Rep. Tarah Probst, D-Stoudsberg, is pictured during a 2023 committee hearing. Probst wants to give homeowners more notice of tax delinquencies.

Homeowners should receive more notice from local tax collectors if they have fallen behind in the eyes of Rep. Tarah Probst.

The Stroudsberg Democrat is circulating a co-sponsorship memorandum for legislation she is drafting to require local tax collectors to send delinquent tax notifications by Sept. 1 and Nov. 1 rather than the customary Dec. 31 each year.

“Recently, I was informed by multiple constituents that they received income tax notices from the local tax collector regarding delinquencies from previous tax years, in some cases taxes which were overdue from multiple years ago,” Probst wrote in her memorandum. ” Unfortunately, they were unaware they had a delinquency and did not receive an initial notice in the affected tax year, so they are just now finding out that they owe taxes and, even worse, that there is also hefty interest attached.

I believe we need to make changes to increase the likelihood of taxpayers being notified of a delinquency so that they can make the appropriate payments before interest and penalties occur.”

Current law requires tax collectors to send one delinquency notice by first-class mail to alert the taxpayer of the December 31 deadline, but this is not enough. To address this issue, my legislation would require local tax collectors to instead mail out two delinquency notices, by September 1 and November 1, to give taxpayers enough time to correct the delinquencies before the deadline.

“This will increase the likelihood that a taxpayer will see the notice and correct the problem, which would also increase tax revenue coming in and reduce tax delinquencies,” Probst wrote.