Potentially inflated tax bills
Have you been paying too much in property taxes? Most people would probably say yes, of course, but some residents might have the law on their side.
John Fritze reports today that city homeowners in "special benefits districts" such as Charles Village and Mount Vernon may have overpaid:
At issue is whether a popular tax credit should be applied to additional levies collected by the Charles Village Community Benefits District and the Midtown Community Benefits District to offer extra garbage collection and private security guards.For years, the city has applied the Homestead Tax Credit to property taxes that support city services, but not to the benefits districts' tax rate, which might have resulted in small overpayments by thousands of homeowners.
The city solicitor's office said in an opinion this week that any credit that applies to the city's regular property tax should also apply to the benefits districts' tax. But after questions from The Sun about whether that meant prior tax bills were calculated incorrectly, the city withdrew the opinion.
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Comments
Good catch by The Baltimore Sun on the tax calculation error. It sounds like the overcharges were small and probably not intentional. Still, refunds should be issued unless the overhcharges are so small that they are inconsequential, i.e. a dollar or less.
Posted by: LW | March 31, 2008 1:25 PM