Richard Froese
South Peace News
Big Lakes County has cancelled the record of just over $6,000 of bad debt.
At its regular meeting Jan. 10 council approved a motion to write off $6,031.39 in uncollect- able education property taxes on oil and gas properties.
“Administration has deemed them to be uncollectable,” Joey Sutton, manager of finance, told council.
Council also approved a motion to approve an application for the Provincial Education Requisition Credit (PERC) and the Designated Industrial Requisition Credit (DIRC) program for the 10 tax rolls that council approved to write off.
One tax roll is for $3,780.52 while the other nine range from $41.26 to $681.45.
“This is a welcomed program as municipalities are required to remit education property taxes regardless of whether it’s been collected from taxpayers,” Sutton said.
Applications to Alberta Municipal Affairs are due by Jan. 15 for uncollectable taxes in the previous year(s), he noted.
PERC provides municipalities with an education property tax credit equal to the uncollectable education property taxes on delinquent oil and gas properties.
DIRC provides affected municipalities with a credit equal to the Designated Industrial Property Tax Requisition associated with the taxable properties that are delinquent in payment of the requisition.
The term of DIRC does not have an expiry date and can be applied retroactively to the 2018 tax year.
“In cases where the unpaid taxes have not been written off, the municipality will be required to report the status of the tax recovery on an annual basis,” Sutton said.
If the uncollectable taxes are eventually recovered in whole or in part, it must be reported to Municipal Affairs and the recovered amounts must be remitted to PERC and DIRC.
“Writing off property taxes does not prevent the eventual collection of these amounts,” Sutton concluded.