Ever get confused about your tax bill? Horry County to launch tax notice redesign.
For property owners in Horry County, your yearly tax bills are getting a makeover this year, and officials hope the redesign cuts down on confusion.
The changes could also save the county tens of thousands of dollars each year, officials said.
In an Administrative Committee meeting of the Horry County Council on Tuesday, Treasurer Angie Jones announced that her office, the Assessor’s office and the county Auditor collaborated to cut down on the cluttered notices that she said often left taxpayers confused about how much they owed. She said that during peak times when most people pay their county taxes, the volume of calls to her office regarding the tax notices mirrored those to 911.
“Our tax notices have literally, what I call, turned into a monster coupon book,” Jones said during the meeting. “We’ve got so many inserts in them. (Taxpayers are) looking at the inserts and not looking at the tax notice or looking at the tax notice and not looking at the inserts.”
In the past, the annual tax bills included a two-page bill and up to five or six additional pages containing notices and various information about county programs and services. This year, however, the new bills will use bold colors and fonts to highlight the most important information, including only one insert related to address changes. On the back, taxpayers will be able to see a pie chart showing how their tax dollars are distributed to various county funds.
While the old tax bills included detailed information about millage rates, potential fees and how the total tax amount was distributed to various funds, Horry County Assessor Lawrence Roscoe said taxpayers would often misread the bill and pay the wrong amount, causing the county to have to send them a refund and a new bill requesting the correct amount.
Taxpayers, he said, would “just (pay) the highest amount, because they didn’t want to be wrong. Well that’s great, except then you have to stop what you’re doing, go post the payment and schedule the refund, which stops someone from doing something else.”
All told, the updates could save the county between $29,000 and $35,000 annually, due to both reductions in the cost to print and mail the notices. Those savings come as county officials are trying to plug budget holes caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Councilman Orton Bellamy, who represents Conway and a large swath of Southeastern Horry County, praised the changes, saying he appreciated that three separate department heads and staff worked together on the change.
“They looked at lessons learned from the customers and they responded back to the customers, so it’s great, phenomenal work they’re doing,” he said.
Property tax bills are typically mailed out to property owners in the last quarter of the year and due by early January.
This story was originally published August 27, 2020 at 6:00 AM.
