Mar 18, 2009 11:21 am US/Eastern
CBS4 I-Team: To Catch a Cheat
FORT LAUDERDALE (CBS4) ―
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Under Florida law, if you own property you can claim only one homestead exemption.
CBS
Farah Barton is an investigator with the Broward County Property Appraisers office and is in the business of trying to "catch a cheat." In a CBS4 I-Team Investigation, Michele Gillen explains how people are out there cheating on their property taxes.
Barton said, "These two homeowners showed up on the duplicate social security number list. This is a husband and wife." Barton winces as she examines the paperwork she carries with her on the streets of South Florida on a mission to find folks who are property tax cheats.
While she pounds the pavement of even the swankiest neighborhoods, her boss, Ron Cacciatore is on a multi-billion-dollar electronic paper chase to find our neighbors who he says are ripping off Florida taxpayers.
Is he ever shocked at who is trying to scam us? "All the time" Cacciatorie tells Chief I-Team Investigator Michele Gillen.
Cacciatore leads what is considered one of the most aggressive homestead fraud investigation units in the county based in the Broward County Property Appraisers Office.
He and his team are dogged in searching for tax cheats. A search that often takes them across the country and county lines. In his Fort Lauderdale office, he scans his computer screen with Gillen by his side.
"This is the duplicate social security list. You see that social security is being used on a homesteaded residence in Broward county on a homesteaded property and also in Dade County on a homesteaded residence. It raises a flag", Cacciatore explains to Gillen that some property cheats file homestead exemptions both side of the county border.
"They don't care. There is no honor " the former law enforcement officer declares. At issue - thousands of folks who are not paying their fair share of property taxes, claiming homestead exemption on houses they do not live in. Capping the assessed value of their homes at three percent and taking deductions that cheat our tax base out of millions.
Under Florida law, if you own property you can claim only one homestead exemption. And it MUST be on your primary residence…in other words….where you actually live.
The dollars the cheaters are NOT paying are dollars that are supposed to be paying for our police, our schools, our fire departments. And who are the cheats? According to Cacciatore,"Everybody, young, old, professionals. Judges, Law enforcement officers, attorneys, it covers the whole gamet."
The CBS4 I-Team investigation finds that the problem of homestead tax cheats isn't only with the volume of your neighbors willing to do it but with the very system set up to detect the crime. For example, while the state of Florida has the ability to track the premise time and location that a lotto winner buys his tickets, there is no system in place to find out if someone is collecting a homestead exemption in multiple counties. And some are.
Chris Mazella is Director of the Miami-Dade Inspector General Office and has helped prosecute a plethora of property fraud cases in Miami Dade.
"It's all a scam." Mazella says at the bottom of it all is one common denominator. "I think it is greed," he explained to Gillen. He believes all taxpayers should be outraged over it. "Because it affects your tax dollars. The less people pay through deceit and dishonesty the more you are going to have to pay to make up that loss."
Pedro Garcia is the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser, the first-ever elected.
Having taken office in January, Garcia says going after tax cheats will be his priority - that his office last year filed nearly $4-million in liens against property cheats.
He says his team of 6 investigators comb through boxes of returned mail, comparing them with utility bills and social security numbers. "We are going after them," he says. But he agrees a better statewide system should be developed.
Gillen asked him, "Does it make any sense that there is not one place so that you could see if someone has applied in multiple counties?" "You are right," Garcia responded. "And I hope they can create something that we can check on that. And we can cooperate together. This is something we need to do together."
Meanwhile investigators in both counties are poised to collect. If they end up knocking on your door what might happen? Cacciatore puts it this way. "Well I guess you can say it's like worse than the mob. 50% you have to pay the back tax. 50% penalty and 15% interest. The average back tax is $20, 30, 40 thousand dollars."
And what if you can't pay? " We lien your home."
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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