Property tax bills start landing in mailboxes this week – Canton Repository

CANTON Many Stark County property owners are set to receive their 2022 property tax bills in the mail this week.

Payments for the first half of the year are due by Feb. 23 at the Stark County Treasurer's office. The second half payment is due July 20. The first-half deadline for taxes on manufactured homes are due by March 8.

Property owners who fail to pay on time will be assessedinterest and a state-mandated penalty of 5% of the amount due for up to 10 days after the deadline and 10% of the amount after that.

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Stark County Treasurer Alex Zumbar said the county's vendor PPI Graphics was to deliver 198,000 property tax bills to the U.S. Postal Service facilities in Cleveland by Monday.

About 56,000 of those mailings are informational notices to property owners where their mortgage lender has arranged an escrow service to pay property taxes for them. Zumbar said the cost of the mailing, which is required by state law, is roughly $100,000 a year.

Property owners who don't want to wait can check their bills online. They can go to the Stark County Auditor's Real Estate Search and look up their property by name (data format is last name and then first name without a comma), address or parcel number. They then click on the "Go" button on the right side under "Printable Tax Bill" under "Reports." The word "processing" will appear and if the property owner has disabled the browser popup blocker, the tax bill will appear in a separate browser tab.

Zumbar said by law, property owners are legally required to pay their property taxes by the deadline even if they don't receive a bill in the mail.

The county has four methods by which taxpayers can pay their bills without additional cost. He asks taxpayers to write the parcel numbers of the properties they're paying taxes for on all checks and money orders.

They can pay their bill in person by check, money order or cash at the Stark County Treasurer's Office on the second floor of the county office building,110 Central Plaza, Suite 250. Those who do this are asked but not required to wear a mask.

They can submit with their tax bill stub a payment by check and leave it in the dropbox of the lobby, whichis open 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. weekdays.

Taxpayers can also sign up in advance for a prepayment program, which involves 10 payments debited from a bank account per year. It's too late to sign up for payments due in 2022. Contact treasurer's employee Rick Reigle at (330) 451-7814, extension 7824 or email him at rlreigle@starkcountyohio.gov.

Taxpayers can also sign up in advance for two payments debited from their bank accounts in February and July. Call Richard Willaman at (330) 451-7814, extension 7819 or email him at rcwillaman@starkcountohio.gov.

Taxpayers can mail their payment and incur the cost of postage. The payment must be postmarked by the deadline. And postal meter postmarks aren't considered valid. The address if mailing prior to the due date is: Stark County Treasurer, P.O. Box 24815, Canton, OH, 44701-4815. If mailing after the due date, mail to: Stark County Treasurer, 110 Central Plaza S, Suite 250, Canton, OH, 44702-1410.

Zumbar said due to the U.S. Postal Service's delivery woes a year ago, some payments mailed by the deadline from out of the county were notreceived until June. Otherswere lost. He said any tax penalties assessed in those situations were reversed.

Taxpayers can also pay by credit card or debit card by phone by calling 1-877-690-3729 and using jurisdiction code 4518. The fee is 2.35%. The payments must be divided into one for each parcel. For the same fee, taxpayers can pay by credit card or debit card online at the Treasurer's website. If taxpayers pay online by electronic check and submittheir routing and account numbers for their bank account, the fee is a flat $1.95.

The last payment option is to submit payment at one of three kiosks. The fees are the same as if paying online. The kiosks are at:

The Stark County Auditor's office last year completed the county's triennial update where county appraisers using computer software updated home values to reflect the housing market. Stark County Auditor Alan Harold told the Stark County commissioners Monday morning that residential property values in the county increased by a median 17 to 18%, reflecting booming demand in 2021 for houses.

With new levies approved by voters in 2020 and 2021 taking effect this year and the higher valuations, Harold said, property tax bills this year are up about an average of 8% from a year ago.

Reach Robert at (330) 580-8327 or robert.wang@cantonrep.com. On Twitter: @rwangREP

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Property tax bills start landing in mailboxes this week - Canton Repository