Property tax notices in the mail
By Steve Herring
Published in News on August 9, 2015 1:50 AM
Wayne County property tax bills started showing up in mailboxes this past week and by the end of the month all of the approximately 73,000 tax notices being mailed out by the county tax office should have been delivered.
"I got mine, too," County Tax Administrator Alan Lumpkin said.
Lumpkin said that taxpayers who do not receive their bill by Sept. 1 should contact the tax office at 919-731-1478 or go online at www.waynegov.com to look at their bill.
Property taxes are due Sept. 1, but people have until 5 p.m. Jan. 5 to pay without being delinquent, he said.
A 2-percent penalty will be added to bills not paid by the Jan. 5 deadline.
An additional three-quarters of a percent is added at the first of each following month to any outstanding balance until the bill is paid in full.
Wayne County also handles the billing for all of the fire districts and all of the county's municipalities except for Walnut Creek, which does its own tax billing.
The county tax rate is 66.5 cents per $100 of property valuation, down from 66.65 cents last year.
There were a few other tax rate changes this year.
Mount Olive's tax rate increased from 59 to 64 cents per $100 of value and Eureka's increased from 70 to 75 cents.
Two of the county's fire district taxes changed as well. Elroy's rate decreased from 6.5 to 6.25 cents while Patetown's rate increased from 5 to 6.25 cents.
Other municipal tax rates per $100 of property valuation are: Goldsboro, 65 cents; Fremont, 65 cents; Pikeville 60 cents; and Seven Springs, 54 cents.
Walnut Creek's rate is 37.75 cents.
Several payment options are available.
The bills can be paid in person at the tax office on the first floor of the Wayne County Courthouse Annex or left in a drop box located on the Ormond Avenue side of the courthouse.
Bills also can be paid online or by phone, but both those options carry a fee collected by the company that provides the service.
The county does not receive any revenue from the fee.
People can also remove the bottom portion of the bill, write a check and mail it in.
Bills that are mailed must be postmarked no later than Jan. 5 by the Postal Service. Office postal marks are not valid to show that the mailing met the deadline.
Lumpkin said that his office has received calls from taxpayers wanting to know why the mailed-in bills are sent to Charlotte.
"It goes straight to the bank and it process it for us," he said. "It is like other bills that people may have."