CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Several Nueces County property owners were in a hurry to get their property taxes paid Friday instead of waiting until the deadline next month on Jan. 31.
Those residents said they were eager to pay now instead of waiting until the actual deadline and did not want to face the penalty for not paying on time.
Those property owners found themselves on the third floor of the County Courthouse Friday only to find they were in good company, standing in a long line to pay their property taxes for the year. 3News found out they actually have until Jan. 31 to get that done.
Rogerio Moya was one of those residents in line to pay his property taxes because he thought he had to get it taken care of ahead of the weekend.
"The understanding that I had was that I have until the end of the year here, so yeah, it was a misconception on my part so thanks for letting me know," said Moya.
Nueces County Tax Assessor Collector Kevin Kieschnick said that while the deadline to pay property taxes without penalty is only a month away, a little over 30% of people have paid their taxes since the notices went out in October. Kieschnick said, however, it is best to pay the taxes at the end of the year for tax reasons.
"Some CPA's state that they need to pay before Dec. 31 to have a write off for their taxes," said Kieschnick.
Many other property owners will wait until the actual deadline of Jan. 31 to take care of their property taxes.
"If you can't pay your taxes in full by then pay as much as you can. That's because the state statute the state statutory penalty is 7% on Feb. 1.
That fine is just one more reason why some taxpayers prefer to get the chore over with in December instead of ending up in those long lines in January.
Melissa Madrigal is another Nueces County taxpayer who is happy to get ahead of the January deadline, especially in person.
"Usually there is a line all the way around. You can pay it online, you know for convenience, but then they add that convenience fee to your credit card. And I'm like, hey I'm already paid I'd rather just come in and pay and take care of it and get my receipt right then."
If you don't want to pay with a credit card, you can use cash, but you'll have to do that in person and deal with the possibility of ending up as one of dozens of people waiting for your turn in line on the third floor of the County Courthouse.
Nonetheless, you can pay your NuCo property taxes online at the link here.