An audit of the Buckhead Community Improvement District’s tax collections found that they are largely on target, but that 25 properties that should be paying are not, to the tune of around $120,000 a year.
“Not a huge number, but it it’s still a number,” BCID staff member Tony Peters told board members at a Nov. 27 meeting, adding, “Two of you [property owners] are in this room, so we’ll talk later.”
The BICD is a self-taxing group of commercial properties. The BCID spends the money on improvements related to transportation, public safety and beautification in the neighborhood’s central business district. Its 2018 revenue was around $6 million.
The BCID will now check the numbers with Fulton County assessors. Peters said that unpaid taxes could be billed retroactively up to three years back.
The BCID spent $11,000 on the audit. One impetus for the review was concerns as to whether the commercial part of mixed-use projects were paying their share of the BCID tax. Peters said the audit used the new Hanover Buckhead Village at Roswell Road and Irby Avenue as an example and found it was paying appropriately, with its various residential, commercial and garage uses split into separate tax parcels. Others may not be so tidy, however.
Peters said the BCID also will track expiring tax abatements on local developments to make sure they begin paying a full share at the right time. There are at least 10 properties within the BCID area that are receiving such tax breaks, he said.