It’s that time of year again — no, not the holiday season, but the season for Pettis County tax bills.
Pettis County residents should be receiving their tax bills within the next few days, as they were mailed out Thursday and Friday, Pettis County Collector Marsha Boeschen said. With 43 taxing entities, Boeschen’s office sent out 43,000 bills this week based on the estimated value of property as of Jan. 1.
“The levies from the taxing entities have stayed pretty close to the same, there’s no big change in the taxing levies that we saw an increase for between last year and this year,” Boeschen said. “So the bills, there shouldn’t be extreme differences unless they tore something down or added something new.
“And on their vehicles, if they had an older vehicle and bought a newer vehicle this year, they may see an increase in value because the amounts of the assessed value are based on the value of the property the first day of January of the current year.”
Residents have four options to pay their bill: in person at the Pettis County Courthouse, by mail, online, or by dropping off the form and payment in the drop-box located on the northeast side of the courthouse, which is checked daily.
Mailed payments must be postmarked by Dec. 31 to avoid delinquent fees. Payments dropped in the drop-box or conducted online must be completed by midnight Dec. 31. Boeschen reminded people who prefer the in-person option that lines may be long Monday and Tuesday.
“There’s always lines, the first day there’s always lines,” she said. “The later they wait to pay the longer the line will be. We try to process them quickly.”
New this year, a return envelope is included and the bottom portion of the form for return has the address printed on it to fit inside the envelope. Boeschen noted something else new residents may notice this year.
“This year, if people have more than 27 items listed on their personal property account, we’ll be sending them an overflow sheet that shows the assessment value and all the make, model and year of their cars, farm equipment and machinery, business equipment,” she said.
Boeschen reminded residents that if they don’t receive a bill within the next week and they were expecting one, they should contact her office so the bill can be resent. If residents recently moved to Pettis County, they will need to check if an assessment form has been submitted to the assessor’s office to receive a bill. To make sure bills arrive on time in 2016, a change of address section is on the form.
To contact the assessor, call 660-826-5000 ext. 920. To contact Boeschen, call 660-826-5000 ext. 921. The collector’s office is open 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, and will close at noon Christmas Eve.