Global mailing company's foot-dragging on paying county taxes has state collectors fed up

A global mailing company owes Arkansas counties thousands in delinquent taxes that date as far back as 2011, and tax collectors have employed creative means to get them.

Pitney Bowes, a publicly traded company founded in 1920, is most known for its postage meters and other mailing equipment.

In some Arkansas counties, Pitney Bowes is also known for late, or nonexistent, tax payments.

In January, tax collectors began swapping advice on how to collect the $42,850 total that Pitney Bowes owes in 18 counties, according to a list compiled by Debra Buckner, Pulaski County tax collector.

Seven other counties also reported delinquencies but did not list amounts.

The Association of Arkansas Counties got involved because the missed tax payments were widespread, said Josh Curtis, the group's governmental affairs director.

The majority of tax collectors in Arkansas' 75 counties have expressed concerns, he said.

Many of the county offices that are owed money also lease Pitney Bowes equipment. And the company is "pretty adamant" about being paid on time for its postage machine, Paula Beard, the Union County tax collector, said.

That's why Beard said she was "really kind of shocked" when she researched and learned the company owes Union County $10,250 in delinquent taxes stemming from the 2012 tax year.

In Drew County, Pitney Bowes owes $1,900, said Tonya Loveless, the county's tax collector.

That number may not seem like much, but when looking at delinquencies across Arkansas, collectively, that's "a lot of money that's not coming into our state," Loveless said.

In Arkansas, county tax collectors open the tax books March 1, and taxes are delinquent if unpaid after Oct. 15. The money goes to schools, roads, public works, jails and other local government operations.

Cathy Hardin Harrison, Miller County's tax collector, said Pitney Bowes' statewide delinquencies are a first for her four years in office.

The company owes Miller County $8,520, she said.

Sheila Sinyard, Miller County's delinquent tax investigator, said she has called and sent emails and letters with read receipts attached.

After no change, she drafted a tax lien, which establishes the government's legal claim on property of a delinquent taxpayer.

Usually, the threat of a tax lien "gets them right here and gets them paid up," Sinyard said of other businesses she has dealt with in collecting at least $800,000 in delinquent payments.

Not so for Pitney Bowes, she said.

Sinyard said she and Harrison also considered -- but ultimately decided against -- drafting a county ordinance to say the county cannot pay an entity that simultaneously owes the county money.

Sinyard said she spoke with her contact at Pitney Bowes last week and threatened to file the tax lien. He assured her that the delinquencies would be paid within a week or two, Sinyard said.

Like other counties, Miller County pays Pitney Bowes to lease postage equipment.

"We're paying them, but they're not paying us," Sinyard said.

In a written statement, a Pitney Bowes spokesman said the company takes its "responsibility as a taxpaying business in the State very seriously.

"We have reached out directly to Ms. [Therese] O'Donnell in Lonoke County -- and to all counties in Arkansas -- to quickly and accurately reconcile our status," Carol Wallace, the spokesman, said.

O'Donnell is the tax collector for Lonoke County, where Pitney Bowes owes about $500.

Pitney Bowes is valued at roughly $2.45 billion, according to data from Business Insider.

One county collector, Joy Ballard, found a remedy.

When Ballard moved into her Saline County office in 2011, Pitney Bowes was delinquent and "slow to pay," she said.

After sending statement after statement, Ballard said she contacted local Pitney Bowes customers and asked some of them to complain on her behalf.

She started getting tax payments, though the company will still "just intentionally drag their feet, and I don't know why," she said.

After failed phone, email and mail communications, Debbie Davis, Cross County's tax collector, tried a similar approach. Pitney Bowes owes $4,600 in taxes since the 2011 tax year, she said.

Her office sent a letter to local businesses that lease Pitney Bowes machines, asking them to contact the global company.

The letter said Pitney Bowes has until Monday to satisfy the debt, otherwise the collector's office will begin the process of "distraint," or the removal of the machines to sell them off.

Davis said it's unlikely her office will have to go this route.

"This is ridiculous that they have gone this long, and they have these machines all over this county, and they just totally dismiss Arkansas," Davis said.

Curtis, with the Association of Arkansas Counties, said Pitney Bowes has assured him that payments will be made within the next week and a half.

On Wednesday morning, Curtis said he received emails from a couple of tax collectors saying Pitney Bowes had reached out to them, asking about delinquencies.

"They've been made aware that we're really, aggressively, trying to collect those taxes," he said.

Metro on 02/08/2018

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