Incline Village and Crystal Bay homeowners to get $56M tax refund

Incline Village and Crystal Bay property owners will be soon getting refunds from Washoe County after the County Commission approved a settlement of an estimated $56M during their meeting Tuesday. Half of those funds will come from Washoe County and the rest will come from the other beneficiaries of those tax payments - Washoe County School District, North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Incline Village Improvement District, and the State of Nevada.

The Village League to Save Incline Assets, Inc. was formed in December 2002 to fight the constitutionality of the methodologies used to calculate the taxable value of properties in the Incline Village and Crystal Bay area. They used such things a "lake view," "beachfront" and relied on six-year-old sales in their determination of taxes.

Battles with the County have been ongoing for 17 years. The taxpayer group held a "Tahoe Tea Party" to gain support for their issue in 2003 and directed the area taxpayers to post “Pay Taxes Under Protest” on their tax payments.

Refund payments are scheduled to begin July 1, 2021 for the 2003-04, 2004-05, and 2005-06 tax years in the total estimated amount of $56 million, the County’s portion of which is $23.8 million and the remaining portion of which is attributable to the Washoe County School District, North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District, Incline Village Improvement District, and the State of Nevada. The proposed agreement includes a two-year interest holiday period during which interest on the refunds will not accrue from July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2023, and provides that refunds be completed by June 21, 2024.

In October 2019, Washoe County courts directed the County pay back the taxes. In November the Board of County Commissioners authorized the filing of an appeal of the District Court order. Since then, the two sides have been in negotiations to determine the best route of the repayment.

"We owe the success of this agreement largely to Village League President, Todd Lowe, Vice President Les Barta, Washoe County Commissioner Marsha Berkbigler, County Manager Eric Brown, and County Assessor Mike Clark. In making this deal the parties considered many things, including the effects of covid on county finances, balanced with the taxpayers’ need for justice," said the taxpayer group in a letter Tuesday.

The settlement can be found here - http://nevadapropertytaxrevolt.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Taxpayer-Implementation-Agreement.pdf.

“I think this Board of County Commissioners should be commended for engaging on this tough issue and giving it thoughtful consideration when they could have kicked the can down the road for future Boards to deal with,” said Washoe County Manager Eric Brown. “The Courts have spoken. It is time to pay the refunds and move on.”

Staff will return to the Board of County Commission at a future meeting to report on anticipated fiscal impacts and propose funding options for the Board’s consideration.

Commissioners voted 3 to 1 (Commissioner Jung dissenting) to approve the settlement; Commissioner Hartung was not in attendance.