North Carolina property tax law, nicknamed the Machinery Act, contains many dozens of full or partial exemptions for property as diverse as free drug samples, uranium 233, and Loyal Order of the Moose clubhouses. This blog post attempts to identify which of these property tax breaks that might be re … Read more

In a North Carolina town, a long-vacant historic mill with environmental contamination has sat empty on the edge of downtown for years. The Town has taken action to see the property transformed. Town staff worked through a brownfields process to clear the major environmental problems associated with … Read more

The start of the 2016-2017 fiscal year will bring with it a new property tax exclusion aimed at residential and commercial development.  Known informally as the “builders’ inventory” exclusion, the new law was passed as S.L. 2015-223 and will be codified as G.S. 105-277.02. In today’s blog, I offer … Read more

North Carolina law offers a variety of exemptions, exclusions, and appraisal benefits for property used to provide housing for low- or moderate-income residents. Here is a quick summary of those special rules with links to the full statutes and to more-detailed blog posts on related issues. Exemptio … Read more

The tax status of real or personal property owned or used by charitable non-profit organizations can get complicated when there are multiple private and public entities involved with the property.  Is property exempt if is owned by a non-profit organization and leased to other non-profits? What if i … Read more

A historic school building in AnyPlace, North Carolina was recently left vacant when the local school district moved its administrative offices to a new space. The local governing board is interested in preserving the historic character of the school building, while also encouraging private redevelo … Read more

Carolina County has been working with its largest municipality, Tar Heel Town, to  redevelop one of Tar Heel Town’s more dilapidated neighborhoods.  Many of the properties in this neighborhood are owned by absentee landlords who fail to maintain them properly.  Not surprisingly, many of these proper … 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 of those deferred PUV taxes will … Read more

[2011 UPDATE: For more detail on this topic, see the following 2011 book: Housing Codes for Repair and Maintenance: Using the General Police Power and Minimum Housing Statutes to Prevent Dwelling Deterioration] An earlier post on minimum housing ordinances (MHOs) explained how MHOs can be employed b … Read more