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The County Trustee is an elected constitutional officer who acts as Treasurer for all funds of the Hamilton County Government, including the Hamilton County School System. In this capacity, the County Trustee is bound by law to collect all county property taxes, keep a fair and regular account of all money received for County Government, and invest temporarily idle County funds. Currently, the Hamilton County Trustee also collects property taxes for the cities of Collegedale, East Ridge, Lakesite, Red Bank, Ridgeside, Soddy Daisy, and Walden. Hotel – Motel Occupancy Taxes are also collected for Hamilton County, City of East Ridge, and the City of Chattanooga.
Property tax rates are set in conjunction with the Hamilton County Board of Commissioners and the Assessor of Property. The Assessor evaluates and assigns a value to the property. The assessed value is then multiplied by the tax rate set annually by the Board of Commissioners. The Trustee’s office then receives the tax roll, prints notices, and mails them in late September of each year. The payment period for County taxes begins on October 1st and continues through the last day of February of the following year. On March 1st, County taxes become delinquent and begin to accrue 1 ½ % per month interest.
Tennessee law does not require the mailing of tax notices indicating the amount of taxes due. Owners of property are presumed to know that taxes are due without personal notice. Failure to receive a tax bill does not relieve the responsibility of payment, nor is this a reason for interest charges to be dismissed if the tax bill becomes delinquent.