Could you get some extra time to pay your property taxes?

Got some extra bills due? Perhaps a large insurance deductible for property damage due to Hurricane Matthew?

Beaufort County leaders are supporting a request that would give you more time to pay your local property tax bill before you’re hit with late fees and penalties.

The extension — which recently got a unanimous blessing from the Beaufort County Council —would bump the payment deadline from Jan. 15 to Feb. 15.

At meeting of the Beaufort County Council’s Finance Committee earlier this week, county administrator Gary Kubic called the extension “a reasonable gesture” for taxpayers who may be “facing damage to homes and insurance premium deductible payments.”

“In my own neighborhood we had a house split in half,” he said, “and their biggest problem is they have an $8,000 deductible.”

An extra month to pay property taxes “could give someone like them some benefit and relief,” Kubic said.

County Treasurer Maria Walls said earlier this week that she has not “pushed (county leaders) all in one way or the other” in terms of support for an extension.

But she did say that “financially, I don’t believe (a payment extension) would be a detriment to our organization.”

Walls also noted that it is important for residents to understand that an extension would not be “an elimination of a penalty, it is a delaying of a penalty.”

She said after last year’s historic flooding in the Midlands, Richland County offered residents the opportunity to pay their taxes later.

Walls said she has spoken with the vendor that prints the tax bills and they have indicated it is possible to change the due date displayed on the bill.

Before the extension is granted, the county must get permission from the S.C. Department of Revenue.

Walls sent the state agency a letter Tuesday officially requesting the extension. It argues that an extra month could “both help our taxpayers,” while still “keeping the county on solid financial footing.”

This story was originally published October 25, 2016 at 12:35 PM with the headline "Could you get some extra time to pay your property taxes?."