Sarasota County Property Appraiser targets tax evaders

The Sarasota County Property Appraiser could commission a third party to investigate every tax exemption filed in the county.

The selected vendor, Tax Management Associates, won’t get paid out of the appraiser’s budget. Instead, the firm will take a 30% share of all recovered money from back taxes, penalties and interest found in fraudulent cases. The remaining 70% will go to the Sarasota County Tax Collector for distribution among the county’s ad valorem tax authorities, which include the municipalities and Sarasota County Schools.

Tax Management Associates will spend approximately one year investigating each exemption claim. 

The appraiser’s main target is homestead exemptions. In fiscal year 2014, the appraiser had 109,737 homestead exemptions on file, said Brian Loughrey, administrative director of the property appraiser’s office.

A homestead exemption is granted to property owners who are residents of Florida and live in a home in Sarasota County that is their primary residence. The property can’t be a rental, and the owner can’t be receiving residence benefits from another state, Loughrey said. 

A homestead exemption can give an owner up to $50,000 in tax exemption*, and a homestead cap that means the owner’s taxable value can’t go up more than 3%, even if the home’s market value home rises by 20%, for example.

When the property appraiser finds someone who shouldn’t have a homestead exemption, the difference between the increase in the home’s market value and the owner’s 3% cap is put back on the tax roll, and the full taxable amount will be collected from that point on. The appraiser can also collect the back taxes on the property, Loughrey said.

“We only want to grant exemptions to those who qualify,” he said. “If someone is getting an exemption who doesn’t deserve it, other taxpayers are picking up the slack.”

Loughrey said the office has a full-time staff member who has been tackling these cases for years; however, having just one person means limited time and resources to track down possible tax evaders. 

“We don’t have the personnel or the budget to do it,” he said.

The appraiser’s office began its own investigations in 1991. Since then, it has collected $4.8 million in back taxes, penalties and interest; $45 million of homestead value has been added back on to the tax roll.

The appraiser will need unanimous approval from the county’s ad valorem tax authorities. It hopes to achieve approval by the end of the fiscal year in October.  

*A previous version of this article stated an owner could get up to a $50,000 tax exemption on the first $50,000 of assessed value. The correct amount would be $25,000 on the first $50,000 of assessed value and an additional $25,000 on assessed value of $75,000 and up.