Nocera files airplane tax returns

Frank Nocera arrived at the Tax Assessors Office shortly after it closed March 31 and filled out tax returns for 2008 and 2009, according to chief assessor Cecil Highfield. While the 2008 return is a year late, the 2009 return was done in time to meet the April 1 filing deadline.

Nocera’s actions followed a private meeting March 28 with board of commissioners chairman Danny Yearwood, who appointed him to the authority.

Nocera owns a hangar at the county-owned airport and has paid taxes on that property, but had not filed returns, until now, for his two ‘50s-era planes.

In 2002, Jackson County officials determined that one of Nocera’s planes had an assessed value of $11,300 and the other had an assessed value of $19,000. (Assessed values represent 40 percent of a property’s fair market value.) Nocera paid one year of Jackson County taxes on his less-expensive plane, but successfully appealed having to pay taxes on the higher value plane, according to the tax commissioner in that county.

The next step is for the county to establish an assessed value for Nocera’s planes and for all of the other untaxed planes at the airport. Next week, county officials will go to the airport for the third time in recent weeks to photograph the untaxed planes. Owners disagreeing with their assessments will be able to appeal to the Board of Assessors, Highfield said.