Date: Thu, 26 May 2016 08:56:19 -0400
From: inbox
Subject: re: Chatham County Government Overreach
In response to: “The letter is on official letterhead, and states “This request was made per North Carolina General Statute 105-368(h)”. I looked up that Statute and while it does detail when the State can garnish wages for back taxes, it does not allow for the wholesale collection of such sensitive data.”
I looked up the pertinent statutes and it looks like NC GS 105 chapter 26 is the base (link here: http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/
As a warning to our gentle readers, I would advise you to avoid reading the above document unless you want to feel your blood boil. The document reads like a decree one would expect from a feudal overlord, not an allegedly representative republic style system of governance. Needless to say I should have heeded my own warning.
In section 105-368, paragraph i states the following: “(i) (1) Any person who, after written demand therefor, refuses to give the tax collector or assessor a list of the names and addresses of all of his employees who may be liable for taxes, shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
The operative part of this paragraph being “who may be liable for taxes”, sounds like it would be subject to legal interpretation. Taken in a liberal context, this statement could mean a wholesale list of all employees for any reason while a more conservative interpretation and one taken in the context of tax delinquency that these subsections are detailing, the list would be much more narrow in scope. In either case, it appears as though your dealing with a petty bureaucrat with power issues and I would advise consultation with an attorney.