Punctuality and property taxes

Travis County has collected taxes at a record pace this year. The Travis County Tax Office announced yesterday that it has already collected more than 99 percent of the property taxes owed to the county for 2015, amounting to more than $3 billion collected from property owners. “This is the fastest the tax office has reached the 99 percent collection rate for a previous year’s taxes,” according to the announcement. The money collected by the county goes to 112 government entities, including school districts. Although most Texas counties outsource property tax collection, Travis County relies on in-house staff to do the job. According to Tax Assessor-Collector Bruce Elfant, this approach allows the county to forgo paying steep fees to tax collection companies and “allows us to help struggling homeowners and businesses without adding on additional penalty fees to pay for lawyers to do delinquent collections.”