What happens when the open meetings requirement clashes with the obligation to keep taxpayer income information confidential? This conflict most commonly involves county boards of equalization and review, but the issue could easily arise at the city level as well with privilege license taxes or occupancy … Read more

Building on this earlier post, here are a few more myths about tax foreclosures that deserve debunking.  (This time I promise to avoid bragging on Duke basketball.)  But first allow me to plug two resources that might be of interest to … Read more

[Update: in 2015, the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the First Amendment did not protect Shirvell’s conduct, based on reasoning similar to that discussed below.] What are the limits of First Amendment protection for government employees?  Consider this somewhat … Read more

What’s the only type of property that can change from real property to personal property and back again in the blink of an eye? The answer is mobile homes, the species of property that produces more headaches per tax dollar than … Read more

Few things can get the attention of a business owner as effectively as can the sight of that business’ inventory being loaded into a truck by a deputy sheriff to pay off outstanding taxes.  Most local government officials know that the levy, seizure and sale remedy … Read more

The Machinery Act describes the in rem tax foreclosure procedure in NCGS 105-375 as a “simple and inexpensive” alternative to the full-blown civil action required by the “mortgage-style” foreclosure procedure in NCGS 105-374.  That description might be overly optimistic in … Read more

For two years now we’ve read story after story about the increasing number of homes that are mortgaged for far more than they are now worth.  A recent report by the N.C. Department of Revenue suggests that for the first time … Read more

The Set-off Debt Collection Act is one of the General Statute’s hidden gems for local governments.   For decades the process commonly called “debt set-off” has allowed local governments, water and sewer authorities, and similar public agencies to attach state income tax returns to … Read more

Which of these three scenarios are violations of both the N.C. Rules of Professional Conduct and constitutional due process requirements? 1.  Attorneys Smith and Williams are both partners in ABC Firm, which has over 50 attorneys.  Smith is retained by … Read more

[Update:  The ban on internet sweepstakes became law when Gov. Perdue signed H.B. 80 on July 20. The ban was upheld by the N.C. Supreme Court in late 2012.  See this blog post for more details. ] The General Assembly moved … Read more