Rates & Property

Ordinary Rate
Council is required to levy an Ordinary Rate for each year on all rateable land in its area. To do this Council must categorise, for rating purposes only, each assessment as one of: Residential, Business, Farmland or Mining.

The determination of what category each assessment belongs to is made by looking at its dominant use or in the case of vacant land by its dominant permitted use. Council acknowledges that differing levels of services are provided in different areas and therefore sets different rates for areas defined as towns, villages and rural.

For assessments in the Residential and Farmland categories, the Ordinary Rate is made up of two parts.
Part One is a Base Amount that is the same for all areas.
Part Two depends upon the Land Value and in which area the assessment is situated.

Farmland is categorised on specific criteria. It must be valued as one assessment, the farming enterprise must be a business, it must have a significant and substantial commercial purpose or character, and it must be organised for profit on a continuous or repetitive basis.

A hobby farm rated or assessed as such is not farmland. Your rating category is shown on your Rates & Charges Notice. Properties are categorised as Business if they cannot be categorised as either farmland or residential and business properties are subject to a minimum rate.

A map identifying “town areas” for the purpose of residential and business categorisations is available for viewing on request.

For assessments in the Business category, the calculation is based on the Land Value.

The Ordinary Rate is calculated from land valuations provided to Council by the Valuer General every three to four years.

Council rates are a form of property tax based on an unimproved land value and determined independently by the Valuer General. Valuations were undertaken from July 2010 by the Land and Property Management Authority (LPMA) on behalf of the Valuer General.

During this process, Valuers analyse sales of both vacant land and improved properties, making adjustments for the added value of improvements.

A Notice of Valuation is issued to landowners by the Valuer General every three to four years. It shows the land value which will be used by Council when calculating rates.

The Valuer General's Newsletter for July 2012 is available for your information.

For further information about land valuations visit the LPMA website or phone 1800 110 038.

Ratepayers who are "eligible pensioners" may be entitled to a reduction of up to a maximum of $250 on their annual rates. As well as being an "eligible pensioner" they must be responsible for the payment of the rates and live on the property.

Please complete the Pensioner Concession application and return it to the Customer Service Centre at Taree or Wingham Library+ and present your Pension Concession Card at the same time.

Council acknowledges that some ratepayers may not be in a position to pay the rates by the due date. In this case, Council is prepared to enter into an arrangement whereby the account can be paid by fortnightly instalments to have the account finalised within a prescribed period. These arrangements will, however, attract interest charges. Please contact the Customer Service Centre on (02) 6592 5399 for further information.

Interest on overdue rates
Your rates and charges notice is a statutory document that displays a detailed calculation, the amount to be paid and the date for payment. It is important to note that penalties apply for late payment.

Interest accrues on a daily basis on rates and charges that remain unpaid after they become due and payable at the maximum interest allowed under Section 566 (3) of the Act. For 2012/13 the interest rate has been set at 10%.

Overdue rates may lead to legal proceedings.

Council has engaged the services of Recoveries & Reconstructions (Aust) Pty Ltd to collect outstanding monies owed to Council where no arrangement has been entered into. Should these services be required, a minimum legal charge of $388.06 will be payable by you and added to the debt.

Hardship

A ratepayer in hardship is someone who is identified either by themselves, the Council, or an independent accredited financial counsellor, as having the intention but not the financial capacity to make the required payments within the timeframe set out in the rates and charges notice. Where a customer falls within this definition, the council may apply its hardship policy. Please complete the Hardship Rate Relief Application and return it to the Customer Service Centre at Taree.

In 2010 the State Government granted approval for Council to apply a special rate variation of 10 per cent for the following three financial years.

Council has committed to spend every single dollar raised through the special rate variation on improving infrastructure.

An additional 0.4% carbon price advance was added to the existing rate variation in 2012/13 and will be reduced by 0.1% in 2013/14 and 0.3% in 2014/15.

Please refer to IPARTS "Changes to existing special rate variations of Councils" for the carbon price advance.

MidCoast Water is the authority responsible for the provision of water and sewerage services for this Local Government area. MidCoast Water can be contacted on 1300 133 455