Baltimore City Triples Spending On Program Targeting Fraudulent Claims Resulting In Undeserved Homestead Real Estate Tax Benefits

In Baltimore, Maryland, The Baltimore Sun reports:

• The number of city workers charged with rooting out property tax fraud and errors would triple — from one employee to three — under Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake's budget proposal for next fiscal year.



• The "billing integrity" program, launched last spring, has focused on finding homestead property tax credits that go to owners who don't live in the homes receiving the break, which violates the rules. The Finance Department wants extra staff to audit all tax credits and investigate the accuracy of property assessments.



• William Voorhees, the department's director of revenue and tax analysis, said Rawlings-Blake "is dedicated to making sure that we get every dollar the city is due." The budget request triples spending on the program to $337,000, which would more than pay for itself, Voorhees said.



• An investigation by The Baltimore Sun has found multiple problems that reduce city tax collection, particularly in the homestead program — "double-dippers" collecting on multiple properties, breaks going to boarded-up homes and homestead credits inflated by errors.



• So far, the city has requested the state revoke over $1.3 million in homestead credits from 2,157 properties — rentals and vacant homes — and almost $1 million in tax exemptions on properties that the city believes do not actually qualify for the nonprofit break. The Finance Department expects to soon forward a list of several thousand more homestead credits to the state to revoke, potentially $2 million in breaks, Voorhees said.



• Though the city is responsible for billing, the state Department of Assessments and Taxation oversees the homestead program and makes the call on revocations. [...] Voorhees said the city looked for properties receiving homestead credits even though they are registered as rentals, were cited for not registering or have been slapped with a vacant-building notice. The new staffer members would allow the department to ferret out even more properties getting undeserved homestead credits.

For more, see Mayor wants to expand property-tax effort ('Billing integrity' program aims to stamp out fraud, mistakes).