Back to hunkering down again
Letter: Yup, Diana Bertsch’s quote in the Wednesday’s paper concerning the upcoming Ironman just about says it all “That week will be packed.” Back to hunkering down again. Great.
R. Brogan
Kailua-Kona
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Hawaii County property tax law knowingly overcharges new taxpayers
In 2021, I bought a home in Kailua-Kona after retirement. Unfortunately, the home I purchased had been used by the previous owners for rental income so their property taxes were much higher than a typical “owner occupied” homeowner. For some completely unfair reason, I was required by the Hawaii County Property Tax Office to pay my property taxes at the much higher rate based on the amount the previous owners had been paying rather than allowing my multiple exemptions, which would have saved me thousands of dollars on my property tax bill.
I spoke with the Tax Office and they told me there was nothing I could do about it. I attempted to file an appeal with the Tax Office which the they refused to accept since it was past the appeal deadline date. I spoke with the Property Tax administrator multiple times who also stated that there was nothing I could do about it. She told me that they have been aware of this problem for years and know that the law needs to be changed but the Tax Office doesn’t make the law so there’s nothing they can do about it. The problem is that the annual county property assessment notices are mailed out to homeowners in March and the deadline to file assessment appeals is in April so since I didn’t purchase my property until July 2021 (after the appeals deadline) then I was forced to pay the previous owner’s much higher rental property tax rate for the entire first year of my property taxes.
Is this what Hawaii County considers fairness? Mayor Mitch Roth and council members, please check with your Property Tax administrator and please revise the law to correct this long-standing and well known unfairness in the Real Property Tax ordinance.
Reed Larsen
Kailua-Kona
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