My secret to paying property taxes

By MEL ROTHENBURGER/  The Armchair Mayor

One of my annual chores at our house is to look after paying our rural property taxes. I’ve never seen any reason to rush.

Some years, I’ve found myself online with literally seconds to spare before midnight on tax-deadline day, hoping my watch wasn’t running slower than the Minister of Finance’s.

Today, I figured I’d look after things early, beating the deadline by a few hours. Unfortunately, I forgot our tax statement at home.

Working through lunch, I missed my window of opportunity to go get it. Instead, about 3:30 p.m., I sauntered into ServicesBC with an hour to spare before closing time. At ServicesBC, they can look up your tax bill for you. No ID required, because who, after all, would lie about who they are so they could pay somebody else’s taxes?

“Oh, I’m sorry,” said the pleasant cashier as I offered payment. “We aren’t allowed to take Visa. The provincial government doesn’t want people to go in debt.”

“Too late for that,” I said. “Besides, City Hall doesn’t care about people going in debt — they accept Visa.”

But she kindly processed my grant applications and said I could pay on line from home once I got hold of my tax notice again. However, most banks have a 6 p.m. deadline instead of midnight, she cautioned.

Glumly, I exited, resigned to paying the late penalty. Then I realized that Syd, being smarter than me, probably had a chequebook in her purse. So, pick up Syd from work and back up to ServicesBC with 10 minutes to go before closing time.

“You’re back,” said the cashier and, presto, changeo, our taxes are taken care of for another year.

My system is so much more interesting than paying days ahead of time.