THE EDITOR, Sir:

ALTHOUGH I sympathise with your letter writer, Marcia Harford, of Friday, April 11, as it pertains to the lateness of mailed "payment vouchers" (assessment notices), I must say that she sums up the problem quite eloquently in her opening sentence: "... property tax is due for payment in April, or we face the consequences for late payments".

Instruments of courtesy

It is the obligation, by law, of every owner or person in possession of land to pay property tax, due April 1 of each year, and, therefore, assessment notices, though frustratingly late, are instruments of courtesy that have unfortunately become necessities due to non-compliance.

Assessment notices do not guarantee her or anyone else joining a direct line to any cashier in any tax collectorate. In a nutshell, these notices state your tax obligation for that particular fiscal year and not how much you may in fact owe. Many have made this wrong assumption - some deliberately.

Seek actual queries

I must admit that one solution to her dilemma would be to make the cashiers do the actual queries. This approach also has its own draw-backs: queries can involve anything from arrears, to tracking of multiple payments, payments to wrong accounts, disputes as to when properties were acquired or sub divided, etc.

Hence, in the seeming madness that takes place in every tax collectorate every April, there is some wisdom to what your writer calls, "this asinine process ... "

I am, etc.,

CLEMENT APPLEWHAITE

Parochial Inspector (acting)

St Thomas Parish Council