– Idea of accepting envelope postmark is rejected –

(OSOYOOS TIMES — Oct. 18, 2006) –

By Lawrence McMahenrnOsoyoos Times

Osoyoos Town Council has stuck to its guns on the deadline it has set for payment of local property taxes.
A letter to Council from resident Bea Dulewich, asking for a deadline shift to July 31st from its current date of the second Friday in July, sparked a lengthy debate by councillors October 2nd on the merits of changing the deadline or keeping it where it is.
Dulewich's letter said July 31st would put Osoyoos in line with other provinces.
But background provided by Town Finance Director Jim Zakall to the October 2nd Council meeting pointed out that Osoyoos' payments to other taxing jurisdictions are all due on August 1st of each year. Also, Zakall said, setting back the tax payment deadline could make it more difficult to finance projects, since revenue would arrive later.
The tax payment issue arose in July when four people appealed the penalty they had been assessed by the Town for late payment of their property taxes. Three of the appeals were because of alleged mishandling of the mailed-in payment by Canada Post and the fourth was a dispute over whether the taxpayer paid in-person at Town Hall on the deadline Friday or the following Monday. The late-payment penalty is 10 per cent of the property tax bill, or roughly $250 each. All four appeals were denied by Council.
This year there were 3,396 taxable properties in Osoyoos and 252 were assessed penalties for late payment “ or, about seven per cent of all properties.
Councillor Stu Wells argued during the meeting that Council should look at the possibility of accepting postmark date-stamped envelopes that are mailed by the deadline day as being within the deadline “ as the federal government does for income tax returns and apparently as other jurisdictions such as B.C. and Oliver do for tax payments.
I'm just wondering “ are we out of sync? Some of those people (who mailed their tax payments) did the right thing and got penalized, Wells said.
Councillor Allan Carswell suggested Council should talk to the Regional District of Okanagan-Similkameen, to get RDOS to bring its deadline into line with Osoyoos'. But that idea didn't find favour with any of the other Councillors.
Carswell and Mayor John Slater disagreed with Wells' postmark proposal.
To get into reading postmarks is too grey of an area. Unfortunately, the Town is a business, Carswell said, and it must act like businesses and require payment on-time.
Slater came down hard on the postmark idea.
If you go to the bank and pay your VISA late, you get penalized. You have to have it there on-time. The majority of our taxpayers know what to do. Folks, get your cheques in. We accept post-dated cheques; there's no excuse for being late. He also noted tax payments can now be made online.
Reacting to an Osoyoos Times editorial that urged Council to be compassionate on the tax-payment deadline and the appeals, Slater said, Compassionate? But where do you draw the line? We're not a jury. If we do (accept postmarks), what if next year we can't read a stamp, and somebody says, 'It reads July 11th?' If you go to that shade of grey, we're all in trouble. We've got rules and we've all got to abide by them.