The City of Kamloops says 96 per cent of residential property taxes came in before July 30.

The deadline was on July 2, and 92 per cent of residential property taxes were paid at that point. But July 30 was when a 5-per-cent late penalty came into effect for residential property taxes that were still owed.

The late-fee date was pushed back because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s actually really close,” finance director Kathy Humphrey told NL News last month, comparing the percentage of people who paid taxes on time this year to a normal year.

“Normally we’re probably in the 96 or 97 per cent 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 very appreciative of all the people who could, and did, pay their taxes.”

And the city now says 61 per cent of commercial property taxes have been paid, compared to 56 per cent on July 2.

“Business taxes aren’t actually due, and there’s no penalty at all, until October 1st. So we kind of anticipated with the slowdown and lots of the businesses and the revenue and that sort of thing that they would just hold off paying their taxes until later in the year. So that was kind of expected,” Humphrey says.

In total, 86 per cent of property taxes have now been paid, and the city says $23 million in property taxes are still outstanding.