Unpaid taxes amount to 'cheap loan'

In 2005 as Delta Air Lines was in bankruptcy, it obtained a $3.9 million "loan" from Salt Lake County taxpayers. No application was needed. No payments were required for years. Its interest rate was 10.25 percent, relatively low for an entity in bankruptcy.

How did Delta get that "loan"?

It simply did not pay its local property tax that year. Delta was among thousands of businesses that stretch cash that way. They have five years to pay taxes and penalties before their property could be seized and sold at a tax sale (and those in bankruptcy cannot have property sold until they emerge from it).

Salt Lake County Treasurer Larry W. Richardson has said such "borrowing" is convenient for businesses — especially those on hard times — because "there are no applications, no (up-front) fees and no waiting." Of course, if too many do that, it could hurt the local governments depending on that revenue.

The good news for Salt Lake County taxpayers is that as Delta emerged from bankruptcy last year, Richardson said it gave the county a check on Halloween for back taxes, penalties and interest — so it is no longer the Wasatch Front's top property tax delinquent, a dubious honor it had for two years.

But thousands of other businesses are on delinquency lists, and many appear to be using nonpayment of property tax as a cheap "loan."

For example, nearly a third of all delinquent property taxes in Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties are owed by real estate developers and construction companies.

They owed $24.4 million of the overall $83.3 million in delinquent property taxes in those counties, according to an Deseret Morning News analysis of delinquency records downloaded as of Jan. 3.

Some notable developers among them included: DAE/Westbrook in Utah County, $462,971 delinquent; SunCrest in Salt Lake County, $295,561; Kriser Homes in Utah County, $175,749; and BG Properties Clearfield in Davis County, $240,894.

On top of that, commercial property companies — such as owners of shopping centers, apartment complexes or senior housing — owed another $1.5 million in delinquent tax in the three counties.

And finance companies — including banks and mortgage companies that sometimes hold foreclosed properties — owed another $796,963.

Richardson said officials have long noticed (and the Morning News reports annually) that developers and others in the real estate and construction industries account for a high percentage of the unpaid property taxes.

The reason is no secret. They often wait to sell property before paying taxes on it to avoid obtaining loans or tying up other cash to pay them. Often, rates charged by the government are lower (or at least easier to obtain) than what might be found elsewhere.