Personal, real property taxes due by Oct. 15

Payments may be made in person or online through state website

The deadline to pay personal and real estate property taxes is less than two weeks away.

St. Francis County Chief Deputy Collector Tiva Amos said residents have until midnight on Friday, Oct. 15, to pay the taxes that are due annually in October.

Anyone planning to pay in person must stop by the collector’s office at the courthouse by 4:30 p.m., on Oct. 15.

Those who owe taxes have several options for paying their tax bill by either visiting the collector’s office at the courthouse, mailing the payments in or making the payment online at www.propertytax.ark.org/stfrancis . Payment sent through the mail must be postmarked Oct. 15 or before.

Amos said those paying with a credit card will be assessed an additional fee.

To date, the county has collected only about $6.5 million of the more than $10 million owed.

According to Amos, SFC collected $10,315,355.65 last year in taxes.

Amos said payments are slowly coming in through the mail and by people visiting the courthouse.

“It’s really been slow,” said Amos. “We normally have a stack of mail at the first of October to process, but we barely had a handful of mail today.”

Anyone who has not received their tax statement or who might have misplaced the one mailed by the county in the spring, may stop by the collector’s office to pick one up, or print one from the online site, according to Amos.

The majority of the revenue from these taxes is given to local public school districts, with portions also going to the local college, county general, the public library and county roads. Some cities within the county also receive a portion of the funds for their fire and police pensions.

After the Oct. 15 deadline, any taxes owed will be considered delinquent. Personal property taxes will be assessed a 10% penalty, and interest will accrue on delinquent real estate taxes.

Those who fail to pay personal property taxes will not be able to get tags for their vehicles until the taxes are paid.

The collector’s office will be closed Monday, Oct. 18, through Friday, Oct. 22, to allow employees time to process the payments that were made on time and to certify as delinquent those properties for which payments were not made.

Brodie Johnson & Fred Conley • Times-Herald The Rock the Ridge Festival on Saturday featured performances by homegrown talent. In the top photo, Eli Adams and his band opened the event Saturday afternoon as they performed on the porch at the St. Francis County Museum. Sarah Hughes, left, was the second performer, with Cadarius Price closing out the festival Saturday evening. The rain held off long enough for area residents to get out and enjoy a variety of music while tossing axes, playing cornhole and visiting with friends. More pictures from the event can be found on Page 6 of today’s Times-Herald.