Tax Sale Begins September 20 for District Properties with Unpaid Taxes

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

(Washington, DC) The Office of Tax and Revenue (OTR) announced today that it will hold its annual Tax Sale beginning September 20. At this public auction, OTR will offer for sale more than 6,100 commercial and residential real property tax liens, for which property taxes remain unpaid. A list of all properties by parcel, square, suffix, and lot number, with the name of the owner of record and the unpaid tax amount, will be advertised on Thursday, August 12 in The Washington Post, The Washington Times and Current newspapers.

The Tax Sale, an annual event required by DC statute, will be held daily beginning Monday, September 20, from 8:30 am until 12 noon and from 1 pm until 4 pm, or until all properties advertised for that day are sold. The sale will be held at 1101 4th Street, SW, 2nd Floor, Training Room 1, Washington, DC 20024.

Registration for the sale, which is mandatory, begins September 13 and continues until the final day of the sale. To register, prospective bidders must make a deposit of at least 20 percent of their total bid and a $150 Tax Sale fee will be added to each property at the time of the sale. Purchasers are also required to complete Form FR-500, Combined Business Tax Registration Application, prior to registering. The form can be found on OTR’s website at www.taxpayerservicecenter.com under Tax Forms/Publications.

Property owners with unpaid taxes have until the date of the auction to pay the taxes due to avoid having their properties sold. To pay or inquire about the status of a delinquent property, call the OTR Customer Service Center at (202) 727-4TAX (4829) or visit the Customer Service Walk-In Center at 1101 4th Street, SW, Suite 270W, Washington, DC 20024.

OTR will conduct free public seminars to explain the Tax Sale procedures to prospective bidders. The seminars will be conducted at 1101 4th Street, SW, 2nd Floor, Training Room 1, Washington, DC 20024, on the following dates:

September 1: 9:30 am to Noon and 2 pm to 4:30 pm
September 2: 9:30 am to Noon and 2 pm to 4:30 pm

For more information on the Tax Sale process, visit the Real Property Service Center (www.taxpayerservicecenter.com) under Tax Sale.

Last year, 1,068 liens were sold, and a total of $8.2 million in delinquent tax revenue was collected.

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