Start here: what you are actually arguing
A North Carolina property tax appeal is an argument about one number: the assessed value. Not the rate, which the county sets each year for everyone, and not whether the tax is fair. The question is whether the county’s value is higher than what the property would sell for.
The statute calls that true value and defines it as market value: the price at which the property would change hands between a willing and financially able buyer and a willing seller, neither under any compulsion to buy or sell, both with reasonable knowledge of how it can be used (G.S. 105-283).
The value being tested is the market value on January 1 of the county’s last revaluation year. Not today’s.
The stages, in order
Before the revaluation takes effect
Challenge the schedule of values (rare)
The county adopts the rules it will use to value every property before January 1 of the revaluation year. An owner who says the rules themselves are unlawful has 30 days from the first published notice of adoption to appeal to the Property Tax Commission (G.S. 105-317). This is a challenge to the whole schedule, not to one property, and it is the only way to bring it.
After the notice of value
Informal review
Most counties let an owner ask the appraisal staff to look again before anything formal. It is county practice, not a statutory right, and the window is the county's to set. Mecklenburg, for example, allows 30 days from the date on the notice. A well-documented request settles a lot of commercial cases here.
Before the Board adjourns
Board of Equalization and Review
The formal county appeal. The Board is the county commissioners or a special board they appoint. It first meets between the first Monday in April and the first Monday in May, and a hearing must be requested in writing or in person before it adjourns (G.S. 105-322). The Board must mail its decision within 30 days of adjourning.
30 days from the mailed decision
Property Tax Commission
The state body in Raleigh that hears appeals from county Boards. The notice of appeal is due within 30 days after the date the Board mailed its decision (G.S. 105-290). Mailed by U.S. Postal Service, it counts as filed on the postmark date. SBPTA carries cases through the Commission when the Board does not move.
30 days from the final order
North Carolina Court of Appeals
A Commission decision can be appealed to the Court of Appeals within 30 days after the order is entered. Few commercial valuation cases go this far.
The deadline everybody gets wrong
You will read that the Board sits until July 1, or until December 1 in a revaluation year. Both are true and both are the wrong date to plan around. They are the latest the Board may sit. The deadline for an owner is the adjournment date the county sets and publishes, and it is often in the spring. In 2026, Mecklenburg’s was May 4.
There is no statewide date for mailing notices either. Each county chooses, which is why the only safe plan is to have your evidence ready before the notice arrives.
What the Board needs from you
The county’s value starts out presumed correct. The Supreme Court of North Carolina put it plainly in In re Appeal of AMP, Inc. (1975): the burden is on the taxpayer, and it is not enough to show the county’s method was wrong. The owner has to show the method was arbitrary or illegal and that the value substantially exceeds true value.
In practice that means evidence of value: comparable sales, the property’s real income and expenses, vacancy, condition, and an appraiser who can explain them. What actually wins a commercial appeal goes through it.
And the bill?
Due September 1, with interest from January 6 if it is unpaid (G.S. 105-360). No statute pauses collection while a valuation appeal is pending. Pay it. If the value comes down, the overpayment is refunded with interest.