Despite the pandemic, Kamloops staff say 82 per cent of property taxes came in on time, ahead of the deadline of July 2.
Finance director Kathy Humphrey says 92 per cent of residential taxes were paid on time.
She says that’s not far off from a normal year.
“It’s actually really close. Normally we’re in the 96 or 97 per cent range on July 2nd. We don’t have that many people who have penalties applied when you look at how many properties we have in Kamloops. So it’s very close, and we’re really appreciative to all the people who could and did pay their taxes.”
However, Humphrey says just 56 per cent of commercial taxes were paid before the due date.
“Business taxes aren’t actually due, and there’s no penalty at all, until October 1. So we had anticipated with the slowdown and lots of businesses and their revenues and that sort of thing, that they would hold off paying their taxes until later in the year. So that was kind of expected.”
The taxes paid on time make up about $99 million of the $120 million that the city needs to collect this year.
“Really, we would like to say thank you to the community for hearing that in order to provide the services that the city does for the community, that we really need people to pay their taxes and they did. So we really say thank you. There’s a lot of challenges out there for a lot of people.”