9,000 tax notices undelivered

PROVO — For Elvis Presley, "Return to Sender" was a hit song about love gone awry — and provided a nice addition to his bank account.

For thousands of Utah County property tax payers, those words are more likely to invoke a little extra pain for their pocketbook.

More than 9,000 property tax notices — all returned for lack of a good address — have piled up in the county treasurer's office, and Treasurer Mel Hudman is concerned.

Hudman said 136,000 notices were mailed out on Oct. 22.

The 9,000 that have come back is about 7 percent of the total — which is about status quo for the county — but still of great concern to Hudman and his staff with the Nov. 30 due date for payments one week away.

"People are still responsible for paying their taxes even if they don't get their notice," Hudman said. "It's their responsibility to let us know their correct address. We do everything we can, but if they (the notices) come back, they're (the taxes) still due by Nov. 30 and delinquent by Dec. 1."

Often, residents have left the area for an extended vacation, to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints or they simply move and fail to provide a forwarding address to the treasurer's office, Hudman said.

While most have informed the U.S. Postal Service, that doesn't help the treasurer's office, which sends notices using a bulk mail rate that is not eligible to be automatically forwarded.

Instead, it's "return to sender."

Notices that are returned with a forwarding sticker that provides a new address are then relabeled and mailed again. But only 3,500 of the returns have had stickers, Hudman said.

The others are waiting in trays at the county administration building in hopes people will come in and pick them up.

"If people don't have their tax notice, they need to call us right away," Hudman said. "Call us here at 851-8254."

Hudman said the treasurer's office makes every effort to deliver the tax notices to the right address, but ultimately, it's up to the taxpayer to make sure the taxes are paid.

Those who miss the November deadline not only incur a delinquent fee, interest also starts accumulating on the unpaid amount.

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E-mail: haddoc@desnews.com