SATURDAY DEADLINE FOR MAILED TAXES

JACKSON -- If they wait until the last minute to mail their county tax payments, taxpayers will find themselves delinquent.

That's because the postal service won't cancel mail on the Dec. 31 deadline, which is a Sunday.

County Collector Harold Kuehle said taxpayers need to mail their tax payments by Saturday.

The collector's offices in Jackson and Cape Girardeau will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. until noon to accommodate last-minute taxpayers.

Mike Keefe, Cape Girardeau postmaster, said the post office will cancel mail on Saturday. Mail will be canceled up to 8:28 p.m. Saturday at the postal processing center on Kell Farm Drive in Cape Girardeau.

Mail will be accepted at the downtown post office lobby until 6 p.m. and at the outside boxes there until 7:50 p.m.

A long line formed outside the Cape Girardeau County collector's office in Jackson Thursday as taxpayers paraded in to pay their taxes.

The office was busy throughout the day as taxpayers hurried to beat the year-end deadline. In contrast, there were surprisingly few taxpayers at the Cape Girardeau office.

William Lang, who lives in the northern part of the county, was one of those who paid his taxes Thursday in Jackson. Lang said he always pays his county taxes close to the deadline. "Hang onto your money as long as you can," he advised.

Nancy Stinson of Jackson was another last-minute taxpayer. Stinson always waits until after Christmas to pay her taxes. "Christmas expenses come first," she said.

"A lot of people are waiting to the last minute," Kuehle said.

Kuehle's office normally gets in about $3 million or $4 million in taxes in November. This year his office collected about half that amount.

In all, the collector's office billed taxpayers for about $22 million this year.

Kuehle said most of that will be paid by the year-end deadline. "If everything falls in line, we will collect about 93 or 94 percent of the taxes before the deadline," he said.

Kuehle said it pays to pay your tax bills on time. Delinquent taxpayers are charged 2 percent interest each month their bills remain unpaid, up to a maximum of 18 percent. They also must pay a 2 percent penalty.

People with questions about their tax bills should contact the collector's office at 243-4476.