Real Estate Tax Club

The City of Bangor offers a Tax Club Program for the payment of real estate taxes.  The program allows a taxpayer to make specified monthly payments as opposed to the two lump sum payments. 

Criteria

To qualify for participation in the Tax Club Program a taxpayer must have no outstanding tax obligations due to the City and must not have an escrow account.

City Responsibilities

Twice a year, City staff will prepare and provide to each Tax Club participant a payment book indicating the amount of each monthly payment.  One payment book will indicate the payments to be made from April through September and the second payment book will provide the monthly payment for October through March.  In addition, City staff will prepare for each participant a Tax Club agreement, which must be signed at the beginning of each Tax Club year.  Failure to sign and return this form to the City will result in the participant being removed from the Tax Club Program.

 All Tax Club payments should begin in April of each year.  If a taxpayer chooses to join the Tax Club after April then the taxpayer must first pay the total amount of tax they would have paid if the payments began in April.

 To calculate the monthly payments the City will use separate calculation methods for each pay period.   For the April through September payments the City will take the prior year tax amount and divide that amount by twelve and round the payment to the next whole dollar. After the September payment is made the City will take the remaining balance due on the account and divide that balance by six and round the payment to the next whole dollar.   The result will be the monthly payment amount from October through March.  These calculations will provide the necessary payment amounts to ensure that the total tax obligation is paid in full by March 31.  Any overpayments due to rounding will be applied as a prepayment toward future taxes.

 If a payment is not received before the end of a given month a letter will be sent to the Tax Club participant requesting payment within ten days.  If the payment is not received within the ten days, the taxpayer will be removed from the Tax Club Program.  If the payment is received the taxpayer will be allowed to stay in the Tax Club Program. If a taxpayer is sent two letters during the same tax year, a notice will be sent to the taxpayer stating that any additional late payments will cause their removal from the Tax Club Program.  

Taxpayer Responsibilities

Once the taxpayer receives the payment book from City staff, they are responsible to make each monthly payment on time.  There is no specific due date for each monthly payment, however, the payment must be postmarked or received by the last day of each month.  Any payment received or postmarked after the last day of the month will be considered late.  The taxpayer must include the colored payment stub with their payment.  If the colored payment stub is not returned, the taxpayer may be subject to interest charges and possible removal from the Tax Club Program.