Last night, the Blue Ridge City Council came up with a course of action for the unpaid property taxes, business licenses, and alcohol licenses in Fannin County. The Missing taxes had gone unnoticed until this point; some being over 8 years old. 

Delinquent Tax Plan

The council has hired an “Outside Source” to gather the list of names and businesses with unpaid taxes to send them a letter. These individuals will have a period of ninety days to pay their balances. Then, their names will be published in the paper. residents will also have lean on their property with the intent of selling it if the taxes aren’t paid. Letters will be mailed out as soon as the outside source has the list. According to Council member Mike Panter, it should roughly be by 15th of June. Property owners would have the fee for the outside source stacked onto their balance.

What if It can’t Be Paid Immediately?

Panter took into consideration some residents may not be able to pay the taxes immediately and said, “Let’s Say that their tax is $1,200 and they want a payment plan; they can take that 1,200 and pay it over a twelve month period. The council is willing to work with the residents in the city to get their taxes paid.” The payment plan would be voided if a resident missed or was late on a payment.

Some businesses are no longer open in Blue Ridge, but are still open in other cities; they would still have to pay their owed tax. 

As for business licenses, Panter states, “There are businesses that have 15 employees that are only listing two. They aren’t paying exactly what they should be paying. The biggest issue we have is that we have businesses that have only paid their business license twice in the last 5 years. Yet, they are still in business.”

Council Member Nathan Fitts asked, “How did we miss the property taxes and the business license?” 

Councilwoman Robbie Cornelius said, “It should have been done in the review.” 

The council also voted last night to grant the DDA 1% of Hotel/Motel tax effective immediately. They plan to raise this to 2% in the future.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hXueNvj6GY