Some Florida communities have seen a significant increase in their tax rolls by rooting out fraudulent homestead exemption claims. But Leon County Property Appraiser Akin Akinyemi says he doesn’t think a local fraud audit is needed.
“I honesty cannot foresee us doing that. I could be wrong. If my staff showed me data that shows there’s an increase in what we’ve seen and they don’t have the man power to chase it then maybe we would do it, but I don’t see that right now,” Akinyemi says.
Home stead exemptions have come under a microscope lately as a proposed increase in the tax break heads to the ballot for a referendum and local governments consider the financial impacts the change could have.
