FAQ

Property taxes are due when the Treasurer has certified them. This typically happens in mid to late January of each year. The taxes are late if the first half is not paid by April 30th. If the first half is paid by April 30th, the balance owing is late if not paid by October 31st.

Interest of 1% per month is charged on late payments. The interest is on the full amount due, since the entire tax is late if half is not paid by 4/30. In addition, a penalty of 3% is added on June 1st and another 8% penalty is added on December 1st. Simple interest and penalty is added on the 1st of the month and it is not prorated. Although interest continues to accrue as long as the tax remains delinquent, the penalty is assessed against the current year tax only.

Personal property, except mobile homes, that are delinquent on April 30th become fully due. You no longer have the option to pay the current year first half. Real property can continue to pay the first half amount through October 30th. Personal property and mobile homes are subject to sale for non-payment as soon as taxes are late. Real property is not sold until it is a full 3 years delinquent. We charge additional costs once a property is subject to sale.

If your payment is late, it must include interest and penalty or the payment will be returned to you.

All counties are governed by the laws of the State of Washington. The law does not allow extensions due to hardship or any other extenuating circumstance.

First locate your property on the Property Search page then look for a link called "Installments Payable/Paid For Tax Year" about half way down the left side of the page. Enter the tax year you want information for and click on the link.

You may not have updated your mailing address with us, or the statement may have been lost in the mail. We mail a tax statement to individuals who have said they are directly paying their taxes. We send a mortgage courtesy statement if you have arranged for your mortgage company to pay your taxes for you. We also send a courtesy statement if you have signed up for our automatic withdrawal plan (ACH). Both of these notices go out in February based on addresses we have as of December 31st. It is your responsibility to pay taxes even if the tax notice does not reach you. Please call us for a duplicate statement or check the balance due using our online search.

You can pay online using an electronic check, major credit card or VISA debit card. For an electronic check payment there is a $1.00 transaction fee. Credit card payments are charged a 2.50% convenience fee of the payment amount by the vendor. For a VISA debit card payment there is a $3.95 convenience fee charged by the vendor.  Please note that all convenience fees are charged whether the payment is made online or in person at the office.

You can pay using cash, money order, check, credit card or VISA debit card at one of two locations: (the same fees apply for credit card or VISA debit card as paying using the internet).

Benton County Treasurer                               Benton County Treasurer
Prosser Courthouse (2nd Floor)                    Benton County Administration Building
620 Market Street                                           7122 W Okanogan Pl #E110,

Prosser, WA 99350                                          Kennewick, WA 99336

You can mail your payment to our office at:

Benton County Treasurer
Tax Processing Center

7122 W Okanogan Pl #E110,

Kennewick, WA 99336

 You are legally the taxpayer and we work directly with you. You have a contractual relationship with your mortgage company that does not involve our office. We do help facilitate passing along the information your mortgage company needs to make the payment. Most information exchanges with the mortgage companies take place electronically. You should have received a mortgage courtesy statement from us in mid February indicating a mortgage company was paying. If you did not receive this statement, you should contact us or check online.

It is always your responsibility to ensure taxes are paid in a timely manner. You can check the payment of taxes online to see that yours are current. We encourage you to also check online if you want a copy of your tax bill.

The office sends out a tax statement to the last known address. The statement lists current and delinquent taxes. If you did not provide a current address or the tax statement was returned as undeliverable, you may not have received the statement. It is your responsibility to keep your address current and to check if you do not receive a statement. The taxes attach to the property and remain a lien against the property not against the individual.

No, taxes follow the property, not the taxpayer. The county does not foreclose on people, only the property. It is your responsibility to ascertain the status of taxes before you purchase the property.

Benton County does not send out tax statements other than when required by law - which is at the first of the year based on ownership on December 1st of the prior year. It is your responsibility to decide how the taxes are being handled in your real estate closing and know whether the property still has taxes due for the year.

After you make a payment online, it is processed by a third party.  It takes anywhere from 3 to 5 business days for our office to receive the funds and post it in our system as paid. The day payment was initiated by taxpayer, will be used as receipt date in our system.

If your annual income does not exceed $40,000 and you own and reside in your home, including mobile homes, you may be able to get a tax reduction. You must be at least 61 years of age or, if under 61, retired because of a disability and unable to work. To apply for the senior/disabled exemption, contact the Benton County Assessor.

As a senior, you may also qualify to have your taxes "deferred" and paid by your estate. See the Benton County Assessor website for more information.

The amount of tax reduced depends on the value of your property and the level of your income. Not all of the tax may disappear but you will receive a significant reduction. Senior/disabled taxpayers on the program, regardless of property value, are exempt from voted taxes. In Benton County voted taxes are, on average, about 40% of the tax bill.

Depending on when you applied, the Assessor may not have completed their part of the process and notified us so we can send you an updated tax bill. We cannot change the tax amount due until the Assessor has processed and approved your application. You must pay whatever tax is due on the due dates or you will owe interest and penalty, even if you have an application pending. If your application is processed after you pay, you will receive a refund or a bill for a reduced balance depending on the amount of the change.

All exemption programs are administered by the Benton County Assessor. See their website for information on other exemptions/deferral programs such as home improvements, open space, agricultural, etc. They also have information about damaged property

Yes, three irrigation districts in Benton County use the Treasurer's Office for collection of their assessments. Any taxpayer who has Benton Irrigation District, Columbia Irrigation District or Kiona Irrigation District pays their assessments to the Treasurer's Office. The Benton County Treasurer does not collect for Kennewick Irrigation District (KID) and any payments for KID should be made directly to them.

In 2014, Columbia Irrigation District and Kiona Irrigation District chose to have their billing combined with the billing of property taxes. Going forward, both property taxes and irrigation will be on the same bill and must be paid together. We will only accept payment for both the taxes and irrigation combined for these irrigation districts. Benton Irrigation is still choosing to send out their billing separately and their payments will be accepted separately from the taxes.

Because we will no longer be accepting the payments separately for Columbia and Kiona Irrigation, most mortgage companies will be paying your irrigation assessment along with your taxes. You may notice an adjustment to your mortgage payment to make up for this change. Please contact your mortgage company directly if you have any questions regarding your payment.

For those taxpayers with Benton Irrigation District, their assessment payments are due in full on April 1 of each year. Taxpayers have until April 30 to make a payment before any penalties or interest is charged.

For taxpayers with Kiona or Columbia Irrigation District, the assessment payments are due at the same time as the taxes on April 30 and October 31 and must be paid with the taxes. If the first half payment is not received by April 30th, the irrigation becomes due in full and will begin to accrue interest. A $20 penalty will also be assessed on May 1st and November 1st for any past due irrigation amounts from Columbia Irrigation District, as well as an additional $20 penalty on November 15th from the Benton County Treasurer's Office.

The 15-digit property number is assigned by the Benton County Assessor. It is shown on your tax statement in the upper right corner. You can also obtain the number by calling the Benton County Assessor at (509)735-2394. Or you can call the Treasurer's Office.

You can notify us of a change of address by writing the new address on the remittance stub you include when you return a tax payment. Or you can write us requesting such a change. You can also submit a request electronically.

Spelling corrections or similar minor changes to the taxpayer name can be made by writing the change on your tax remittance stub you use to make your payment. Legally changing the ownership/taxpayer name requires a Real Estate Excise Tax Affidavit be filed with our office. These forms can be obtained online but must be submitted in person or via the mail.

Personal property includes the business equipment owned by anyone who operates a business in Benton County. Personal property tax rates are the same as real property and payment dates are generally the same. Except if the first half is not paid by 4/30, the entire tax must be paid. Also, collection (referred to as “distraint”) starts immediately when a tax is delinquent. Personal property taxes are a lien on any real property or other business asset owned by the same person.

You should have handled the property tax during your real estate closing. You prorated the amount due for taxes between the buyer and seller. And then taxes may (or may not) have been settled with the County Treasurer. It might be useful to forward the statement on to the new owner or you may save the statement for your records.

Omitted taxes are for improvements (generally buildings) to the property to which value should have been assessed in prior years but wasn't. Omitted assessments can be added for up to 3 prior years. Taxes are based on the assessed value and levy rate appropriate for each prior year. You get an additional year to pay omitted taxes. The regular taxes (non-omitted) remain due in February when the tax statement is received and will become late if half is not paid by April 30th.

Delinquent tax information is not reported to any credit agency. Your name will appear in the foreclosure notice of delinquent taxes in the Legal Notices column of a local newspaper. Any amount received at sale that is more than the taxes and collection costs due will be given to you.

Real property foreclosure begins once the real property taxes are a full 3 years delinquent. Personal property is put into collection immediately upon becoming delinquent. Both processes start in June of each year culminating in final sale in November. Visit our Foreclosure and Distraint page for more information.

By law, the treasurer can bill and collect for other types of government charges when sending out the tax bill. This is generally a cheaper method of billing customers as everything appears on one bill. We bill for the following government assessments: Weed Control, Soil Conservation, Mosquito District, 2 Irrigation Districts, and Horticulture Pest and Disease Control . These assessments are not a tax, they are a charge for value received as determined by the appropriate governing body. The charge does create an enforceable lien on your property.

If you believe the tax is unlawful or excessive and want to preserve your right to seek a refund in court you must submit a separate written statement saying you are paying the tax under protest and stating all of the reasons why you believe the tax paid under protest is unlawful or excessive. This statement must accompany your tax payment.

This statement does not do anything to change the tax you are charged and we provide no response to the statement. The letter merely preserves a legal right to pursue action. You must take that action by following the appeal process (and meet the timelines) done through the Benton County Board of Equalization. Also, if you have an issue with any of the individual taxes, you should be contacting the governing body of the entity with your questions

Contact the Benton County Assessor or file a valuation appeal with the Benton County Board of Equalization.