Which of these appraisal errors justifies a property tax refund? 1.  Taxpayer is taxed for property that did not have a taxable situs in the jurisdiction. 2.  Taxpayer is taxed for a house that burned the prior December. 3.  Taxpayer … Read more

 What justifies a change to a real property tax appraisal in between county-wide reappraisals? The short answer is “not much.”  For a longer answer, take a look at last week’s opinion from the N.C. Supreme Court in Appeal of Ocean … Read more

It took more than two years, but the ban on video sweepstakes that was originally scheduled to take effect in December 2010 is finally enforceable.   The North Carolina Supreme Court ruled on December 14, 2012, that the ban did not … Read more

We here at the School of Government are really good at pumping out 400+-page tomes that examine every possible legal detail of tax collection, zoning, public records and other topics near and dear to the hearts of local government employees. … Read more

When property owners stop paying their property taxes, it’s a good bet that they’ve been ignoring other obligations concerning those properties as well.  Weeds grow chest-high, houses slowly crumble, and neighbors begin to use the lots as informal trash dumps. … Read more

Property tax bills for the 2012-2013 fiscal year are arriving in mail boxes across North Carolina. Thankfully most taxpayers will pay up without further encouragement. But plenty will not, and it’s a long four months until these bills become delinquent … Read more

[UPDATE: the final version of the NC ethics opinion discussed in this post can be found here: 2012 FEO 5.] Wally Whiner is in trouble once again.  Wally, an employee in Blue Devil City’s finance department, has been placed on … Read more

For those of us who work with local taxes, the most important news out of the General Assembly this summer was what didn’t happen. The legislature did not create any major new property tax exemptions.  The long-awaited overhaul of the registered … Read more

The housing market in some areas of the state may be improving, but a new study by the N.C. Department of Revenue suggests that real estate values remain generally sluggish across the state. The Department of Revenue’s annual sales assessment … Read more

$200 million. That’s the estimated property tax revenue North Carolina’s 100 counties defer each year under the state’s present-use value (“PUV”) property tax exclusion program for farms and other favored properties. And by “defer,” I really mean “lose,” because most … Read more