Michigan Chamber of Commerce issued the following announcement on June 18
The Chamber led initiative to delay summer 2020 property tax payments moved through the Michigan House with NO OPPOSITION this week. The delay will provide an estimated $1 billion of breathing room over an 11-month period.
The Michigan Chamber quickly identified the upcoming property tax bill as being a major problem for businesses who have been forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Businesses who have seen greatly reduced revenues or a total loss of revenue for an entire calendar quarter will not have the liquidity needed to meet their property tax obligations. For some businesses the summer property tax bill is their largest expense and could be the last straw when it comes to survival. In order to help facilitate a quicker economic recovery something had to be done to address this immediate hardship.
Working lockstep with Representative Lower, the Chamber helped to craft a program that, as currently written, will provide for a 6-month interest and penalty free delay in summer property tax payments. If a business is still struggling to make their property tax payment after the 6-month period, they will have an opportunity to enter into an installment plan with their county Treasurer for an additional 3 months at no cost. Subsequently, more time could provided up to the due date of the winter levy but the 4% county treasurer administrative fee will apply.
HB 5761 and HB 5810 moved out of the second House committee Wednesday and off the House floor on Thursday. The Michigan Chamber has testified in committees and worked immensely hard to educate legislators on how the program will work and its importance to our members.
Despite the Department of Treasury’s baseless opposition, the Chamber has quickly and apparently effectively, made the case to legislators from both side of the aisle on the benefits of delaying the upcoming summer property tax levy.
For more information on this issue, please contact Dan Papineau at dpapineau@michamber.com
Original source can be found here.
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