Following yesterday’s Brief on the tax shift and the concept of the homestead exemption for school taxes comes news of across the state that taxpayers in a northeastern PA county have been found claiming more than one homestead exemption.
Luzerne County had a homestead exemption for county tax purposes from 2009-2015 which reduced the assessed value of a qualified homestead for purposes of county real estate taxes. That exemption is now gone but the County–and all other counties–have to certify homestead exemptions for purposes of school tax relief under Act 1, which takes tax revenues on legalized slots and returns them to taxpayers via homestead exemptions for school tax purposes.
Allegheny County went through an episode like this a few years ago when it was reported that there was some double dipping. A follow up audit found that although the County’s exclusion form lists penalties for violations of taking a fraudulent homestead exemption the County would remove the homestead exemption but not assess any “back taxes, penalties, or interest”.
