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TO DELINQUENT TAX PAYERS:
The 5% penalty accruing December 5 for the non-payment of taxes and levies inaugurates no grace period nor gives arty taxpayer any reason or right to expect that he may wait until the following June 30 to pay. Section 58-965 of the Code of Virginia expressly provides that:
“The treasurer, after the fifth day of December, shall call upon each person chargeable with taxes
and levies who has not paid the same prior to that time, or upon the agent, if any, of such person resident
within the county or corporation for payment thereof; and upon failure or refusal of such person or agent
to pay the same he shall proceed to collect them by distress or otherwise.”
Notwithstanding the plain provisions of the law and the publicity heretofore given this matter, certain taxpayers still take the view that if they do not pay by December 5 of the tax assessment year, the accrual of the 5% penalty as of that date gives them some sort of right or excuse further to delay payment for five or six months, or some such time. The taxpayer who takes this erroneous view apparently feels that he ought to be allowed to recoup the greater part of the 5% penalty by retaining the use of his money until about the time the final delinquency date of June 30 is reached.
There is no support whatever, in law or in reason, for such a point of view. The statute above quoted makes it the duty of the treasurer to proceed to collect the taxes and levies by distress or otherwise after December 5 if the taxpayer does not pay them on demand made by the treasurer at any time subsequent to December 5. The object of the 5% penalty is to encourage taxpayers to pay their taxes by December 5. If the accrual of the 5% penalty on a past due tax bill were allowed to operate as an “extension” of five or six months, or some such time, for the payment of the taxpayer’s past due taxes, thus enabling the taxpayer to recoup the greater part of the penalty by retaining the use of his money, it is evident that the object of the 5% penalty would be practically nullified.
ROBERT L. BROWN, Treasurer
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