Sacramento County supervisors have refused to forgive roughly $59,000 in property tax penalties that piled up after an accounting employee's mailing mistake left two boxes of payments short on postage. The penalties hit 92 separate parcels tied to a group of property owners across Elk Grove, Folsom, Rancho Cordova and unincorporated parts of the county.
According to the Sacramento Bee, the property owners argued their late payments were the result of a simple postage error, not any attempt to skip the Dec. 10 deadline. The group, described in refund claims as including 28 apparently related property tax owners, said an accounting employee had sent a batch of tax payments by priority mail five days ahead of the deadline, only to have two boxes bounced back after the cutoff because each box needed an extra $5 in postage.
A $10 Mistake, A $59,000 Bill
The math is what stung the owners most. Attorney Bob Rubin, who represented the property owners and appealed the board's decision to deny the refund, put it bluntly, saying it's just unjust for a $10 postage error to result in $59,000 of penalties, per the same account. Rubin argued the shortfall was a minor clerical slip that shouldn't have snowballed into a five-figure county bill.
Many of the affected ownership entities are managed by AKT Investments, a land development firm founded by Angelo K. Tsakopoulos and currently managed by Tsakopoulos, the report notes. That connection put a well-known name in Sacramento real estate circles at the center of a dispute that ultimately came down to a handful of stamps.
County Says Rules Are Rules
County officials weren't swayed. Keith Floyd said an innocent employee mistake in mailing or handling a tax bill does not qualify as reasonable cause, and that state law requires a reasonable cause beyond the taxpayer's control before the county can forgive a penalty, the outlet reported. That standard, as Floyd framed it, draws a hard line between honest human error and the kind of circumstances that actually excuse a late payment.
The distinction echoes how other California counties describe their own penalty-waiver rules. Sonoma County says penalties may only be canceled on rare occasions of extenuating circumstances when a late payment stems from reasonable cause, while San Mateo County requires documentation showing the delay was caused by circumstances truly outside the taxpayer's control. Marin County's policy, meanwhile, allows a waiver in narrower situations, such as when a tax bill itself was mailed to the wrong address due to a county error, according to Marin County's own guidance.
Board Vote Closes the Book, For Now
The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors ultimately upheld the penalty as part of a consent agenda, approved in a 4-0 vote during a meeting on Jan. 27 at the County Administration Center in Sacramento. Supervisor Phil Serna was absent from that meeting.
The case underscores just how unforgiving property tax deadlines can be, even when the shortfall traces back to a single missed fee on a mailing label. For the owners behind the 92 parcels, the ruling means the $59,000 bill stands, with no further recourse detailed in the board's action.
