October 6, 2016 10:30 a.m.
On Wednesday Douglas County Assessor Roger Hartman announced that he has uncovered around $14 million in excessive taxes that were charged to business personal property levied from 2010 to 2014.
Hartman says a year-long internal investigation headed by Operations Manager Susan Payne uncovered the discrepancy. Payne was previously employed as the head of personal property taxes for the Oregon Department of Revenue in Salem.
Hartman claims that over 6,000 tax accounts that experienced the overcharges were corrected for the 2015/2016 property tax statements. He says further ongoing investigation has determined what he called “intentional overcharges” went back to at least 2010 and before, in many cases. Hartman says he notified the county commissioners, Department of Revenue, and the District Attorney about the findings this summer.
Hartman says that some of the personal property tax overcharges include
*Adding fictitious assets to accounts
*Adding late penalties that were over and above the statutory limits
*Failure to apply the designated depreciation
*Taxing some accounts for previously sold or disposed assets
*Taxing some accounts for licensed vehicles and boats that were exempt by statute
Hartman’s press release says that after several meetings the Department of Revenue ruled that even though the overcharges should not have happened, any back tax refunds due to any sort of “valuation” error, could not be refunded.
Roger Hartman says even though this would cut down the amount to be refunded to between $2 million and $3 million dollars, including interest, it is very labor intensive and each of the 6,000 accounts would have to be analyzed. Hartman says the process would take extra staffing, which he plans to ask Douglas County Commissioners and the Department of Revenue to fund. He said once funding is in place the project could begin.