Jefferson County leaders call Lowe’s a good corporate citizen, but they are lining up to oppose a lawsuit filed by the home improvement store to lower their tax rate.

“We were expecting this to happen. We were expecting them to file a lawsuit,” said Tony Petelos, the Jefferson County Manager.

Lowe’s wants to change how its stores are taxed. Instead of the money they make, Lowe’s wants a tax rate as if their stores are empty buildings.

Petelos said if Lowe’s is successful, others will follow suit.

“You have other big boxes out there. That is a concern. We are fully aware of it. We will fight the lawsuit along with the state of Alabama,” Petelos said.

Jefferson County Commissioners give tax incentives to lure businesses to the county and the state of Alabama. But, they believe the reclassification will have a negative impact on the county and the state.

“That would be detrimental to the citizens of the county because we depend on tax revenue. There are no special privileges assigned to Lowe’s that would not be assigned to anyone else,” said Jefferson County Commission President Jimmie Stephens.

Millions of dollars could be on the line. Not just of county services but also for cities and school systems.

Karen Cobb, Manager, Corporate Public Relations with Lowe’s emailed a statement.

Lowe’s goes through a process every year to review property tax values for all its properties across the country. Stores generate jobs, pay state and local income tax, sales tax and property tax. Just like homeowners, we want to be taxed fairly on the value of our buildings and land.

Determining market value can be a complicated process, but in general, we look at information about comparable property in the area to help determine an appropriate value. In many cases, independent appraisers help us determine an appropriate market value for our buildings and land.

We are happy to talk with tax assessors to better understand how they determined the assessed value and to try and find a way to arrive at a fair assessment.

Jefferson County leaders call Lowe’s a good corporate citizen, but they are lining up to oppose a lawsuit filed by the home improvement store to lower their tax rate.

“We were expecting this to happen. We were expecting them to file a lawsuit,” said Tony Petelos, the Jefferson County Manager.

Lowe’s wants to change how its stores are taxed. Instead of the money they make, Lowe’s wants a tax rate as if their stores are empty buildings.

Petelos said if Lowe’s is successful, others will follow suit.

“You have other big boxes out there. That is a concern. We are fully aware of it. We will fight the lawsuit along with the state of Alabama,” Petelos said.