Agenda - 10-02-2012 - 5c - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: October 2, 2012 Action Agenda Item No. 5-c SUBJECT: Property Tax Releases/Refunds DEPARTMENT: Tax Administration PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Resolution Dwane Brinson, Tax Administrator, Spreadsheet (919) 245-2109 PURPOSE: To consider adoption of a release/refund resolution related to sixty-four (64) requests for property tax release and/or refund. BACKGROUND: The Tax Administration Office is presenting sixty-four (64) requests for release or refund of property taxes. Of the sixty-four, twenty-one (21) are errors that the Tax Administration Office found which require releases due to errors inadvertently made during the 2012 annual billing process and total $149,181.95. When the tax base and revenue estimates were computed for the FY 2012 — 2013 budget, they were generated from the real estate system. All properties were coded and assessed correctly in that system. However, when Tax Administration performed an interface to bridge the real estate system to the billing and collections system, some coding was miscommunicated resulting in several properties receiving unnecessary tax bills. Tax Administration plans to issue corrected bills as needed to abate taxpayer confusion. The remaining forty-three (43) releases/refunds are based on requests from taxpayers for release or refund of property taxes. North Carolina General Statute 105-381(b), "Action of Governing Body" provides that "upon receiving a taxpayer's written statement of defense and request for release or refund, the governing body of the Taxing Unit shall within 90 days after receipt of such a request determine whether the taxpayer has a valid defense to the tax imposed or any part thereof and shall either release or refund that portion of the amount that is determined to be in excess of the correct liability or notify the taxpayer in writing that no release or refund will be made". North Carolina law allows the Board to approve property tax refunds for the current and four previous fiscal years. FINANCIAL IMPACT: Approval of this change will result in a net reduction in revenue of $260,745.01 to the County, municipalities, and special districts. As the budget was based on data that was generated from the real estate system, $149,181.95 of this request has minimal impact on budgeted revenues. Regarding the additional $111,563.06, the Tax Assessor recognized that any refunds could impact the budget and accounted for these in the annual budget projections.