howto  Process Exemption -- the simple situation

What are some "simple" situations?  We can think of two situations.  There may be others.

• When each owner is 65 years of age or older and meet the income eligibility limits. 

• When the owner gets to exempt all the assets it owns -- like a church or government.

Go to the Exemptions menu. That's menu 32.  Select the Process Exemption menu option, press Enter.  The selection screen will appear.

Check the Appraisal Year. If the default is not right, stop what you are doing and call Cox and Company.  Once you get it right, it will stay right.

Type the Owner ID -- but do not press Enter yet.

Type the appropriate Exemption Code..  What you type is important.  If you are already familiar with the codes, then go ahead and type it.  If you know the concepts but forgot the code, use the F8=Lookup feature to remind you. 

If you are not clear about the concepts about exempting assessed value for qualifying taxpayers, you might want to read a blurb on the Exemption Concepts.  There is a special write-up on Elderly Exemptions. These pages try to explain the mechanics of exemptions in North Carolina.

Now, press Enter.  A screen will appear listing the assets owned by the Owner ID that may be eligible for exemption. We'll call it the Exemption List Assets screen.

What you are going to do next is to Activate the exemption for the asset(s) you select.

Type 'A' next to each asset whose value will be exempted, then press Enter.  Now look under the Current Exempt column.  You should see the Exemption Code you selected for this owner.  There should also be a figure in the farthest column to the right -- that's the assessed value that will be exempted.

If the owner -- like a church or government -- gets to exempt all assets, you can type 'A' next to each asset.  If you don't like typing all those 'A's you can press the function key that selects all of them for you.  Its at the bottom of the screen and probably says 'F6=Activate All'.

Check the screen.  Make sure the code in the Current Exempt column and the value in the Exempted ASV column are what you want them to be.  If not, either deactivate the asset or go back to the selection screen.

If everything look rights, press F12=Previous The selection screen will appear and you are ready to process the next exemption.

What if? The owner is a church that owns lots of buildings.

This one is actually pretty easy.  All the assets owned by the church will likely be exempted.  When you get to the List Assets screen, just press F6=Activate All, then press Enter.  You should see the code for exempted churches in the Current Exemption column.