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Audit Objective

Determine whether the Town Assessor is properly administering select real property tax exemptions.

Key Findings

• All 23 properties tested with agricultural exemptions totaling $6.2 million lacked completed original applications and/or supporting documentation.
• These properties had annual agricultural exemption renewals but lacked periodic verification of reported farm income.
• Three veteran exemptions had an incorrect ownership or residential percentage used in calculating the exemption.

Key Recommendations

• Ensure all applications are complete and supporting documentation is provided before granting exemptions.
• Annually verify income to support agricultural exemptions.
• Ensure all exemptions are properly calculated.

Town officials generally agreed with our recommendations and indicated they planned to initiate corrective action. Appendix C includes our comments on the Town’s response.