News

County sues mortgage backers over land transfer taxes

By Bill Moss, Published: August 8, 2012

Henderson County is suing two huge mortgage backing firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, for refusing to pay deed stamp taxes on land purchases.The action, announced today by Board of Commissioners Chairman Tommy Thompson, County Manager Steve Wyatt and County Attorney Russ Burrell, is a class-action lawsuit that the county said in a news release is bolstered by recent opinion a federal court in Michigan in favor of counties in that state that sought unpaid transfer taxes from Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the FHFA.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, once federal agencies, are now publicly traded private corporations. They are, according to the lawsuit, therefore not entitled to any excise tax exemption granted to governmental agencies.
State statutes impose an excise tax on the deed transfers of $1 per $500 of land value sold.
"By not paying the excise tax imposed on the recordation of real estate transfers, Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac are effectively shifting costs from themselves and onto the citizens of Henderson County," the county said in a news release. "As private corporations, they are not entitled to these subsidies."
The county officials did not say how much money was at stake or what amount the county was seeking from the mortgage-backing giants.
Henderson County's lawsuit was filed in the Asheville Division of the Federal Court for the Western District of North Carolina. Henderson County is represented by the Van Winkle Law Firm of Hendersonville and Asheville, by Hausfeld, LLP, of Washington, D.C., along with the County Attorney office.