Valuable exemption left off of some Gwinnett County tax bills

An exemption that significantly lowers property tax bills for many Gwinnett County homeowners was mistakenly omitted from some bills, which are being corrected, the tax commissioner’s office said late Wednesday.

In a news release, the tax commissioner’s office attributed the error to a property tax software contractor and said 0.1% of Gwinnett property owners were affected, a proportion that places the number of erroneous bills in the hundreds.

The incorrect bills were missing the “value offset exemption,” which freezes the assessed value of an owner-occupied home on Jan. 1 after the date of purchase. The freeze only applies to the county government portion of the tax bill and not to school or city taxes.

The exemption is especially beneficial to longtime homeowners, whose county government tax bills have remained flat in recent years even as property values skyrocketed. For example, the owner of a home assessed at $125,000 in 2002 and $325,000 this year would pay county government taxes as if the property was still assessed at $125,000.

The assessment freeze has saved many homeowners thousands of dollars in the past four years while home values spiked, according to sample tax bills Gwinnett County released earlier this year.

“Your requests have been heard, and I am working to ensure issues like this will not happen again,” Gwinnett County Tax Commissioner Denise Mitchell said in an open letter to affected taxpayers.

Mitchell’s office issued the news release hours after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution asked about reports that some tax bills were erroneous. Mitchell ordered an internal audit for all bills that determined a small proportion was affected, according to the release.

Her spokesperson did not answer questions seeking to clarify the exact number of erroneous bills or when the audit was conducted.

The spokesperson, Bobbi Simpson, said Thursday that letters had been mailed to affected taxpayers.

Corrected bills will also be sent and due 60 days later, the news release said. Property taxes are due Nov. 15 for all other Gwinnett taxpayers.

Mitchell’s office said Aumentum, the software vendor, was tasked with adjusting tax bills based on a new state law known as House Bill 581, which imposes assessment caps on local governments and school districts unless they opt out.