See that extra charge in your Pierce County property tax payment? Here’s how to avoid it

When Richard Ryan “R.R.” Anderson, a freelance political cartoonist and Tacoma arts business owner, sat down to pay his property tax bill online Tuesday, an extra $42 charge caught him off guard.

“That just seems like way too much,” he said. “I’ve never seen a convenience fee over $10, $20. It was a gut punch.”

Anderson, 43, did not have his bank information in front of him to pay an $1,824 bill with an electronic check, so he pulled out his credit card, which prompted the extra cost -- not a “convenience fee,” but a service charge.

The Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer’s office uses a vendor, Point & Pay, for property tax payments and the company charges a 2.35 percent fee to process credit card transactions. The fee can produce significant additional expenses to taxpayers, given that property tax costs are typically in the thousands of dollars.

Property taxes increased 5.3 percent this year compared to last, bringing in nearly $1.8 billion countywide. However, Assessor-Treasurer Mike Lonergan said that most payments come in through check and not by credit card.

Lonergan said the county does not collect credit card fees and, by law, cannot use tax revenues to absorb them. But the county can influence lower fees, as he said they did when they put weight into applicant service charges in a five-year bid several years ago for an electronic payment services vendor.

Point & Pay, which has partnered with the county since 2014, charges a lower rate than the county’s previous vendor, which had been above 3 percent, Lonergan recalled.

“It’s as low as we can make it,” he said.

County Council Chairman Derek Young said he understood any frustration from property taxpayers using a credit card to pay their bills, particularly since that method can allow people to make incremental payments over time to chip away at the lump sum.

If state lawmakers were to give the county the ability to waive the fee, he said he would be open to it, but then the county would have to find room in its budget to eat those costs.

His best advice for property taxpayers? Pay by a method other than credit card, if possible.

“If you really want to avoid that fee, try one of the other options,” he said.

Paying property taxes online via debit card or electronic check results in far less expensive, flat fees of $3.50 and 50 cents per transaction, respectively.

People may send payment by mail to Pierce County Finance, P.O. Box 11621, Tacoma, WA 98411-6621, or call by phone at 253-798-3333.

Taxpayers can also visit the Assessor-Treasurer’s office at 2401 S. 35th St., Room 142, or the county’s finance office at 950 Fawcett Ave., Suite 100.

Property taxes above $50 can be paid yearly in two installments: one by April 30 and the other by Oct. 31.

“Make sure you have that checkbook handy,” Anderson said. “Avoid the credit cards.”