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Back taxes owed by the congressman for those years totalled just under $18,000.
Commission members further ruled the county's Board of Equalization and Review acted properly when it denied Taylor's request for the six parcels to be reinstated under use-value deferment status in 2000 because his application and forest management plan were filed with the county six months too late.
Taylor, who claimed his constitutional right to due process was violated when Dills failed to inform the congressman he had an opportunity to be heard on the issue, has 30 days to file an appeal of the tax commission's decision with the N.C. Court of Appeals.
"I will recommend (Taylor) appeal, I can say that," Robert Long, the Asheville attorney representing Taylor on the issue, said Tuesday.
The question Long said he hopes the Court of Appeals will answer is if a county tax assessor has the authority to remove someone from present-use assessment after the board of equalization and review has concluded its work for the year.
"Ordinarily, the tax assessor is limited to making those kinds of decisions during the listing period so a property owner has a chance for a full hearing," Long said. "Notice and an opportunity to be heard are required by N.C. statutes and the U.S. and N.C. constitutions."
Attorney Diane Sherrill, who represented Jackson County in the matter, expressed satisfaction with the commission's decision.
"I am pleased (the tax commission) upheld the tax collector's decision," said Sherrill. "We felt we were consistent with applying the law."
The Property Tax Commission said in its decision that Dills acted properly when he requested Taylor supply a written forest management plan, and when one did not materialize, the tax assessor again properly removed Taylor's property from the program.
"We're very glad that we won; if we'd lost, it could have had effects statewide with regard to taxpayers needing plans on file," Dills said.
The case involving Congressman Taylor has its origins in 1997 when a local logger asked the assessor's office to review 10 parcels he said were reaping the benefits of tax-deferred status illegally since the landowners either did not have forest management plans on file or were not following them.
That request for a review prompted Dills to look at all property under forestry present-use value, a process required by law on a continual basis. He found that although Taylor's land had been listed as tax deferred since the 1970s, the congressman had never submitted a forest management plan for the property.
Tax assessors can request that a landowner wishing to benefit from forestry present-use value file a forest management plan, which outlines how the timber on a tract of land will be managed and when a harvest will be scheduled. Most forest management plans are written by registered foresters or by landowners with assistance from the N.C. Forest Service, Dills said.
"The congressman is a registered forester," the tax assessor said. "He probably could have written a good plan and avoided all this."
Twice in 1999 Dills contacted Taylor by mail to request a forest management plan be submitted. Without a plan, Dills wrote the congressman, the six parcels would be removed from tax-deferred status. Both times Taylor responded by saying a plan would be delivered, but it never materialized, Dills said.
Once the congressman's land was removed from the program, he was considered by the county tax collector to be in arrears, not only for 1999, but for the three years prior. In an effort to collect back taxes owned by Taylor, Buchanan asked the U.S. House of Representatives to garnish his Congressional salary.
Taylor, who is said to be one of Congress's wealthiest members, paid the back taxes "under protest" before action could be taken with regard to his salary.
And although Taylor completed an application and filed a forest management plan in 2000, six months after the filing deadline, his property was not allowed back in the program until 2001. Interest continues to accrue on the congressman's 2000 tax bill, Buchanan said.
Property under tax-deferred status for forestry management is assessed at about $300 an acre and taxed accordingly, said Dills. Should the real value of the property be $1,000 an acre - a low value for most land in Jackson County, according to Dills - a landowner could realize a tax savings on $700 worth of property.
In Taylor's case, taxes on the six parcels in question without the tax deferment were listed in 2000 at just over $5,500, a sum the congressman has not paid since the case is being litigated. Taxes listed in 2001 on the same property, this time with the tax deferment, total about $900.
"What this case did was affirm that taxpayers need to respond in a timely fashion when contacted by the tax assessor's office," said Stan Duncan of the N.C. Department of Revenue's Property Tax Division. "It also shows that information needs to be in place as of Jan. 1 in order to show you qualify for a tax deferment."
Should the congressman decide to appeal the Property Tax Commission's decision, Dills said he has no doubt the county will continue to defend its stance.
"We've never had a case go this far that wasn't defended," he said.
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