Fire Tax Bill update from BOE George Runner

George Runner today announced that more “Fire Prevention Fee” bills are on their way to the Sacramento region.

“This week the state is mailing nearly 58,000 fire tax bills to Placer County residents—the largest single county billing to date,” said Runner. “I think many people will be shocked to discover they must pay this illegal and unfair tax.” 

An additional 1,199 Sacramento County property owners will also receive bills, but those bills aren’t scheduled to mail until Monday, October 22. Last month the state mailed 51,897 bills to El Dorado County property owners.

Runner noted that according to the latest Board of Equalization statistics, tens of thousands of Californians are already at risk of being subject to both penalties and interest for not paying their bills on time. He reminded Californians that both payments and appeals must be filed within 30 days of the date on the bill.

The following statistics, released by Runner, show the status of fire tax billings as of Friday, October 5:

Bills Mailed

The State of California has mailed 330,785 bills—roughly 40% of those slated to go out by December. Ten thousand bills mail each weekday.

Revenue Collected

The State has received $10,831,807 so far in fire tax revenue. The state budget assumes total program revenue of $84 million.

Payment Status

Of the 119,426 bills to come due so far (30 days after the billing date):

    * 72,288 (61%) were paid in full.

    * 1,717 were partially paid.

    * 45,421 (38%) were unpaid and overdue.

Returned Mail

3,649 bills were returned because of undeliverable addresses.

Upcoming Billings

County (click for map)	Mailing Date	Number of Bills
PLACER	October 9th through 15th	57,549
PLUMAS	October 15th through 16th	10,991
RIVERSIDE	October 16th through 22nd	33,843
SACRAMENTO	October 22nd	1,199
SAN BENITO	October 22nd	2,239
SAN BERNARDINO	October 22nd through 30th	65,637
SAN DIEGO	October 30th through November 8th	100,814
SAN JOAQUIN	November 8th	57,549

The state plans to mail more than 825,000 bills in alphabetical order by county between August and early December. The state has released an expanded partial mailing schedule, as well as a complete county-by-county bill count.

To help inform California taxpayers, Runner has established a website, calfirefee.com, providing information about the new fire tax. Californians can visit this site to find out if they will receive a fire tax bill. They can also learn details regarding the process, timeline and grounds for filing an appeal.