Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05

Avery Country Commissioners Seek

New Land Transfer Tax

Story by Ron Fitzwater

During the last several months, the Avery County Board of Commissioners has been working in conjunction with Mecklenburg, Hoke and Wake counties among others, to institute a one-percent property transfer tax to work in concert with existing taxes. The tax proposed would generate supplemental revenue for the county and would allow the commissioners to lower the property tax for all county residents.

At the March 5, Board of Commissioners meeting, County Manager Robert Wiseman informed the board, “The proposed bill, subject to voter referendum, would allow the county to levy the land transfer tax on conveyances of real property, in addition to the current state excise tax, to be used only for specific purposes.”

At the one percent rate, the land transfer tax on a $350,000 home, would be $3,500. Wiseman said a draft of the bill had been “forwarded to the office Representative Phillip Frye so it can be checked for errors before being introduced in the state House.” Additionally, Wiseman requested board members to “draft a letter to State Senator Joe Sam Queen to reconsider his opposition to co-sponsor the bill.”

In a subsequent interview Wiseman added, “Avery County is unique in this on three specific points.” First, “the referendum does not give the county limitless authority to impose the tax.”

Second, the tax would not be levied on “the seller, but the buyer, to pay the tax. This is not intended to impact on people who buy one or two houses in their life and have a 30-year mortgage. This is designed to create a source of revenue that we could use to address critical issues such as water quality, availability of water, sedimentation and erosion, and roads. Our planning board would share a proportionate cost of addressing theses issues. This tax is for people who come in here and pay $5 million for 40 acres of land, then subdivide it, and are out and gone. Meanwhile, our people on fixed incomes—the elderly, disabled, and the working class on low to moderate income—face property values that are going up so much the taxes are killing them. If this legislation comes about, we could realize a substantial tax decrease across the board for everybody.”

Third, “if someone wants to sell property within their family unit, to build a home on, the buyer and seller are exempt from the tax” Wiseman said.