Property Tax Information now available to the public on the internet

With the implementation of internet based tax collection software now complete, the Columbia County Treasurer’s Office now offers property tax information to the public on the internet.

This information includes both paid and unpaid property taxes on all parcels in Columbia County, except those located in the City of Hudson. In addition, parcels located in the Village of Philmont, the Village of Chatham, the Village of Kinderhook and the Village of Valatie will have County and Town taxes included – but not any taxes levied by the village.

Please be aware that if a parcel has a flag attached that indicates an error on the parcel or it shows the parcel to be in an “AS400 payment loan” (the old system for tax collection) then you will need to contact the Columbia County Treasurer’s Office to get the correct amounts due.

During the first five months of each year, the current year property taxes are in the hands of the town tax collector’s. You will either need to contact the town collector for current year info or access the town tax collector’s information on the internet (information for 2012 property taxes has been released to the internet by all towns except Clermont, Copake, Ghent, Kinderhook and Livingston – a link is available to the town site through the County web site under the heading TAX BILLS).

School tax information is only available on those parcels that were not paid directly to the school tax collector. Hudson City School District delinquent taxes are shown as separate line items, while all other schools would show as a re-levy on the current year property tax bills.

If you have any problems or need assistance with the web site, please call the Columbia county Treasurer’s Office at 518-828-0513 and ask for Tom Daus or Nancy Baker.

To access the information you can use the link provided on the County web site or go to totalcollectionsolution.com with the user name public@columbia and the password public.

The following are instructions on how to use the site –

Note – There are hamlets located in every Town in Columbia County, and some hamlets involve more than one town. These hamlets have no official status, and therefore have no swis codes identified with them. Swis codes are numeric town identifiers in the statewide identification system. You will have to determine which town the parcel in question is located in to find the appropriate swis code.

THERE ARE SEVERAL TOOL BARS THAT SHOW UP ON THE COMPUTER SCREEN – YOU WILL ONLY BE ABLE TO ACCESS THE TABS ON THOSE TOOL BARS THAT PERTAIN TO CHECKING THE STATUS OF TAXES AND PAYMENTS ON A PARCEL. You DO NOT have access to create or run reports.

To Check the Status of a Parcel

• Log into Total Collection Solutions web site

• Identify and click on the ENTITIES tab

• Enter the Tax Map number in the white space below the heading Tax Map (the SBL number of the parcel) – be sure to include all dots and dashes that are part of the SBL number

• Check to be sure that you have the proper swis code and parcel owner

• Click on the eyeball next to the desired parcel

• Check to see tab bar highlighted in blue, half way down the page, for any FLAGS (if the FLAG tab is red, you must check the notes first)

• The information shown on the screen will give you the payment status of all tax years shown

FLAGS – If a red flag tells you that there is an error on a particular tax year, you must contact the Columbia County Treasurer’s Office to get the correct amount due for that tax year. If the flag shows a DEFAULTED payment plan, the taxes for the parcel are correct, but the property owner is not eligible to be considered for another payment until three years after the default date.

AS400 Payment Plan – If the tax information shows AS400 payment plan you must contact the Columbia County Treasurer’s Office to get the correct amount due for the payoff of tax years in the payment plan.

Status – INACTIVE – This means the tax years included have been placed in an AS400 payment plan.

Status – BUNDLED – This means the tax years included have been placed in a payment plan on the new tax program and the payments shown on the screen are correct for the parcel.

To Check Payments on a parcel

• Follow instructions to locate parcel as shown in above instructions

• Click on the eyeball next to the tax year that you are interested in viewing

• On the light blue tabs bar – click on the PAYMENTS tab

• Payments will be shown here along with the date paid

• If you need to know who made the payment – click on the eyeball next to the payment line (payments made prior to August 2011 may not be accurately show who made the payment)

To Check for a school re-levy on a parcel

• Follow instructions to locate parcel as shown in above instructions

• Click the eyeball next to the tax year that you are interested in viewing

• On the light blue tabs bar – click on the LINES tab

• On this screen you will see any re-levies or other tax items that may be included on the bill