Denton County residents should receive their property tax statements in the mail soon, as a delay in mailing was caused by multiple factors, including this year's election.
But the tax roll has been online since early October, a county tax assessor collector office official said.
Denton County Tax Assessor Collector Michelle French said last week in an email that property tax statements should begin being mailed in the next seven to 10 days, "hopefully sooner."
She said in an email response to questions from the Denton Record-Chronicle on Wednesday that tax statements were available online on Oct. 2, and taxpayers could make payments online. It is not necessary to receive a tax bill to make a payment. Tax bills from 2024 must be paid on or before Jan. 31, 2025, in order to avoid statutory penalty and interest fees.
French explained in an emailed statement on Nov. 30 to a customer obtained by the Record-Chronicle that there were several factors that led to the later-than-usual mailing.
"Most notably, two school districts held a voter approval tax ratification election for which both failed, requiring the affected school district boards to canvass their elections and pass new tax rate resolutions," French said. "They could not occur any earlier than November 18th and 19th."
She said as soon as her office received the new resolutions from the schools affected, her office software programmers were required to makes changes to accommodate the new tax rates and recalculate.
"Once that was completed, we sent the tax statement file to our printer," she said.
She said although the tax statements' mailing is later than usual, the tax roll has been online since Oct. 2.
"The ability to make payments [has] been available and the actual tax statements are forthcoming," she said. "Our office approved the printer to commence printing statements right before Thanksgiving."
Residents can search, view and pay their payments online at any time at taxweb.dentoncounty.gov/search.
Denton resident Melinda Schultz told the Denton Record-Chronicle that she wished the situation had been managed better, that the delay was "pretty significant."
She explained she understands when "situations arise that can’t be anticipated. Everyone I have talked to agrees this is all part of doing business. The problem I have is that no one informed the taxpayers of these delays."
She said she couldn't find any information on any website.
"The only thing was a notification of how to pay online," she said. "My mom went last week with her statement, made a check out and was told to put her check in the drop box. I am glad I didn’t do this because the amount on the [Central Appraisal District] site and the amount due for me were different."
A tax office staffer explained in an email to Schultz that because the tax rates do not get finalized until later in the year, the Denton Central Appraisal District uploads an estimated tax amount based off what the prior year tax rate was, and this year the tax rates on her account slightly increased, which resulted in the higher tax amount.
Schultz said County Commissioner Precinct 4 Dianne Edmondson called her and offered "a good summary of the situation," but she said she told Edmondson that people need to be informed and given an explanation "in the most transparent way possible."
French responded to how her office handled the matter.
"Historically, the volume of property tax payments is low until after Thanksgiving," French told the Denton Record-Chronicle via email. "Given that payments were being made and the timing of mailing aligned with when the volume of tax payments typically increases significantly, it was felt that a press release was not necessary. However, I can certainly understand the concerns posed."
She said the tax code states that tax statements must be mailed on Oct. 1 or as soon thereafter as practicable. Because of the circumstances that impacted this year, French's office generated the tax statement file as quickly as possible.
"We have received several inquiries from property owners asking about tax statements," she said. "When our team explained the circumstances surrounding the delay in the mailing of statements, in most cases, their concerns were alleviated.
"If a property owner desired, we have been more than happy to download a copy of their tax statement from the tax roll and mail or email to them. Property owners can also download their tax statements online as well."
She added that the tax assessor collector’s office will analyze this year’s events to determine whether a different response would be necessary in future years.