Mecklenburg County property taxes on the rise

In many states, commercial property is revalued every single year and the fair market value of the property changes year to year. In Mecklenburg County, however, the last reappraisal took place 8 years ago. Because of this long period of time, many commercial operators are seeing nearly 8 years of appreciation in a hot market in North Carolina. On average, residential values increased 43% and average commercial values grew by a staggering 77%. We are seeing first hand with some of our large office and multi-family complexes double and even triple in our first notice of value from the county.

All taxing authorities are required by state law to advertise their revenue-neutral rate, which is the amount that would keep a government’s revenue unchanged given its new tax base. For Mecklenburg County, that rate is 59.7 cents for FY 2020. The current county tax rate — set prior to the revaluation — is 82.32 cents per $100. So in essence, the county is proposing higher values on property, but has to off-set their tax rate to remain revenue neutral. A budget workshop is set for today and the scheduled date to adopt the new budge when the board votes on the 2020 budget is early in June on the 4th.

If a home was valued at $5,000,000 last year, with the current tax rate of 82.32 cents per $100, that operator paid $41,160 in county taxes. If that same property saw a property value increase of 50% during the revaluation — a new value of — the county tax bill under the proposed new rate of 61.69 cents would be $46,267.50 or a total increase of 12.4%.

Mecklenburg county property taxes will be on the rise this year and we represent a significant amount of commercial property in the area. We would be happy to help answer any questions you may have on the revaluation.