Residents of Halfmoon Bay and Elphinstone should take a second look at their 2010 Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) tax notices as a clerical error at two provincial agencies has resulted in incorrect tax bills.
The botched notices ask some residents to pay for services they do not get while others are not being billed for services they do get.
SCRD treasurer Joan Merrick said the SCRD board and staff are aware of the problem, adding the provincial Surveyor of Taxes, which sends out tax notices, is working on a fix.
"It's a combination of B.C. Assessment and the Surveyor of Taxes. One of them assigns the code, the other one actually applies the code to the properties and somehow there was a duplication in the codes," Merrick said. "The end result of that is Halfmoon Bay residents were seeing a charge for the Gibsons fire department on their taxes and Elphinstone residents were not being charged what they should have been for the Gibsons fire department."
Merrick said Halfmoon Bay residents should go ahead and pay their tax bills and simply deduct the amount enumerated for the fire department. Elphinstone residents, she said, should pay their tax bills as they appear while the Surveyor works to send out an additional bill to correct the mistake.
"For Area E, they can go ahead and pay their bill and then when they get their supplementary bill with the additional amount on, they should have an extended deadline to pay that portion only," Merrick said.
Merrick could not say when the extension date would be, but the current July 2 deadline for tax payment remains for all other portions of residents' tax notices.
Merrick said if Halfmoon Bay residents accidentally pay for the Gibsons fire service currently on the bill, they will have a credit for next year's taxes or could contact the Surveyor for a refund.
Merrick said errors like this are not common in the province, but the SCRD has had a "string of bad luck."
"We've had one each year for three years now totally different things," Merrick said. "As much as you do your due diligence, things come up."
