Months after its income tax amnesty program has ended, the City of Marysville continues to try finding new ways to collect tax returns.
Early this year, the city offered those with delinquent returns a sort of discount if they came in and paid off their returns all at once. After the program ended in March, the city had collected or planned to collect about $70,000, and had about $829,000 to go.
Thursday night, City Finance Director Justin Nahvi told finance committee that since then, the city has brought in $50,000.
Committee chair Henk Berbee asked whether the city had “made a dent” in the number of returns still pending. Assistant Finance Director Sandy Hoover said they had.
“We’re taking every opportunity to try and get people to file,” she said. “We have had multiple people come in with multiple years, which is nice.”
At the beginning of the year, before the city began the amnesty program, the city had 25,888 unfiled returns stretching back several years. The program ended up netting the city 207 returns.
She said the city needs to go further with their efforts, but so far, they’ve seen considerable success.
Nahvi said going forward, the city is playing with the idea of taking a credit card reader to court to allow people to pay off their taxes there. Nahvi said that idea comes from the increased use of Ipad card readers at Uptown events and the city pool.
“We’re trying to use that as much as possible just wherever to get that money as quick as we can,” he said.
Nahvi said the city is trying to “do little things here and there” to make paying the taxes simpler. He also noted that many of the people who need to come in have pending refunds, so they may not need to pay anything at all.
“We try to explain to people that it’s not about us trying to collect the money, it’s about us cleaning up the files,” Hoover said.
Officials said the city has already sent out letters for delinquent returns from last year. They’ve also sent out letters to those who still have responsibilities for this year’s returns, whether it’s a signature or money.
“You can see month over month that we’re really pursuing delinquency,” Nahvi said.