DC still sorting out tax credits on Blunt's Georgetown mansion

Per a new story in Roll Call, I see that District of Columbia officials are still trying to sort out the ongoing problems with the tax breaks applied to the $1.6 million mansion belonging to Roy Blunt and Abigail Perlman Blunt. As first reported by the KC Star -- and subsequently examined by Fired Up! -- Blunt and Perlman have improperly received more than $8,100 in property tax breaks meant for District residents. 

A spokeswoman for the D.C. tax office said Friday the home’s status continues to be reviewed. In response to an earlier inquiry about the review, spokeswoman Natalie Wilson said: “Due to the complexity of the case, we are reviewing all documents and filings before a decision is made.”

Blunt’s office has characterized the tax status as an error on the part of District officials.

“The Blunts never requested this exemption and asked the D.C. government to correct the error,” said spokesman Nick Simpson. “When they discovered this credit was still being applied to their home, they again asked for its correction. Their request has been re-sent as recent as last week.”

In the meantime, D.C. tax assessment records indicate the home continues to receive the benefit, and is taxed at $1.55 million, slightly below its full assessment value.

This latest story raises at least three pertinent issues.

"The Blunts never requested this exemption"
The Blunt spokesperson either misunderstands how the tax credit works, or is trying to confuse matters. Abigail Perlman owned the property before she married Roy Blunt, and lived in the Georgetown home.  She worked in DC as a lobbyist and was DC resident -- and was entitled to the deduction.  No problems there.

The problem came when Roy Blunt married Abigail Perlman in 2003, and when Perlman chose to become a Missouri resident in 2004. At that point, a simple one-page form should have been filed, which would have addressed the problem. But it wasn't, and the Blunts continued to receive the tax breaks. 

“When they discovered this credit was still being applied to their home, they again asked for its correction."
The spokesman says, "when they discovered this credit was still being applied to their home, they again asked for its correction."  The Blunt's "discovered" the problem in the press last month, but should have "discovered" the tax break every time they looked at a tax bill since 2004. Blunt says now that he personally asked a DC Councilman for help in 2004 (must be nice, right?), but that's either inaccurate or didn't fix the problem.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt about the 2004 request, why did it take five years and an embarrassing press story for there to be a little follow-up?

The no tax breaks in "prior tax year" claim
Finally, the Blunt campaign claims to have documents dated March 23 showing that they didn't get the illegal breaks last year. 

Tax records dated March 23 also show the Georgetown home was not receiving the homestead benefit in the prior tax year. Those records were provided by Blunt’s office in April and are not publicly available because the District’s online tax records update at the start of the tax year, April 1. The city’s public database shows only the current tax status, which on Friday indicated the home continued to receive the benefit.

However, documents sent the DC government before March 23 and after March 23 show that they were receiving the tax breaks in 2008 -- to the tune of $1,822.34.

You can download a PDF of records provided by the DC government here.

And here's a scanned version of the chart provided by the DC Office of Tax and Revenue detailing all of the tax credits and benefits:

If I'm missing something or misreading the documents, please let me know.