Avoid Penalties by Understanding Postmarks

Property tax payments must be received or postmarked by the delinquency date to avoid penalties. If a payment is received after the delinquency date, with no postmark, the payment is considered late and penalties will be imposed, in accordance with State law.

POSTMARKS are imprints on letters, flats, and parcels that show the name of the United States Postal Service (USPS) office that accepted custody of the mail, along with the state, the zip code, and the date of mailing. The postmark is generally applied, either by machine or by hand, with cancellation bars to indicate that the postage cannot be reused.

Taxpayers who send their payments by mail are cautioned that the USPS only postmarks certain mail depending on the type of postage used, and may not postmark mail on the same day deposited by a taxpayer.  Effective December 24, 2025, the U.S. Postal Service updated its postmarking procedures. Postmarks now reflect the date mail reaches a regional processing facility, rather than the date it is deposited at a local post office. As a result, postmark dates may be later than the date of mailing.

This change does not affect the tax collector's requirement that payments must be received, or USPS postmarked by the delinquency date to avoid late penalties.

To ensure timely postmarks on your payments, our office recommends requesting a manual postmark at the USPS counter. 

POSTAGE THAT IS USUALLY POSTMARKED: