REPORT: Thousands of area rental properties get tax break meant for homeowners
Auditor Karl Keith pledged a “comprehensive review” of the owner-occupancy tax credit program because of the findings. He estimated they would have more information in about a month.
RELATED: County auditor to review questionable tax breaks found by I-Team
Chief Deputy Auditor Kate Evans said this week that review was slowed by the mandated re-appraisal of property values countywide that the office finished in July. This has forced the office’s real estate staff of less than a dozen to focus on 2,300 meetings with property owners asking about or contesting their values, she said.
RELATED: Home values have risen in all Montgomery County communities but one
But the office is committed to a thorough review of the issue, she said.
“We’re definitely examining this issue and we want to make sure we get this as right as we can so it doesn’t happen moving forward and we can correct what has been done erroneously,” she said.
She said the office has several months to figure out what the assessments should be before the next tax bills go out in January. They have not decided whether to do anything about 2016 taxes that were already collected, some possibly with breaks they didn’t deserve.
RELATED: Businesses get thousands of dollars in tax breaks meant for residents
“Right now we’re looking at needing just a little bit more time to finish that and we will be able to lay out everything we have found and have done moving forward to prevent this sort of thing from happening again,” Evans said.
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