Technical error blamed for false Spokane County tax notifications

Spokane County Treasurer Rob Chase said his staff has already identified and corrected an error that sent more than 8,000 property owners false tax update notices earlier this week.

“We went through the normal process we’ve always gone through,” Chase said. “The glitch never happened before.”

A technical error in the process between certifying property tax assessments and uploading that information to the software that electronically notifies taxpayers of changes to their bill is responsible for the false messages, Chase said. He took the blame for the error, which will be corrected and in the coming weeks affected taxpayers will receive an accurate statement after the assessments are certified, he said.

Any payments already made will be posted to the affected accounts, Chase said. He estimated about 11,000 parcels were sent false notifications before staff began to receive notice from property owners about the error.

Those payments already made will be posted to accounts toward future property tax assessments, Chase said.

Those with questions can visit the Treasurer’s website at spokanecounty.org/treasurer or call (509) 477-4713.