How Unusual Are Nottingham’s 2024 Unpaid Taxes?

In short, the current level of unpaid taxes in Nottingham appears to be lower than usual.

As described in a prior article, as of February 6, 2024, the Town of Nottingham was owed $648,306.68 in past-due taxes, with some property owners owing taxes as far back as 2010. This figure is roughly 3% of the annual combined budgets for the school and the town. Whether this amount is a little or a lot is all a matter of what the amount is compared with.

An interesting point of comparison is with a later date. As of April 6, the amount past due had fallen 25% to $481,028.19. The bulk of this is due to taxpayers catching up on their January tax bills.

The January tax bill was a shock to many taxpayers, as it was 25% higher than the previous bill. It would seem that because of this large increase some taxpayers were likely unprepared to pay the full amount of their tax bills. But is that really so? One way to answer that question is to look at how much unpaid taxes were outstanding at the same time in prior years. Nottingham’s Tax Collector, Tracy Black, was able to provide data going back to April 2020.

Contrary to what one might think about delinquent taxes being unusually high this year due to the large increase in tax bills, the amount of 2024 delinquent taxes outstanding in early April is not only comparable to the levels of the prior four years, but is actually at the lowest level for the five years for which we have data.

And since the January tax bill was much higher than the prior tax bill, this is remarkable. If the same taxpayers whose payments were overdue this time last year were to be overdue this year, the total amount would be 25% higher than last year, simply because the tax bill was 25% higher.