Questions – Gwinnett Co. Trash
I get lots of questions about lots of things. I love questions and being able to help so keep them coming. I thought it would be helpful to some if I answer them here so you can all see the answers. Today I got one about the trash service in Gwinnett Co and the charges they made on our tax bills.
If you’re a property owner in Gwinnett County then you get a tax bill. As a part of that now you get charged for solid waste collection. The amount is $17.86 per month. When they started up the new system they charged us for July 2010 through December 2011 that was billed with the 2010 property tax statement (total of $321.48).
The question I got is: “How can Gwinnett County charge us in advance 18 months on our property taxes for garbage services? Then this year they are charging us for another 12 months. All that should be due is for six months. Spoke to the tax office and they said that money just dissappears we never any credit for the extra six months we were forced to pay on our taxes. Who can we complain to? How can they get away with this?”
I could be wrong on this but I think the 6 months mentioned is for July 2010 through December 2010. They did charge for 18 months and that is what we are getting. July 2010 through December 2011 is 18 months and the new tax bills would cover for January 2012 to December 2012. We are paying in advance for the trash collection and in arrears for the property tax so the tax bill will cover the tax owed from January 2011 to December 2011 and trash for January 2012 through December 2012.
Perhaps the confusion comes in from the fact we just got our tax assessments. This is not a bill yet but instead is a chance to appeal if we think our property taxes are not aligned with the property values. I wrote an article about this for you to check out if you have questions about that. The tax bill will not be due until near the end of the year.
The second part of the question about who to complain to would be the tax commissioner. I am not sure there is a complaint here beyond the fact that we all pay too much in taxes but that is the place to start on this one.
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Thanks for listening,
Jerry Robertson
678-231-1578 Cell