A contingent fee is a fee for services provided that is only payable if there is a positive result.  Most commonly we think of attorney or consultant relationships when we think of contingency fees.  A contingent fee is usually a percentage of the customer’s net recovery.  Contingency fees provide a powerful motivation for attorneys and consultants to work diligently on behalf of their customers to maximize results.

Now there’s a new group allowed to work on a contingent fee basis, sheriffs in Louisiana.  Under a Court of Appeals ruling the 64 sheriffs in Louisiana can now demand commissions of 12-17 percent of what they collect in property taxes on behalf of other government agencies going forward.  They can even go back all the way to 1978 for past commissions.

Livingston Parish Sheriff Willie Graves collected taxes for the Livingston Parish Council of Aging and charged a 12% commission, totaling about $400k since 2004.  The Council of Aging asked for a refund, citing that is was unlawful for him to charge commissions, and won the ensuing civil suit.  Graves appealed and won at the Court of Appeals, which set the new precedent.  Additionally, it was ruled that his 12% commission could actually be a 17% commission.

Sounds like this might get messy!  Sheriffs allowed to go back 30+ years to collect commissions from other government agencies.  Hey, I wonder if they can do that on a contingency basis.

You ever have that lingering check that hasn’t been cashed when trying to reconcile your checking account?  Usually, it’s for $10 written to someone in your family who has lost it.  A bit of a nuisance but nothing you can’t get over.

What if it was $100 million in uncashed checks?  According to the Birmingham Business Journal, the Jefferson County Tax Collector has almost $100 million in unopened and undeposited property tax checks locked at the courthouse.  Why?  Not enough workers on staff to open the mail.  According to the collector, his staff has been cut from 40 to 17 in an effort to save money.

Wow!  What a dilemma.  How about enlisting a volunteer collection department?  Kind of like a volunteer fire department.  Only instead of putting out fires they’d be cashing checks.  I’m not one for excessive government spending but did anyone stop to think that in an effort to save money you might lose money?  What is the daily interest rate on $100 million anyway?

Did you know State and Local Governments are on track to collect more than 440 Billion Dollars in Property Taxes this year?  Read more at the Prop Tax Minute...

In the 1980s (possibly the most influential musical decade in our history), the Bangles released a song “Walk Like an Egyptian”.  We might change that title to “Tax Like an Egyptian”, at least when it comes to property taxes.

Ever look at your property tax bill and wonder, “Who created this tax?  Whose idea was it to tax property anyway?”  Your wonderment might best be directed towards ancient Egypt.  Starting in 3,500 B.C. Egypt created one of the first pictures of how this property tax thing should work.

Farmers and land holders in Egypt paid property taxes equal to about ten percent of the land production (that sounds like a Texas tax rate to me!).  If the person who was being taxed could not or would not pay he was taken to the courts for justice.  In many of the Ancient Egyptian tombs, wall paintings depict village elders being punished for trying to ignore or evade property taxes.  In Ancient Egypt they even had a god for tax assessors.  His name was Thoth and he took the form of a human body with an ibis head (the ibis is a bird with a long, downward curving beak).

Ancient Egypt’s property tax system is not so different from what we see today (except maybe Thoth).  Anyone want to suggest lyrics for “Tax Like an Egyptian”? 

I recently visited Barbados with my family.  Wonderful vacation!  Beautiful island!  Great beaches!  Friendly people!

While we were there we took a tour of the island and I noticed a few houses that were not completely painted.  Being curious, I asked why this was the case and wouldn’t you know it...... it has to do with a property tax strategy.  The strategy is that a building that isn’t painted is not considered completed and a building that is not completed is not subject to property tax.  There was debate as to how well this strategy works but apparently it was working for some.  I may have to go back to Barbados to explore this strategy further.