Hanover — Town officials in some of the Upper Valley’s wealthiest communities are seeing a flurry of inquiries from residents about paying next year’s property taxes by the end of this month in order to use deductions that may be capped by the Republican tax bill in Congress.

As a result, Hanover Town Manager Julia Griffin planned to ask her Selectboard on Monday night to formally authorize the pre-payment of property taxes in response to “many” questions from residents about whether they can pay taxes now, before a proposed $10,000 cap goes into effect on the federal deductions they can take for local property and state income taxes.

Betsy McClain, town clerk for Hanover, said on Friday that “conservatively, a dozen people” had called the town tax collector asking if this was possible.

For her part, McClain appeared to want to encourage it, adding, “We are happy to hold on to people’s money.”

The current tax rate in Hanover’s first fire district, where homes have access to the water hydrant system, is $21.69 per $1,000 of valuation including municipal, school and county taxes, meaning the owner of a home assessed at $1 million pays $21,690 annually in property taxes.

State law in Vermont and New Hampshire allows property owners to pre-pay their taxes, subject to certain conditions, and in Vermont, the law says municipalities may vote to offer discounts for doing so.

Hanover officials are not the only ones to be receiving inquiries as anticipation mounts around the tax bill, which is being pushed by President Donald Trump and is headed for a vote this week.

“We’ve had a few calls,” said Linda Nicklos, the town clerk and tax collector in New London, where five-figure property tax bills are routine. “I’m sure we’re going to be getting more.”

Nicklos noted that, unlike in some surrounding towns, taxes are due on a quarterly basis in New London, which means property owners already are more likely to pre-pay in order to avoid forgetting an installment.

Roberta Robinson, who serves as finance director and tax collector for the town of Norwich, said she had received two early tax payments so far, along with a handful of calls.

One came from an out-of-state resident who made a payment toward the first of installments for the 2018-19 tax year based on his 2017-18 rate, she said. The other early payer fulfilled an installment due in February in order to get it in at the current, non-capped rate.

Both state and local officials emphasized, however, that taxpayers should consult their tax advisers before making early payments or making other significant changes to their tax strategies.

After speaking with a local certified public accountant, Robinson said in an email, “We agreed that it was a good thing for us here in the finance office to ask people if they had talked to their tax adviser/accountant before giving us their money.”

Douglas Farnham, policy director at the Vermont Department of Taxes, said the state agency had experienced a similar influx of calls inquiring about the potential impact of tax legislation and ways to respond.

“We’ve been getting anecdotally from tax preparers … reports that some taxpayers are trying to pay their taxes early, potentially afraid that the bill might remove some deductions from them,” he said in a telephone interview on Friday.

Farnham noted, however, that the impact of a deduction cap falls mostly on owners of more valuable property, rather than on the average Vermonter.

A conference report from Congress on Friday night indicated that the prepayment maneuver would not be allowed for state or local income taxes, but appeared to be silent on the issue of prepaid property taxes.

With the possibility that the bill could yet again change, Farnham said Friday, state tax officials intend to wait before attempting to help the public make sense of the new legislation.

“We plan to help Vermonters understand the impacts as much as possible once we have a finalized bill and we have time to try to understand the impacts,” he said.

Harry Holland, a resident of Kendal at Hanover whose family owns what he called “high-tax” property in Norwich, warned of possible wrinkles in a pre-payment strategy.

After consulting his tax preparer in Boston, Holland learned that people who are subject to the Alternative Minimum Tax, a federal tax required for certain taxpayers using exemptions that allow for lower income tax payments, gain little from pre-paying now.

“Congress sets out to ‘simplify’ every few years,” Holland said in an email. “They only complicate things.”

Rob Wolfe can be reached at rwolfe@vnews.com or at 603-727-3242.