City officials say Philadelphia may have lost over $1 million in misapplied homeowner tax breaks.
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports that Philadelphia's Office of Inspector General found in a report released Wednesday that the Revenue Department wrongly gave discounts to 558 properties through the homestead exemption program.
The error totaled over $600,000.
The exemption program was put in place to give relief to homeowners after property taxes rose from the Actual Value Initiative program. The Inspector General's report found that houses that did not serve as primary residences were being counted in the program.
The report estimated that the city potentially lost $1.6 million with a 2 percent error rate. Officials from the Revenue Department say they started an independent investigation and began recovering the lost revenue.
