City Plans to Sell Tax Debt to Collection Agency

Scranton, Pennsylvania, is looking to make some hard and fast decisions about what to do with delinquent tax payers.  Last year alone, nearly 4,100 tax payers “forgot” to pay their property taxes.

One idea Scranton is throwing around: selling those tax bills to a collection agency and adopting a tough and expensive policy in an attempt to curb delinquencies.

As of press time, an agency hasn’t been named.  (A call by insideARM to Scranton’s tax office revealed that not everyone in Scranton is aware of the plan.  Oops.)

Mayor Chris Doherty has been quoted in various news sources as saying, “If you want services, you have to pay your taxes.”  Under the policy, delinquent taxpayers would face fines, penalties, fees and other costs that may total more than $2,600 if they don’t pay up. That amount doesn’t include the tax bill itself and the automatic 10 percent interest rate assessed from the date a real estate tax bill goes delinquent.

The Scranton City Council must first approve selling the tax bills to a collection agency, but that may just be a formality. Council passed the 2007 operating budget that includes about $2 million in expected revenue from the sale of delinquent tax bills for 2005 and 2006.