For years home builders have been pushing to exempt their real property inventory from property taxes in the same fashion that personal property inventory held by traditional merchants and manufacturers is exempt under G.S. 105-275(32a), (33) and (34). Home builders … Read more

The General Assembly is still hard at work in Raleigh.  While no huge changes to property taxes have arisen yet this session, there are two new laws worth discussing.  S.L. 2015-204 creates flexibility for waiving interest on old registered motor … Read more

Tis the season for cities and counties to start mailing their 2015-2016 property tax bills. This annual event raises a very basic question: exactly what must and may be included on a property tax bill? Surprisingly, the Machinery Act provides … Read more

Tax fans, I know you’ve been eagerly anticipating the sequel to my last post, which ended in a thrilling cliff-hanger: What must we do with sale proceeds and outstanding taxes after a local government sells property it purchased at a … Read more

Local governments are free to purchase property at any tax foreclosure auction, be it one of their own or one initiated by another government.  This often occurs by default when a local government enters an initial bid at the amount … Read more

[UPDATE 10/16/15:  S.L. 2015-266 slightly changed the rules governing overpayments.  See this blog post for more details.] Does a tax office need to collect every penny of every tax bill? Usually the answer is yes, because GS 105-380 and -381 … Read more

North Carolina law offers a variety of exemptions, exclusions, and appraisal benefits for property used to provide housing for low- or moderate-income residents. Here is a quick summary of those special rules with links to the full statutes and to … Read more

[UPDATE 9/29/15:  S.L. 2015-185 amended the religious exemption to exempt real property “under construction” if the property is owned by a religious organization and is intended to be used for religious purposes upon completion.  “Under construction” is defined to include … Read more

Tax collectors are obligated to “use all lawful means” to collect their local governments’ property taxes. G.S. 105-350(1).  This provision implicitly obligates local governments to use the foreclosure remedy when available and necessary. Despite this legal obligation some local governments remain … Read more

Foreclosure is a powerful collection remedy of last resort for property taxes that are a lien on real property.  Because property tax liens generally have super-priority, local governments almost always get paid first from the proceeds of a foreclosure sale. … Read more