Hutchinson improperly took tax credit on 2 homes

Hutchinson improperly took tax credit on 2 homes

The Associated Press

LITTLE ROCK -- Republican gubernatorial nominee Asa Hutchinson improperly took Arkansas' homestead tax credit during four tax years before making a partial repayment shortly before he announced his campaign for governor, according to an official with the Pulaski County assessor's office.

Joe Thompson, the office's chief assessment administrator, said Hutchinson claimed the $350 per year credit for homes in Benton and Pulaski counties in the tax years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

State law allows the credit on only one home.

Thompson said Hutchinson repaid the credit for 2009-11 and offered to repay for 2008, but he said state law only allows repayments under a three-year statute of limitations.

Hutchinson initially told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that the credit was assigned to him without his knowledge, then later said he was surprised to learn that he filled out the credit application after being sent a copy of the application he had signed, dated March 2, 2007.

Brad Howard, a spokesman for Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mike Ross, issued a statement Sunday saying that Hutchinson is out of touch with Arkansas families.

"Congressman Hutchinson is too disconnected to fight for working families in Arkansas who are expected to pay their taxes properly and pay fines when they don't," Howard said.

Thompson said he didn't fine Hutchinson because he didn't think Hutchinson intentionally claimed the tax credits on the two homes.

"That could have easily been an oversight," Thompson said.

Thompson said he levies the fine only if he believes the property owner intentionally took two homestead credits.

Hutchinson said he discovered in 2012 that he was getting the tax credit in Pulaski County. "(I) discovered it myself," he said, although he said he wasn't exactly sure how he discovered it, but said he could have learned about it when he refinanced the purchase of a Pulaski County condominium and when he paid the taxes on it.

The condominium was purchased through a mortgage company, and the taxes had been paid through the mortgage company, he said.

"I immediately went down and made the correction," he said. He paid $1,050 to Pulaski County on Oct. 11, 2012, according to records in the Pulaski County treasurer's office.

Hutchinson announced on Jan. 4, 2013 his intention to run for governor.

He provided a copy of a letter dated June 30, 2007, to Bob Adkins, chief executive officer of American Abstract & Title of Little Rock, whose office handled the closing on Hutchinson's Pulaski County condominium.

He said the letter illustrates that he didn't intend to claim the credit in Pulaski County. In it, he wrote that "we cannot claim that for 2006 since we did not live at that location and we had a principal residence elsewhere."

Hutchinson had a homestead credit on a home in Bella Vista from 2006-10 and a credit on a home in Rogers since then, according to the Benton County assessor's office.

Hutchinson faces Ross, libertarian candidate Frank Gilbert and Green Party nominee Joshua Drake in the November election.