Richmond considers giving a break to people who are late paying their personal property tax

RICHMOND, Va. -- The City of Richmond is considering giving a break to people who are late paying their personal property taxes.

The city tacks on a 10% late fee to anyone who misses the June 6 pay date. But a Richmond City Council committee has advanced a measure that would lower the initial late fee to 2%. If, after 24 days, the bill is still not paid, the late fee would increase to 10%.

"You want to strike this balance with penalties and interest," Richmond Deputy Chief Administrative Officer Sabrina Joy-Hogg said at a council committee meeting Friday. "There's got to be some consequences of not paying because what you don’t want to do is inadvertently punish those who do pay on time."

The change was lumped into several different measures the city's Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders proposed in January in response to fallout over the flawed meals tax collection.

Business owners impacted by meals tax issues have spoken both to CBS 6 and the community at large in recent weeks about dramatic late fees, a lack of communication and transparency, and what they consider to be a dysfunctional finance department.

"Every little movement that we make to make adjustments here, and there, we are subjecting ourselves to more risk and yet, have not put in place systems that make it possible to kind of clean everything up, to make it uniform and working across the board for us," Richmond City Council member Ellen Robertson said when speaking about how legislation alone cannot fix all the problems City Hall must address.

"I think we have a lot of work to do in general with our internal systems and the finance department that will make it easier for the folks that work there to do their job," Richmond City Council President Kristen Nye said an interview Friday.

The full Richmond City Council would still need to approve the personal property tax late fee change before it could take effect during the 2025 tax year.

Hanover County handles its late fees similarly to the proposed change in Richmond.

Chesterfield County and Henrico County both charge an immediate 10% late fee.

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