Maryland to issue millions of dollars in property tax credit refunds before the end of the year
if you make an error on your taxes there's a very good chance you're going to hear about it from state or federal officials but for years maryland had been miscalculating the property tax credits that people are supposed to get for their homes and it went unnoticed until recently this morning wmr 2 news matters foster shows you how the state plans to settle up with homeowners.
Because if it matters to you it's a matter for mallory the general assembly enacted a new law it went into effect june first and requires the state department of assessments in taxation to identify homeowners who may be owed a refund the audit revealed this miscalculation impacted thousands of homeowners and improperly reduced property tax credits by millions of dollars and although the error dates back to 2005 the state is only required to go back to 2017.
Here's an example of someone who may be eligible for a refund say you live in montgomery county you automatically qualify for the italk or income tax offset credit but say you also qualify for the homeowner's property tax credit a tax break that helps homeowners whose property taxes have rapidly risen but their wages remain stagnant instead of providing the full credit the state was first deducting the italk or a different local property tax credit which meant homeowners who needed this tax break ended up paying more in taxes than they would have without this additional credit sdat said this wasn't an error they based it off of a tax court decision from 2011.
However a memo written in 1996 by the state's assistant attorney general advised the department not to deduct local tax credits a spokesperson for estat said it wasn't until 2018 that the memo was rediscovered and in 2020 they changed their procedures to be in line with that memo so what does this mean for you you could be getting money back from the state before the end of the year but probably not in the next few months a spokesperson for stats said they've been focused on the annual tax billing process but now that it's nearly complete they'll be able to focus on identifying impacted homeowners and get them their refunds if you're one of them you should be getting a letter from sdat within the next couple of months outlining funds due and a refund by the end of the year if a homeowner is no longer at that address stat has obtained access to the mva's database and will attempt to notify you at your new address if they can't locate you then the funds will be transferred to the comptroller's lost property fund and can be obtained at a future date the bill goes back three years because that's the time limit a taxpayer would have to amend their return it was approved unanimously by the house of delegates and state senate the governor did not sign it however it still became law on june 1st and we'll be sure to update you as soon as we find out how many people may be eligible and when those refunds will start going out for wmar 2 news i'm mallory safasday and if you have a matter for mallory she wants to hear from you you can email her at mallory wmar.com or find her on social media she's all over facebook and twitter
