Posted on 10/08/24
| News Source: FOX45
The 7News I-Team has obtained the final bill for U.S. Senate candidate Angela Alsobrooks's unpaid property taxes on a property she used to own in the District.According to the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue Alsobrooks owes $47,580.56.
On September 22, D.C.'s Real Property Tax Administration learned about the potential discrepancy based on media reports.
Alsobrooks was deeded the former home of her grandparents in 2003. She said she never lived at the property.
"There is no way for the Office of Tax and Revenue to know if a property owner actually lives in the property. By law, a property owner is required to alert OTR within 30 days of their change in status if they are no longer domiciled at the property," said Brianna Jordan with the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue under the Office of the Chief Financial Officer.
Alsobrooks' property received two tax deductions -- a homestead exemption and a senior disability deduction.
"This was a grandmother I loved dearly, and she needed to leave her home. She moved in with my parents. I took over the home and paid the mortgage until I sold the house in 2018, and was never notified, just didn't know that she had taken a senior tax credit many years before," Alsobrooks said last month. "The bills weren't sent to me. They were actually sent to my grandmother. I was just paying through the mortgage company, but the bills in D.C. weren't sent to me. They were in someone else's name, so I didn't know because they weren't sent to me."
According to the District, a property owner is obligated to inform the Office of Tax and Revenue if a property becomes ineligible for any tax deductions.The D.C. Tax Office said it sends out two property tax bills a year.The bill for Alsobrooks' home remained in her grandparent's name until she sold it in 2018 even though she was required to notify the district within 30 days when she no longer qualified for the exemptions.This means 26 property tax bills were mailed to her D.C. property over 13 years but she claims she never saw a bill.
7News has reached out to the Alsobrooks campaign and received a text from a senior adviser for the Alsobrooks For Senate campaign Connor Lounsbury:
"As soon as Angela was made aware of these tax credits, she took immediate action.She has now received the bill from D.C. and is working to pay it back in full.But that won't stop Larry Hogan and his Republican billionaires from continuing their false attacks."
Last week her campaign issued this statement after 7News spoke with the campaign and pointed out that, according to Alsobrooks property tax records, she at the time owed $18,000 in unpaid taxes that did not include any penalty or interest.
“Angela Alsobrooks never applied for these exemptions. When she was made aware of them, she immediately sought to correct them. She has asked the District to compute the taxes that would have been due, and the District has determined that the tax difference is $18,000 over a period of 15 years. Whether the District will impose further fees and penalties, which could total $41,000, has not yet been determined," said Lounsbury.