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ORANGE COUNTY <br />BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS <br />ACTION AGENDA ITEM ABSTRACT <br />Meeting Date: March 16, 2004 <br />Action Agenda <br />Item No. q'.p <br />SUBJECT: Request for Property Tax Refund on Registered Motor Vehicle <br />DEPARTMENT: Revenue PUBLIC HEARING: (Y/N) No <br />ATTACHMENT(S): <br />Refund Resolutions <br />(Approval/Disapproval) <br />INFORMATION CONTACT: <br />Jo Roberson, ext 2727 <br />TELEPHONE NUMBERS: <br />Hillsborough 732-8181 <br />Chapel Hill 968-4501 <br />Durham 688-7331 <br />Mebane 336-227-2031 <br />PURPOSE: To consider one request for refund of property taxes on a motor vehicle. <br />BACKGROUND: John and Rebecca Bechtel recently contacted the Tax Collector's office <br />regarding payment of a 2003 property tax bill on a trailer. The value placed on the trailer was <br />too high, but the owners failed to appeal the valuation within 30 days, as required by the North <br />Carolina Machinery Act. The owners paid the tax bill in a timely manner. They recently <br />recognized that they had paid the tax bill last year on a value of $19,110 rather than $639, and <br />requested a refund of the overpayment. <br />In 2002, the Bechtels had received a tax bill with an erroneous value placed on this trailer. <br />They made a timely appeal of the valuation, supplied documentation supporting an appropriate <br />valuation of $750, and timely paid a corrected tax bill produced by the Tax Office, <br />Understandably, they assumed that the value had been corrected for future years as well. <br />However, motor vehicles are not permanently listed in North Carolina and the value typically <br />changes from year to year. When the electronic record of the Bechtels' motor vehicle <br />registration for this trailer were provided by the North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles to the <br />Orange County Revenue Office in early 2003, the incorrect, higher value had been <br />automatically generated based on the trailer's vehicle identification number (VIN). Neither tax <br />staff nor the taxpayer noted this error until recently, <br />Under North Carolina statute, there is no provision for a refund based on a valuation error for <br />which a timely appeal is not submitted, The Tax Collector and Attorney examined the <br />circumstances of this case to determine if a "clerical error" within the meaning of tax law had <br />occurred and could provide the basis for a refund. It is the opinion of the Tax Collector and <br />Attorney that the circumstances do not constitute a clerical error and that there is no statutory <br />basis to grant the requested refund,