Two Florida counties uncovered over $16 million in new tax revenue from homestead exemptions by using the LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ Homestead Exemption Fraud Detection Solution, according to the company.
The solution leverages a combination of LexisNexis Risk Solutions public records databases with identity analytics technology and investigative capabilities from Tax Management Associations to help the Florida counties identify nearly 2,000 erroneous and fraudulent tax filings pertaining to Florida’s homestead property tax exemption.
In Brevard County and Duval Countyon, over 300,000 people were able to claim the homestead exemption on their 2018 tax returns. Brevard County discovered over 400 fraudulent accounts, and Duval County detected over 500 fraudulent accounts.
“Homestead exemption fraud is a real problem for many Florida counties, particularly when many residents erroneously claim a vacation property as their primary residence,” said Haywood Talcove, CEO, government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. “Brevard County and Duval County have joined a growing number of Florida counties that are using the Homestead Fraud Detection Solution to crack down on this challenge. They’re all using the solution to effectively save time and resources that would normally be required to track down and verify multiple properties and, in the process, have identified millions of dollars of new-found revenue.”