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

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

[Today’s guest blogger is Adam Parker, UNC School of Government summer law clerk.] Let’s begin with an all-too-familiar hypothetical. In 2006, Carl Corporation incorporated a small business, Tar Heel Roofing Inc. Business went well for a few years. But when the … 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

The Court of Appeals issued two opinions dealing with local taxes this week. In yesterday’s post I analyzed the opinion concerning Fayetteville’s privilege license taxes on internet sweepstakes.  Today I analyze the opinion dealing with the denial of a property tax … Read more

It’s pop quiz time!  Is the following statement true or false? No one can buy real property in North Carolina without first paying all of the property taxes owed on the property. Answer: False. Well, not entirely false.  But not … Read more

It’s budget time for local governments, and the fun should not be reserved just for finance and budget staffers.  Tax officials need to play an important role in the process, too.   The Local Government Budget and Fiscal Control Act … Read more

Having received lots of emails and phone calls after my earlier post on this topic, it seems worthy of a sequel.  Here’s a few of the more interesting questions from across the state this past week. How creative can a … Read more

It’s February, which means that tax lien advertising season is right around the corner.  Early this month tax collectors must report to their governing boards the delinquent taxes that are liens on real property.  Governing boards then issue orders to advertise … Read more