Property Appraiser gets help combatting exemption fraud

St Johns County Property Appraiser Eddie Creamer reported this week that his office now has another intelligent tool to protect local taxpayers from homestead exemption fraud through a new partnership with the private data-mining company, The Exemption Project.

Using publicly available data from the United States Postal Service, and other proprietary sources, the service monitors residential properties that could be subject to lower property taxes.  That information is compared to other national consumer data, outside of St Johns County, to identify those properties that may have once been a primary residence — but may no longer qualify for homestead exemption.

“Please note these number vary from those published in the St. Augustine Record,” Chief Administrative Officer Nikki Pontello, M.P.P., C.F.E. told local Historic City News reporters.  “Some listed properties were the primary residence of the owner as of January 1, 2019, and they qualified for a 2019 homestead exemption.  However, sometime during 2019, they requested a change of address with the post office.  This implies the owner no longer qualified for homestead exemption at the old address as of January 1, 2020.”

An update of St Johns County properties that claim a homestead exemption is processed by The Exemption Project quarterly. The information furnished to Creamer’s office is being updated by the vendor weekly, explaining the discrepancy.

Creamer explained that the county pays no fees to the vendor unless they identify a property owner who incorrectly claimed an exemption that they were not entitled to.  State law mandates the recovery of certain penalties.  The service fees earned by The Exemption Project are paid from those penalties.  In each case, the county is made whole and recovers additional tax revenue that would have otherwise gone unreported and uncollected.

For example, parcels identified through the 2019 National Change of Address Registry will be denied homestead exemption on the year 2020 tax roll.  Once the exemption is removed, a denial notice is sent to the homeowner prior to certification of this year’s tax roll.  The homeowner has an opportunity to furnish proof that they occupied the residence on January 1, 2020, if they feel they are entitled to the tax exemption.

The following properties have been identified so far by The Exemption Project.  Liens have been filed in several cases.  Some owners have paid the cost of the ineligible exemption, plus penalties, while others are pending notification that their claim for exemption in 2020 is being denied.