Former Guilford County Tax Director Francis Kinlaw used to be displeased whenever the Rhino Times wrote that he was “the nicest person in Guilford County government” because – though Kinlaw was in fact the nicest person in the government – he wanted to project an image of meanness since he thought that might help raise the tax collection rate.
Current Guilford County Tax Director Ben Chavis is also very nice – in fact he’s an ordained minister who gives very powerful prayers before the Board of Commissioners’ meetings. He is instructed by the Bible that he believes in that forgiveness is an essential virtue.
The Bible does in fact tell everyone to be forgiving just as God is; however, each July, Chavis is always focused on a different passage in the Bible, Mark 12:17 – the instruction to give God what is His and to pay Ceaser the taxes Ceaser is owed.
And the Guilford County Tax Department is a lot less forgiving than the Lord.
So, you’ll be hearing from Chavis and his staff soon if you own property in Guilford County: The Guilford County Tax Department just mailed out about 228,000 tax notices and, on Friday, July 19, the department put out a press release to “ensure property owners know what to expect, key due dates, and resources available to support certain populations.”
The good news this year is that the Board of Commissioners’ adopted budget for fiscal 2024-2025 maintains the current property tax rate of 73.05 cents per $100 of assessed property value.
The bad news, of course, is that the county is also keeping the sky-high property values that were assessed during the 2022 countywide property reval, so your property tax bill will remain ultra-high just as it was last year.
In order to help property owners navigate the process, the Guilford County Tax Department is offering the following tips:
Tip 1: If you pay by September 3, 2024, you’ll receive a 1 percent discount for early payment. According to the Department, “Taxes are due on September 3, 2024, and the last day to pay is January 6, 2025. Please note, the 1 percent discount is for county property taxes only, not for municipal property taxes. Failure to pay property tax by January 6, 2025, will result in interest beginning to accrue on the account and enforced collections may begin. Property owners who pay county taxes by September 3, 2024, will receive a 1 percent discount. Property owners should refer to their statement for any municipal property tax discounts that may be available.”
Tip 2: You can pay online using https://my.guilfordcountync.gov. Paying your taxes online is “easy and instant” according to Guilford County tax staff: Just visit guilfordcountync.gov or download the myGuilfordCounty app; create an account or use your myNCDMV credentials to login – and then locate your information and pay your bill.
“Your account is instantly credited, and you will receive confirmation that your tax bill has been paid,” county tax officials note.
Tip 3: If your property taxes are paid through escrow, you will receive a notice instead of a bill. “Approximately 40 percent of Guilford County property owners pay their taxes through an escrow with their mortgage lender,” the statement notes. “For owners paying through escrow, the mortgage lender will obtain the amount due from the Tax Department. The property owner will receive a notice in the mail to inform them the lender has requested the property tax bill for payment. No further action is necessary, however, according to North Carolina General Statutes, it is the property owner’s responsibility to ensure all taxes are paid, even when using an escrow. It is important to ensure timely payment is made and the information on the notice received is correct. To confirm your tax bill has been paid, visit the tax department website.”
Tip 4: Property tax relief programs are available for qualifying property owners. There are three property tax relief programs that certain North Carolina residents can use to lower their taxes or to help pay the property tax due. There’s a “Senior and Disabled Tax Relief Program” (also called the Elderly or Disabled Homestead Exclusion), the “Circuit Breaker Tax Deferment Program” and the “Disabled Veteran Program.”
If you own a home and it’s your primary residence and you’re a senior earning a low income, a person with a disability, a veteran with a disability (or the unmarried surviving spouse of a veteran with a disability), you could qualify for one of those programs. You can visit taxrelief.guilfordcountync.gov to find out if you qualify, and, if you do, you may submit an application through the same site.
Chavis stated this week that it’s important for everyone to pay their share.
“The taxes paid by property owners in Guilford County are a vital source of funding for our community’s educational system as well as essential county services like public safety, emergency services, public health, and social services,” the tax director said in a public statement. “We strive to make the payment process as simple and efficient as possible by offering various options and flexibility. We urge anyone facing difficulties with their property tax payments to reach out to our office for assistance.”
Guilford County Property taxes make up about 65 percent of the revenue that comes into Guilford County. The number 2 revenue source is sales taxes (12 percent), followed by federal and state funds (11 percent), and user fees (6 percent).
By the way, those who use county services will see higher fees this year. For instance, while the county didn’t raise the fees to adopt senior cats and dogs out of the shelter, the county will now charge you more to adopt other cats and dogs – despite the fact that the county would probably save money – not lose money – if it had kept those fees as low as possible rather than raised them.
The real estate property tax assessed on your property is determined based on the 2022 reappraised value. Guilford County will conduct its next reappraisal in 2026, when taxpayers can expect to see their property values and tax bills move even higher.
If you need more information or can’t afford to pay your taxes all at once and need to throw yourself at the mercy of the Tax Department, visit www.guilfordcountync.gov/our-county/tax, email the department at indtax@guilfordcountync.gov or call 336-641-3363.
Lol….pay your share and the money is used for personal pet projects to appease certain groups of the population, at least in Greensboro.
Jv,
You speak the whole truth.
$1.7 million dollars taken by force from hardworking Guilford County residents and given to groups whose clientele are made up primarily of residents of the City of Greensboro.
Note I said “primarily”, not all.
How about this…for every dollar taken from unincorporated Guilford County residents, Greensboro residents get squeezed for two. They talk about fair, I think that’s fair.
Less than 1 percent is for non profits. But you gotta be dramatic, you be you.
How many Emergency Services vehicles will your “less then1%” buy/ repair. How many lives and how much property will your “less then1%” save/improve?
By your bleeding heart liberal standards, even if it saved only 1, that 1 would be worth less then your master’s desires to buy votes.
1.7 million doesn’t cover the 5 million asked for emergency vehicles does it?
What is the emergency fund in the budget this term?
You’re right…it’s only about 40% of that for life saving emergency services and equipment. That’s so different from the >1% for vote buying. How silly of me.
Paying on line also incurs a maddening handling fee.
Jack- Would you be in favor of the entire tax base subsidizing the cost of swipe fees from credit card companies and processing fees by the vendor (middleman) who gets the money transferred from payer’s card to the county? I guess the county could simply bake it into the tax rate and force everyone to pay yet another type of tax increase. I guess you don’t realize that every private sector business that accepts card payments most certainly adds the two fees to everything we all purchase. They definitely don’t eat those fees and consider them a cost of doing business. Out of sight, out of mind I guess for you though, huh Jack? Take it easy bud. You sound like every part of your life is maddening.
It’s called a VAT.
No Miller, VAT (Value Added Tax) is something completely different.
Jack is referring to the charge levied in order to offset the fees charged by banks to process credit/debit cards.
You are right, but that was not my point.
What was your point?
My point is a hidden tax, not as easily noticed.
In the past when we had great leaders who understood that property taxes were used to support the entire community, commissioners now use taxes to support their chance for reelection and to support groups they favor. Property taxes should not be given to nonprofits nor used to hire and increase the number of DEI and MWBE employees, nor to use DEI and MWBE as a hammer to meddle in contractors’ bids. The largest slice of property taxes goes to schools. Do not forget the millions and millions of property tax money that will be used to repay the bonds (borrowed money with interest) that will steadily increase through the years. The interest paid on these bonds should be charged against the schools as part of their share of the budget. This would help show what schools are costing property taxpayers. And even with all this money, student results are unacceptable. Property tax money poorly spent. DO NOT forget that Alston really, really wants to increase sale taxes in November. Vote NO for more money going to schools that provide dismal results. Can you say term limits?
Preach on loud and strong TermLimits, preach on!
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“The taxes paid by Guilford County property owners are a vital source of funding” – for the obese and profligate public sector.
The thing is Benny, that money that I’ve earned is also “a vital source of funding” for my family.
Why should I put the demands of a glorified street mugger before the needs of my family?
Again, Austin fails to say what he would cut.
No one likes paying taxes but most people value the services provided. Just look how upset folks were when leaf collection was changed.
You miss the point every time, don’t you?
Do these services include using tax money to pay for a large staff to administer DEI and MWBE programs, both of which are unlawful discriminatory practices? Do these services include redistribution of wealth by increasing property tax revenue to pay for favored programs by politicians? Do these services include defunding the police because a segment of politicians and Blacks believe that law enforcement discriminates?
Also cometh is another obscene rate hike from Piedmont Natural Gas (Duke Energy). You know that huge behemoth in Charlotte, spreading it’s tentacles multi-state. Since Piedmont’s acquisition, they have implemented Duke Nation’s predatory tactics. The Kings of invoice padding, fees, and rate increases. Being utilities, they are supposed to be regulated by the State of NC.
In today’s mail, I received a rate increase notice outlining their request. 15.3% for residential service. However, Large Firm general service is REDUCED by 10.7-14.5%. Military service to zero. And get this one, “Special Contracts” reduced from $125,175,834 to ZERO (100%). All this on the backs of the largest group of rate-payers revenue to $797,056,614, up over $100,000.
Checking my handy-dandy commodity chart, I see that in one year, the wholesale price of natural gas is now $2.20 per million BTUs. A decrease of over 21% in a the past year as of today.
All the while, we are hammered by the obscene cost of taxes food, health care, housing, rent, insurance, autos, ad nauseum.
The Big Problem is at City Hall & the County Court House, Raleigh, and Washington.
There is a big hunt going on, and we are the ones being hunted into servitude. The fix is in.
You vote yourselves a free lunch, this is what you get.
Natural gas is a commodity so prices will fluctuate. I am not trying to be a cheerleader for Duke Energy, but there are other factors beyond the cost of natural gas that are involved with delivering power to homes and businesses. The cost of maintaining facilities; the constant need to innovate, in large part due to regulation; and the rising cost of technology to name a few factors. Whenever a utility requests a rate hike, the utility must present their case to the NC Utility Commission. Their case will include more than the cost of natural gas.
I see your point. So what does the base rate and connection fee cover? Certainly not the declined cost of natural gas. So what is left is all profit? The residential users are getting hammered and the big outfits like Wally World or Toyota get their rate lowered. Anyone know what “special contracts” are?
You get an after tax income increase of 15.3% last year? Even though our Federal Govt is lying to us about 2-3% inflation rate, how does a 15.3% rate increase compare to the inflation rate? How much does a home, or your rent cost now? Insurance? A car? Raw carrots @$1.00/lb?
If you have any records, see what you have paying Piedmont Natural Gas & Duke Nation the last ten years.
Inflation steals from all of us. As you state, it affects all sectors of our lives, not just food. One cause of inflation is workers’ rising wages but not this time. Supply and demand can contribute to inflation. However, has there been such a demand for raw carrots that consumer prices of raw carrots are so high that a person goes from store to store to find carrots? Have you driven by a car dealership’s lot lately? There are plenty of cars available for purchase. It is my opinion that the current inflation should be placed squarely on the federal government: Printing of money; wars that America is subsidizing and/or fighting, directly or indirectly; long-term low interest rates, in some cases zero; and the free Covid money distributed, including millions that were distributed to businesses with no oversite and subsequently forgiven. The average American is suffering because of federal action. Makes one wonder if South Carolina was right about nullification in 1832. If not nullification now, we will settle for term limits.