Procrastinators will get a break on paying their property taxes this year.

Tax collector Joy Wiggins said that because Dec. 31 — the normal deadline for tax payments — falls on Saturday, and the office will be closed for the New Year holiday on Monday, property owners have until Tuesday, Jan. 3, to pay their taxes.

“They have a couple of extra days to get the fees in and will not have to pay a late fee if they come in and pay on Tuesday or have their payment postmarked by Jan. 3,” Wiggins said. “If the taxes are not paid by Jan. 3, those property owners will be sent a letter and in addition to the taxes, they will be charged a $5 fee and 3 percent of the unpaid taxes will be added to the amount due.”

The fees only get worse for those who are later.

“If taxes are still unpaid by the end of February, the office will mail out certified letters on March 1,” Wiggins said. “These will have a $10 fee added and four percent of the amount of taxes due. They will also have to pay for the certified letters that were sent.”

Wiggins said people have been coming in pretty steadily for the past couple of weeks.

“We we’ve been pretty busy, and have collected almost as much as we did this time last year,” Wiggins said. “Last year at this time, we had collected $10,618,377.08 and this year we have taken in $10,596,626.01. If taxpayers don’t want to pay more, I would advise them to pay their taxes when we open back up on Tuesday morning.”