The Orange County Tax Office has modified its procedures for returning Tax Listing Forms.

In the past, residents were not required to return their forms if they did not make any property changes.

Now, chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners Penny Rich says the county is asking all taxpayers to return the form, even if there are no changes to report, to save the county the trouble of discovering unreported property changes.

“There were a lot of discoveries last year after we got all the forms in that people had renovated and they didn’t report it,” says Rich. “That takes a lot of time; it takes money; it takes energy.”

There were nearly 3,000 personal property discoveries in Orange County last year. Rich says these discoveries are made sometimes by chance and sometimes by request of residents.

“We’re always going around and measuring homes, believe it or not,” says Rich. “If you see someone on your property you can go up and ask them what they’re doing but we’re checking; we’re making sure.”

If you have already disposed of your Tax Listing Forms, Rich says you can request another. The form must be returned by the end of January, and residents usually have three months to appeal their tax rate.

More information is available here.

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