Report: Huntington town made errors in tax assessment process

A report released by the state comptroller's office shows that the town of Huntington made several errors in its tax assessment process.

News 12 Staff

Jan 9, 2020, 8:36 PM

Updated 1,736 days ago

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A report released by the state comptroller's office shows that the town of Huntington made several errors in its tax assessment process.

According to the report, some veterans and senior citizens received exemptions that were too large, potentially resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost revenue.

The comptroller's office reviewed a total of 116 exemptions from the fiscal year 2018. Of those exemptions, auditors found problems with 71 of them. The report goes on to state that 56 veterans in the town underpaid their taxes and 14 senior citizens received too large of a discount on their taxes.

In addition, auditors found that some of the oversized exemptions were given out because of accounting errors. The report also states that residents received discounts without documents proving they were eligible.

The town of Huntington supervisor responded to the report with a letter that said the town intends to take corrective actions to ensure it maintains a fair and equitable assessment roll in the future.

Even though some residents will have their taxes go up to correct the mistakes, the town says it will not collect back taxes from people who underpaid.
The town says some residents also paid too much taxes because of the mistake. Officials are working on getting refunds to them.