Arlington County and Falls Church are working together to collect some $6.5 million in back taxes.
More than 1,400 people in Falls Church owe about $500,000, while 18,000 personal property accounts totalling nearly $6 million have not been paid in Arlington, said Kim Rucker, an Arlington County assistant deputy treasurer for compliance.
Arlington is already working to collect on its 18,000 delinquent accounts and will now assist Falls Church in collecting what it is owed. Arlington will use a collection method already developed for its own collection efforts and will simply add in the Falls Church accounts.
Rucker said nearly 15 percent of Falls Church residents have some type of tax debt to the city.
“This gives us the opportunity to piggyback on a proven program at virtually no cost to the taxpayers of Falls Church City,” said John Tuohy, Falls Church director of finance.
Arlington County Treasurer Francis O’Leary said that assisting Falls Church would not detract from the county’s own collection efforts. For its work with Falls Church, it will charge each debtor $20, and will charge 20 percent of the amount owed if property is seized.
“Given the large scale of our collection effort, Falls Church will place very little strain on our operation and we’ll make a few dollars for the county for the fees we’ll be charging,” he said.
