LIHU‘E — Those worried about being able to pay their real-property tax by the Aug. 20 deadline will be able to see some relief.
The county is offering a 90-day grace period on the upcoming RPT deadline due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This sets the new due date on Nov. 18. In addition to that, the county will allow residents to pay in monthly installments.
“You can make your payments in as many increments as you want, but November 18 needs to be the deadline for the entire first (billing period),” county Finance Director Reiko Matsuyama said at last week’s Kaua‘i County Council Finance and Economic Development Committee meeting.
After that Nov. 18 date, the bill will incur interest.
This July, residents will also be able to enroll in paperless billing, and an online transition fee will also be waived. That’s a saving of 2% on credit-card payments, and a $3.50 saving on electronic checks.
Earlier this year, the council approved tax rates, which will remain flat for most residents. The county anticipates about $155,780,336 in RPT revenue to go into the General Fund.
The only rate change is for high-value, residential investment properties. Taxes will go from $8.05 and to $9.40 per $1,000 of assessed value in the upcoming fiscal year. This will add about $2.3 million in revenue, to be used in the housing revolving fund for houseless and affordable-housing initiatives.
The county runs on a fiscal year from July 1 to June 30. Real-property-tax bills can be split into two installments, with the RPT office mailing bills twice a year. Typically, residents have about a month to pay from the arrival of the bills.
The first is mailed around July 20 with a due date of Aug. 20, which covers the period of July 1 through Dec. 1. The second-installment bills are mailed around Jan. 20, with a due date of Feb. 20.
Applications for annual tax-relief programs, including home exemptions for low-income owners of properties and very-low-income tax credits, are due September 30 this year. The county rolls over previously approved applicants into the next tax year.
Those who qualify as Very-Low-Income Tax Credit titleholders are those with a combined gross income of less than $48,000, and can possibly see taxes reduced to 3% of gross income, or a minimum tax, whichever is higher. This information is based on 2019 tax data.
The low-income exemption is for those who have a combined 2019 gross income from all household members at or below $77,000 of the Kaua‘i median household income as determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
More information can be found at Kauaipropertytax.com, rpassessment@kauai.gov or 241-4224.
•••
Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
Grace period? What a farce. People forced out of work by the governor & mayor’s actions should be EXEMPTED from property taxes for as long as they were/are shut down.
As usual, the mundanes are made to pay no matter what….all the while the government employees, including the governor and mayor, collected their full taxpayer funded salaries.
This is a dis-grace,
RG DeSoto
RG YOU ARE SOOOO RIGHT !!!!! ELIMINATION OF INCOME BY THE GOVERNMENT AND THE TAXES REMAIN ??? ITS A CRIME