Wilkes County is issuing temporary tax bills this week for the 2009 tax year, allowing Wilkes County property owners who desire to do so to pay all their property taxes before “the end of the year.”

“We’re accepting checks dated December 31, 2009, for the temporary tax bills that will arrive in the mail this week,” said Wilkes County Tax Commissioner Mary Hubbard. “This is for those people who want to pay their 2009 taxes in 2009 so they can itemize and deduct the amount from their income taxes.”

The temporary tax bills do not have to be paid, she said. “You can wait until the permanent tax bill comes out.” Paying the temporary tax bill not only allows property owners to itemize and deduct the amount paid from the year’s income tax bill, it helps fund the school system and the county until the full tax digest is issued in the spring.

In ordinary years, the tax digest should be completed and sent to Atlanta by August 1, with tax bills out by October 20 and due by December 20. Due to a large number of revaluation corrections and the time required to enter them into the tax database, the state’s approval of the digest has been delayed until the spring of 2010. Waiting on that approval would have precluded taxpayers from paying their 2009 taxes in 2009. Wilkes County and the school board agreed to petition the courts to issue temporary tax bills for the collection of taxes, and the “Petition for Interim Collection of Taxes Pending Approval of 2009 Tax Digest” was approved by Judge Harold Hinesley in December.

Wilkes County has been under a court order to reassess all the residential properties for the first time in years, requiring that an enormous amount of information be changed and entered into the system before notices can go out. Large tracts of land were reappraised in 2008, and homes and smaller tracts were reappraised in 2009.

After new assessment notices are sent, property owners have 45 days in which to appeal. Those appeals must then be settled until no more than three percent remain. Only then will the state consider approving the tax digest and only after the state grants approval may the actual 2009 tax bills be issued. “It may be May or June before that happens,” Hubbard said.

Hubbard said that her office has already received dozens of estimated tax prepayments by mail, and that she is in her courthouse office by 7 a.m. to take payments and answer questions. Partial payment plans are available for those who can’t afford to pay all their property tax at once, she said. “We’ve had a lot more people go on the payment plan this year, but we’ll work with them.”

If a taxpayer pays an estimated tax and overpays, Hubbard says, a refund will be issued. “There will be no credits carried forward this year,” she said. “We’re going to write checks for any refund owed.”