Delinquent taxpayers owe Mecklenburg $26.7 million

Delinquent taxpayers owe Mecklenburg $26.7 million
28,800 overdue bills are listed in today's paper; many people cite economy as reason they haven't paid.
By April Bethea
abethea@charlotteobserver.com
Posted: Monday, Apr. 27, 2009
More Information
Database: Who owes Mecklenburg money?

Need to pay?
Mecklenburg County offers three ways to residents and businesses to pay their tax bills. Interest accrues on the account until the bill is resolved.

Online: See http://paytax.charmeck.org. Payments accepted via credit card or electronic check. The county uses a private service to process those payments, and the service charges taxpayers a fee.

By phone: Call 877-533-0072 and use a credit or debit card; you will be charged the fee.

In person: Bring a check payable to the Mecklenburg Tax Collector to the Robert L. “Bob” Walton Plaza, 700 E. Stonewall St., or the West Service Center, 4150 Wilkinson Blvd.

Have other questions?
Not sure if you owe? Have other questions?

Call 311 or look up tax bill information at http://tax.charmeck.org.
Mecklenburg County is owed more than $26.7 million in delinquent taxes for 2008, with many people citing the poor economy as the reason they weren't able to pay their bills on time.

An advertisement appearing in Sunday's Observer listed more than 28,800 overdue tax bills for land, buildings and business equipment in Mecklenburg, as well as personal property including boats or airplanes. Click here for a searchable database.

State law requires local governments to publish the ads as a way to notify individuals and businesses that they owe taxes.

This year's ad has fewer names than the 32,000-plus bills worth a total of nearly $35 million listed in 2008, when the ad was printed one month earlier, in March. But it has more names than the 26,530 listed in 2007, the last time the county ran an ad in April.

Property taxes are the largest revenue source for the county and considered to be the most stable. But at the end of March, the taxes were coming in at a slightly slower rate than in past years, said Tax Collector Neal Dixon. The amount of actual dollars collected is larger than in the past, however, because of growth in the tax base.

Another sign of the economy: In years past, the county has always brought in more in taxes than it budgeted. But this year, the county still needs to bring in $16 million just to meet its budget approved last summer.

Dixon said his office has heard from many people who blamed the economy for their late tax bills. The office also saw a higher-than-normal number of people who waited until just before Jan. 5 – the date by which bills had to be paid this year to avoid accruing interest – because they wanted to hold onto their money for as long as possible.

The largest single bill listed in the advertisement for an individual is the $34,535 owed by Martin Yacoobian Jr. for a home in Cornelius. Yacoobian also owes money for two other residences in Cornelius listed under his name or The MCY III Trust.

Yacoobian told the Observer he was aware of the bills and was planning to send money in soon to pay off the debt. He said he bought the homes while he was involved with a large business locally, but is no longer working on the project. He said he's put the homes for sale and hopes to pay off the tax bills as soon as the properties are bought. “I'm doing everything I can to sell them as fast I can,” he said.

On the business side, MPI Wendover LLC has the largest overdue tax bill of any company. The ad lists the company as owing $139,119 for an apartment complex off Wendover Road. The company did not respond to a request for comment sent through an Atlanta firm that received the tax bill.

State law requires local governments to send anyone owing delinquent taxes notice by first-class mail at least 30 days before the ad appears in the newspaper.

In Mecklenburg, residents and businesses that owed money were sent letters in mid-March stating the bills had to be paid by March 31 to guarantee they wouldn't appear in the ad.

Still, some people who paid their bills after March 31 don't appear in the ad. And even some who made a payment may still find themselves listed.

That's because after a certain date, interest accrues on overdue tax bills, and Dixon said any payment received is applied to any outstanding interest first, then the principle of the bill. So, anyone who paid just the original tax levy, but not the interest, is listed.

And Dixon said the county waits until just before the ad is published to send a file listing delinquent taxpayers to the newspaper to make sure the ad has the most up-to-date information as possible. Any bill that was paid in full in recent weeks isn't listed.

Dixon and other tax officials stress the advertisement isn't meant to embarrass people, but to remind them they have money owed to the county. The office normally receives an influx of payments for tax bills after the ad is published. News Researcher Maria David and Database Editor Ted Mellnik contributed.

April 27, 2008 Charlotte Observer

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/687696.html

That's pretty sad. I would not be surprised to see more of this type of delinquency given all of the government spending that is going on, the taxpayers are going to have to pay.

What happens if they don't pay? Will they loose their homes and properties? How would the Government keep track of all the personal property?

Quote :

What happens if they don't pay? Will they loose their homes and properties?

Seems likely to me, since that is historically how it works. More of that redistribution of wealth plan no doubt...

Can you imagine how much additional money it's going to cost taxpayers to fund foreclosure proceedings, seizures, and disposing of seized assets?

Attorneys and auctioneers are going to get filthy rich and will likely end up owning much of the seized assets, purchasing them at bargain basement prices. Bankers and realtors with available funds will also reap a plethora of deeply discounted deals, at some point cashing in when they resell them. Of course an inevitable outcry for reduced property taxes by the public will serve to cut the costs of ownership for the wealthy who are accumulating these bargains, further increasing the profitability of the holdings long term.