There are 56 residential properties on which the district has yet to receive property taxes. Property owners will get one more year to clear the tax.
These delinquent accounts represent about $132,000 in tax revenue. In 2018 and 2019, the delinquent accounts were $166,000 and $221,000, according to a district report.
The numbers were part of a staff report to council to extend the tax sale redemption period and delay the annual tax sale.
A annual tax sale is a public auction of properties within a municipality which have unpaid property taxes from two years to the current year.
In May 2020, the province issued a Ministerial Order on Local Government Finances in the light of COVID-19.
This order enabled the municipality, by bylaw, to delay the statutory date of property tax sale and the redemption by one year. At a meeting on July 28, the Squamish council unanimously voted to delay the tax sale and extend the redemption period by one year to September 27, 2021.
The property owner will continue as delinquent and will continue to accrue interest on those delinquent taxes.
Delaying the tax sale will provide some relief for those property owners who are in a delinquent position in 2020, says the staff.
