Letter from the Trustee

It's hard to imagine that fall is almost here. My mother always said the older you get the faster time goes, and I think she was right.

County property tax bills will be mailed out around October 1. Each and every year they are due and payable from October through February 28 of the following year. I always like to reiterate that the trustee's office is not responsible for the amount of your property tax bill, we only collect payment.

As always; we do offer the option of making payments on property taxes, and we do not require a certain amount to be paid when making payments. Payment methods accepted are cash, check, or credit/debit cards.

I have chosen to partner with a different company to process online payments as well as in office credit/debit card payments. The convenience fee will be 2.5 percent rather than the 2.75 percent that was charged by Business Information Systems to process the payments. Lewis County receives none of this fee. To pay or search property taxes online you may visit TennesseeTrustee.org, choose Lewis County and you will be directed to the new website to pay online. To pay your property taxes by phone you may call, 1-866-348-7525.

For our customers who are on the tax relief program the single or combined income limit this year is $31,190.00, the discount will be $137.00 same as last year. This year we have a total of 311 recurring applicants on the program. This program is available in all 95 counties across the state of Tennessee. While the trustee's office administers this program at the local level, applicants are approved by the state of Tennessee. The tax bills that are mailed each year include information about the program.

Our IS audit earlier this year had no findings.

If you have bought or sold property in the last year it's important to address the issue of who is to pay the taxes at the time of closing. We get ask often when someone buys or sells their property who is responsible for the taxes? That is all to be determined in your closing, not by the trustee's office. We make every effort to ensure that the correct owner gets the tax bill. Often property may sell to someone, then the new owner sells it before we get notification from the state that it sold the first time, and the old owner gets the bill. It is normally the following year before a new owner will show on our records due to the turn-around from the state. We make every effort to get the bills to the correct individual.

When paying taxes, we ask that you always make sure you have your receipt prior to leaving the office. If mailing a payment in we can send you a receipt by mail if you include a self-addressed stamped envelope, or we are happy to fax or email you a receipt.

As of this writing we have $99,657.73 in unpaid 2020 property taxes. We look forward and are honored to serve you and are here to help in any way we can.

Mike Webb

Lewis County Trustee

Certified Public Administrator