On November 15th, Ashland Town Council voted to adopt ORD2022-08, which changes the annual due date for real estate and personal property tax bills from January 15th to February 5th of each year.
Hanover County is the assessor for real estate and tangible personal property in Town. The Commissioner of Revenue provides the information necessary to generate the annual tax bills (property books) to the Town around December 1st each year. Town staff must then verify the information is accurate, such as including only Town properties, then create the bills in our accounting system, and finally submit the Town’s bill files to a printing service to create and mail the bills. In previous years, this all occurred by December 9-10th so that bills were delivered to taxpayers by December 15th in order to provide 30 days for the taxpayer to make a payment without penalty.
The proposed change in the due date provides Town staff with additional time to generate the bills and get them mailed before the end of December. This provides additional time (a minimum of 35 days) for taxpayers to make a payment without penalty. Also, the change of due date aligns the Town’s due date with Hanover’s due date for personal property tax bills, which has been a point of confusion for some Town residents and businesses in previous years.
If you have any questions about this change or your tax bill, which you can pay online, please contact the Town's Finance Department at finance@ashlandva.gov or (804) 798-9219.