The list carried around by Santa Claus tells who’s been nice, but a new list that came with Guilford County’s latest audit shows who’s been nice for the county’s bank account.
The list, which is part of an audit of Guilford County’s 2017-2018 fiscal year, makes note of the county’s largest property taxpayers – those companies that own property with the highest combined value.
According to the audit, the principal taxpayer is Duke Energy Carolinas, which owns $458,680,660 worth of county land and buildings – making the power company the county’s leader in the category.
Duke Energy’s holdings are so large, in fact, that the property the company owns constitutes nearly one percent of the assessed property value in Guilford County.
The current property tax rate for Guilford County is 73.05 cents for every $100 of assessed value, which would put the Duke Energy property tax bill at over $3.35 million.
Duke Energy maintains the lead position that it also held nearly nine years ago when the 2008-2009 county fiscal year was audited. In 2009, the value of property inside Guilford County held by Duke Energy was $341,721,051. That year, Duke Energy’s holdings constituted about 0.75 percent of Guilford County’s tax base.
At a distant second behind Duke Energy, is Procter & Gamble Manufacturing, which now owns property in Guilford County with a total assessed value of $311,310,940. The company, known for its health and beauty aids as well as other consumer goods, owns just over half of one percent of the county’s property, when measured by value.
Over the last decade the value of the property owned by Proctor & Gamble has nearly doubled through business expansion and market driven increases in property values. Under the current tax rate, that amounts to $2.33 million in property taxes each year.
Other companies rounding out the list of the top ten largest taxpayers in Guilford County are ITG Brands, LLC, which bought Lorillard Tobacco Company and now owns land and buildings in Guilford County assessed at $239,718,440.
Fourth on the list is Koury Corp. with an assessed property value at $225,859,553. Coming in fifth, with a property value of $211,945,928 is Lincoln National Life Insurance – or, rather, the company formerly known as Jefferson-Pilot.
Rounding out the top ten largest property holders, in order, are American Express at $211,397,426, CBL, LLC at $165,890,300, Honda Aircraft Co. at $148,220,214, Piedmont Natural Gas at $145,655,194 and International Home Furnishings Center at $145,471,700.
