Two separate software issues have caused a delay in mailing Smithfield’s real estate and personal property tax bills.

According to Town Manager Michael Stallings, the added $6-per-month trash collection fee Smithfield’s Town Council included in its adopted 2020-2021 budget caused the town’s software to apply pre-payments multiple times, thereby incorrectly reducing the balances due on residents’ real estate tax bills.

The delay in mailing personal property tax bills is due to the town needing to use its old financial software instead of Munis – a program the town began converting to earlier this year.

Around this time last year, the town of Windsor — which also uses Munis, as does Isle of Wight County — experienced a similar delay in mailing its personal property tax bills. Specifically, the program was unable to import the personal property valuation assessment from the Isle of Wight County Commissioner of the Revenue’s Office.

While Stallings says Smithfield’s problem and Windsor’s aren’t exactly the same, this “is related to the financial software conversion that both towns are going through.”

“The County assisted us in the painstaking and tedious process of pulling supplements and abatements since March to generate the most up-to-date billing possible,” Stallings said.

As a result of the delay, the town has extended the due date for both bills until Dec. 31.