Forsyth County Tax Administration Forsyth County Tax Administration

Forsyth County

Tax Administration

 Appeals for Real Estate must be filed between

January 1 and the advertised date of the

close of the Board of Equalization and Review

(BER) for the same year , June 29 unless oth-

erwise advertised or within fifteen (15) days

of the mail date indicated on a notice of value

(whichever is later).

 Non-Real Estate Appeals, other than RMV

Appeals, must be filed between January 1

and September 1 unless otherwise posted

within thirty (30) days of the mail date indi-

cated on a notice of value (whichever is

later).

 RMV Appeals must be filed between thirty

(30) calendar days prior and thirty (30) calen-

dar days after the date of renewal.

 APPEALS THAT ARE FILED OUTSIDE OF THE PRE-

SCRIBED TIME PERIOD WILL BE REJECTED AND

WILL NOT BE HEARD BY THE BER.

 If you have filed a timely appeal, you will re-

ceive a written notice before the hearing

date. You must submit any information that

you want the Board to consider ten (10) days

prior to the hearing. Failure to appear at the

scheduled time may result in dismissal of the

appeal or the appeal being heard in the ap-

pellants absence.

 BER Decisions will be sent to you by mail. If

you disagree with the decision of the BER, any

appeal must be filed within thirty (30) days

of the date printed on the notice to North

Carolina’s Property Tax Commission.

 Market data for each reassessment is limited

to information between January 2 of the last

revaluation year and January 1 of the current

revaluation year. Appeal information should

Important Dates &

Schedules for Appeals

HOW DO I

APPEAL MY

PROPERTY

VALUE?

Phone: 336-703-2300

Fax: 336-703-2291

201 N. Chestnut Street

PO Box 757

Winston-Salem, NC 27102-0757

Our goal is to value every

property

accurately and uniformly!

Fair and Equitable

Phone: 336-703-2300

Fax: 336-703-2291

201 N CHESTNUT STREET

PO Box 757

Winston-Salem, NC 27102-0757

John Burgiss, RES

Forsyth County Tax Assessor/Collector

Forsyth County

Tax Administration

The laws that govern Ad Valorem Taxes in North Caro-

lina are located in N. C. G. S. 105. This information is

available at http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/gascripts/

statutes/statutes.asp.

Market Value is defined in (NCGS 105-283)

Time for General reappraisal of real property (NCGS

105-286)

Changing appraised value of real property (NCGS 105-

287.(a) & (b)

Appeals for Registered Motor Vehicles are explained in

NCGS 105-187.10.(c)

The property or ad valorem tax is de-

signed to provide a method to secure

revenues so that local governments can

operate schools and pay for vital re-

sources like law enforcement, fire pro-

tection, public health and more.

The amount of

property taxes you

pay is based upon

the value of your

property and the

tax rate determined

by your local gov-

ernment.

North Carolina law

r e q ui r e s e a c h

county to reappraise real property (land,

buildings and other improvements) at

least every eight years, and personal

property, cars and equipment every

year.

These reappraisals are completed to

maintain fairness and equity between

property owners. Forsyth County.

schedules revaluations every fourth year

to maintain equity. To do this, we use

information from the market, like sales of

real estate, rents and recent construction

costs, to appraise property uniformly at

its “true value in money.”

Our goal is to value every property accu-

rately and uniformly as of January 1 of

the reappraisal year. That value is esti-

mated based upon sales and market in-

formation that was available on or prior

to January 1 of the reappraisal year.

These values do not change unless there

is a change to the property like a demoli-

tion or an improvement or an error iden-

tified in the information stored for the

property.

We want you to know!

The more accurate our information, the more accurate

the values will be. Therefore, we make the informa-

tion used to value property as accessible as possible.

Valuation information is available on the Detailed

Property Information website at http://

tellus.co.forsyth.nc.us/lrcpwa/. Property Information

can be printed from this website, or you can contact

our office to speak with a staff member.

We encourage you to review this information regu-

larly. You can view sketches of the property, see in-

formation about bathroom counts, basement area,

etc.

If there is an error in your properties information,

please let us know. We want the information to be

accurate.

How to File an Appeal

You may file an appeal for the current tax year after

January 1 of that year and before the advertised close

of the Board of Equalization and Review (BER). Please

see the panel on Important Dates for more informa-

tion regarding Real Estate, Non-Real Estate and Reg-

istered Motor Vehicle (RMV) appeals.

The appeal must be in writing and should be com-

pleted on the BER Appeal form that is available online

on the County website at http://www.forsyth.cc/Tax/

forms.aspx, or call to have a form mailed to you.

Mail the completed form along with any documenta-

tion per the instructions on the form.

Preparing an Appeal

North Carolina law presumes that

the value determined by the Asses-

sor’s Office is correct. The appellant

must prove that the assessed value

substantially exceeds the market

value of the property and that the

Tax Assessor used either an illegal or an arbitrary

method of assessing the property.

What does this mean? For Real Estate, the

appellant needs to provide factual informa-

tion such as pictures, information on recent

constructions costs, sales of comparable

properties that occurred prior to January 1

of the revaluation date or repair estimates

for serious damage to the property.

At your request, an appraiser will visit your

property to review the interior of your

property and the condition.

If the appeal is for income producing prop-

erty (rented or leased), income and ex-

pense statements should be include for the

three years prior to the revaluation year.

For personal property and RMV appeals,

include items like photographs, odometer

statements, bills of sale and information on

condition, make, model and year of manu-

facture.

Business personal property appeals should

include appraisals, financial records and