Agenda - 06-18-2013 - 7d - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: June 18, 2013 Action Agenda Item No. 7-d SUBJECT: Refund Requests for Inaccurate Square Footage Calculation DEPARTMENT: Tax Administration PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No ATTACHMENT(S): INFORMATION CONTACT: Taxpayer Requests for Refunds Dwane Brinson, Tax Administrator, (919) Bulletin on Refunds and Releases 245-2726 Refund Release Blog John Roberts, County Attorney, (919) Excerpt from County's 2013 Legislative 245-2318 Agenda Frank Clifton, County Manager, (919) 245- 2300 PURPOSE: To consider five taxpayers' refund requests due to inaccurate square footage. BACKGROUND: North Carolina General Statute (NCGS) 105-381 allows taxpayers to appeal to the governing body for a release or refund of taxes due or already paid. A valid defense is: (a) a tax imposed through clerical error; (b) an illegal tax; (c) a tax levied for an illegal purpose. The statute also recognizes two different situations: one where the taxpayer has already paid the tax under appeal and the other where the taxpayer has yet to pay the tax. Each taxpayer included in this abstract has paid in full the tax under appeal. In addition, the property record card for each of these parcels was corrected from the time the error was discovered moving forward. Paraphrased, 105-381(a)(3) affords taxpayers who present a successful statement of defense relief for up to five years of taxes paid. Multiple requests herein demand refund for greater than five years, but under no circumstance is such supported by state law. Mr. Chris McLaughlin at the UNC School of Government has opined that requests such as those presented to the Board are not supported by state law. A recent blog and a Property Tax Bulletin from Mr. McLaughlin, both attached, are leaned upon heavily for staff's recommendation to the Board. In summary, it is opined that square footage differences may be assessment errors and, as such, would not qualify as either a clerical error or an illegal tax. Moreover, NC General Statute 105-322 affords taxpayers an annual opportunity to appeal his or her tax record and assessment. Such annual requests are mutually exclusive, too. The County Attorney notes that, as stated above, North Carolina General Statute 105-381 provides limited statutory reasons whereby a county governing board may lawfully refund taxes. The statutory reason that comes nearest to these situations is one of "clerical error". However, the North Carolina Court of Appeals in the 1997 case of Ammons v. Wake County defined clerical error as something readily apparent on the face of the instrument. This is interpreted as being a typographical error or an error of transposition, not an error of judgment, or a lack of documented available information to amend the tax record.