Town Of Wilton: Update-July Tax Bill Payments

Press release from the Town of Wilton:

September 21, 2021 - 5:09pm

The following is an update on our investigation into inquiries from residents who received notices from the Tax Collector which indicated interest charged for non-payment of the July 1, 2021 tax bill, but indicated to the Tax Collector that they did, in fact, properly mail the July 2021 tax payment or arranged for a bank or another party to process timely payment of the tax bill.   

Lockbox Bank is Discovering Checks They Received, But Did Not Record:

At our request, the bank that processes the Town’s tax payments is currently performing an audit of activity for Wilton’s tax receipts for the July 1, 2021 bills.  As part of its audit work, the bank is identifying checks they received for the July 1, 2021 tax bills which had not been properly processed and credited to applicable taxpayers’ balances at the time of receipt or thereafter.  

The  bank has not yet provided the Town with a projected time frame for completion of its audit. In order to more expeditiously identify any unrecorded payments, the Town set up a survey on the Town’s website to allow taxpayers to efficiently provide information about payment submittals.  The link is available here  ( https://www.wiltonct.org/home/webforms/tax-collector-delinquency-survey ). We appreciate your participation. 

As we receive notice of an unrecorded check received or postmarked by the due date (August 2, 2021), the Tax Department will

1.     Notify the taxpayer.

2.     Remove any interest and/or fees related to the found check(s) and issue a refund for any interest and/or fees paid.  

3.     Issue refunds for any related stop payment fees.  Please note that your submission of proof of payment will be required.

This effort will be labor intensive.  The tax department has been provided with additional resources to deal with this issue, but we sincerely appreciate your patience as we work through this situation.  

It is our understanding that other Connecticut municipalities have encountered similar issues with this widely-used bank’s processing of July 1, 2021 tax bill payments.  We will address this with the bank once we complete this process.

We all understand how frustrating and concerning this situation has been for impacted taxpayers.  We share your frustration and concern and hope this update and the future updates are helpful.

Thank you for continued patience.

Lynne Vanderslice

First Selectwoman 

This press release was produced by the Town of Wilton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.