Wood County Treasurer Heather Gehrt is encouraging residents who pay their property tax bills by mail to be aware of a recent U.S. Postal Service policy change that may affect when envelopes are postmarked.
In August 2025, the Postal Service instituted a nationwide change as to when a postmark is affixed to incoming mail, Gehrt said. Instead of postmarks being affixed when the item is first touched by the Postal Service, postmarks are now stamped at regional sorting centers.
“That means your postmark could be several days after you put it in your mailbox,” Gehrt said. “In other words, if you plan to pay your property taxes by mail, don’t wait until right before the deadline to put it in the mail.”
Gehrt noted that many federal and state laws define timely payment based off the USPS postmark, meaning payments may be considered delinquent if they are mailed too close to the deadline — even if they were, in fact, placed in a mailbox before the deadline.
To avoid this issue, Gehrt encourages Wood County property taxpayers to mail payments earlier or to use the E-check option to pay online to avoid becoming delinquent and accruing substantial late fees.
“While Credit/Debit card payments often come with a significant 1.5-2.5 % convenience fee, E-check convenience fees for tax payments made on the county web site are a flat $1.50 per payment which comes out to about the same as postage for your payment and a return receipt,” Gehrt said. “This could be a great option for people who are concerned that they are mailing their payment too close to the deadline and want to make sure that they are not going delinquent.”
Payments for all municipalities, can be made on the County’s website at https://pp-wood-co-wi-fb.app.landnav.com/login/ by using the guest sign in option and searching by either the property address or property/parcel number (do not use both).
Gehrt cautioned taxpayers about sending tax payments utilizing their personal bank’s online bill payment option as those payments are often done in bulk with many other customers’ payments, so there is a danger those could arrive late and become delinquent as well. This type of payment has become even more problematic in recent years as the time it takes for USPS items to arrive at its destination after mailing has increased, Gehrt added.
Another option could be to physically bring your payment into the post office and request that they postmark your payment in front of you or by sending it certified mail, Gehrt said.