Tax Leaders Say Result of Mistake
EL PASO--- Looking at his tax bill, all George Atkins could do was shake his head.
"It is just very difficult and strenuous to correct this," he said.
Last spring, he saw something on his appraisal notice that got his attention.
He was being charged $600 more for his school taxes than last year.
So, he went straight to the Central Appraisal District Office and talked with a rep.
"She says, 'We've caught the error, and it's being corrected as we speak. But when you get your tax bill in the fall, it'll all be okay.'.... It was not."
In fact, nothing had changed.
He got a bill for $2,400; $600 more than he owed.
That's when he lost his patience.
"When I drove down there, I was so distraught that I almost had two accidents going down there just to try to get this resolved," he said.
So we gave it a shot.
NewsChannel 9 sat down with the man who could answer the questions.
Looks like the problem has to do with a tax exemption on his property.
"The tax ceiling that we had calculated for him when he turned 65 didn't roll over into this year. So the bill that was sent out had an error in it. We've since fixed it, and he should be getting a new bill tomorrow or the day after," said City Tax Assessor Juan Sandoval.
Then we asked Sandoval if a similar mistake could show up on "other" tax statements.
"With 370,000 accounts, we check only a small sample before we send out the bills. We can't check 370,000 accounts, and so we would not have caught it," he said.
A Central Appraisal District spokewoman said the office is looking to see if others are affected, especially those in the Ysleta Independent School District area, and those who've recently applied for a property tax exemption.
Meanwhile, Atkins says taxpayers should check their bills...
"....and if you see something that really jumps out at you in a large amount, go item-by-item to see where the problem is," he said.
Especially, before you put the check in the mail.
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