The Gilmer County Board of Assessors has decided to leave most structures not attached to a home included in a homestead exemption for property owners age 65 and up.
However, one big change has been added to what qualifies for that exemption.
When meeting last Thursday, assessor board members approved a revised policy for the over-65 exemption that now states: Detached structures, except those used solely for business purposes, qualify for this exemption.
“We’re going to look for buildings that are solely for business purposes,” said Chief Appraiser Theresa Gooch. “If there’s a dual use, as long as the primary purpose is for the occupant and not the business, it can be included.”
Gooch asked for clarification from board members about specific structures that should be considered.
Chicken houses were cited as a specific example of a building that’s currently included in the over-65 school-tax exemption, but will come off in the coming tax year if used as an operating business.
Board member Tom Porter said he thinks chicken houses should be taxed, to which other board members agreed.
Whether other stand-alone buildings like barns and pole sheds should also be excluded from the exemption was not as easily agreed upon.
“There are structures like a barn associated with hay and cattle. One would hope to make a profit off of that, but it’s unclear as to how that decision would be made by an assessor out in the field,” said Porter.
“You’re not making any money with a pole barn with equipment under it, but you are making money with chicken houses with chickens that you’re going to sell,” said board vice chairman Bill Logan.
Board chairman Gary Engel said he wants field appraisers to have a clear idea of where to draw the line as to what does and doesn’t qualify for the exemption.
“If I’m an appraiser going out to look and I see a pole barn that’s got farming equipment in it that’s used for a farming operation, that’s a business. Although it may be a small farm (with) a few cattle or something like that,” he said.
“You could easily have a mix (of personal and business stuff) in there,” said Engel about how barns are used for different purposes.
Gooch said there’s going to be some properties where the use of certain buildings is very obvious, while others may have multiple uses.
“It may be we have to focus on the main structure. If it’s an operating poultry house, then it’s a business and everything else may need to be deemed an incidental (structure) because the usage of it could change,” she said.
Porter commented that the policy revisions come after an unofficial opinion on whether or not to change the over-65 exemption was provided by a state attorney general’s office staff member, not by the attorney general.
He noted that detached structures aren’t included in the standard homestead exemption for local property owners.
“That was the problem two years ago when we started talking about it, making it different for the school tax exemption,” Porter said.
Gooch said removing structures like chicken houses and barns from the over-65 exemption won’t affect agricultural conservation use exemptions if both a CUVA and over-65 exemption apply to the same property.
“They will still get their CUVA for the agricultural part of it. This will strictly be dealing with the school tax portion,” she added.
Although several types of detached structures, particularly chicken houses, were discussed, a detailed list of business-use structures was not voted on by board members.
“Right now, they’ll look at anything completely separate and if its whole purpose is for a business,” Gooch said.
After a field check, more information may be needed to make that call, she added.
“We want to make sure we review these thoroughly for the upcoming digest and make sure we’ve identified them correctly. We may need to look for business licenses or things of that nature to verify it’s still in operation,” Gooch said.