can add their real estate and their personal property together, but it needs to be full amounts of each bill.”
Most questions can be answered by looking on the back of your 2023 Personal Property Tax Bill, such as where the money goes (mostly roads, bridges and education), the property being taxed and total assessed value, how to pay, where to pay, and which types of payment are accepted or have fees.
The Assessor’s Office and the Collector’s Office serve different functions. Contact the Assessor’s Office at 660-826-5000 ext. 920 for questions about assessed value or if there's information about your property that is incorrect. Contact the Collector’s Office at 660-826-5000 ext. 921 or pettiscollector@pettiscomo.com.
Chris Howell can be reached at 660-530-0146.
