Agenda - 03-04-2004-9g - Laserfiche WebLink

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ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT Meeting Date: March 4, 2004 Action Agenda Item No. SUBJECT: Request for Property Tax Refund on Registered Motor Vehicle DEPARTMENT: Revenue ATTACHMENT(S): Refiand Resolutions (Approval/Disapproval) PUBLIC HEARING: (YIN) No INFORMATION CONTACT: .lo Roberson, ext 2727 TELEPHONE NUMBERS: Hillsborough 732-8181 Chapel Hill 968-4501 Durham 688-7331 Mebane 336-227-2031 PURPOSE: To consider one request for refund of property taxes on a motor vehicle. BACKGROUND: Jahn and Rebecca Bechtel recently contacted the Tax Collector's office regarding payment of a 2003 property tax bill on a trailer. The value placed on the trailer was too high, but the owners failed to appeal the valuation within 30 days, as required by the North Carolina Machinery Act, The owners paid the tax bill in a timely manner. They recently recognized that they had paid the tax bill last year on a value of $19,110 rather than $639, and requested a refund of the overpayment. In 2002, the Bechtels had received a tax bill with an erroneous value placed on this trailer. They made a timely appeal of the valuation, supplied doaimentation supporting an appropriate valuation of $750, and timely paid a corrected tax bill produced by the Tax Office. Understandably, they assumed that the value had been corrected for future years as well. However, motor vehicles are not permanently listed in North Carolina and the value typically changes from year to year. When the electronic record of the Bechtels' motor vehicle registration for this trailer were provided by the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to the Orange County Revenue Office in early 2003, the incorrect, higher value had been automatically generated based on the trailer's vehicle identification number (VIN). Neither tax staff nor the taxpayer noted this error until recently. Under North Carolina statute, there is no provision for a refund based on a valuation error for which a timely appeal is not submitted. The Tax Collector and Attorney examined the circumstances of this case to determine if a "clerical error" within the meaning of tax law had occurred and could provide the basis for a refund. It is the opinion of the Tax Collector and Attorney that the circumstances do not constitute a clerical error and that there is no statutory basis to grant the requested refund.