Monday, March 20, 2006

Kiser Claims D.C. Residence While Campaigning For Congress In Indianapolis

Seventh District Democratic Congressional candidate Kris Kiser is running for office in Indianapolis, where he claims he has been a resident for the past year according to an interview he gave to Indianapolis' GLBT newspaper, The Word. Property tax records for the District of Columbia, however, where he formerly worked as a lobbyist, show that he is claiming a homestead deduction on two condominiums he owns there.

According to publicly accessible property tax records for the District of Columbia, Kiser owns two condominiums at 1307 T Street, NW (Unit 4) and 1309 T Street, NW (Unit 2). They are currently valued at $745,790 and $764,460, respectively. The Homestead Status indicates that both properties are receiving the Homestead Deduction, which reduces the real property's assessed value by $60,000.

The homestead deduction in D.C. is limited to residential property. In order to qualify, the property must be occupied by the owner and contain no more than 5 dwelling units (including the unit occupied by the owner), and the property must be the principal residence of the owner. According to a statement from the D.C. Taxpayer Service Center, "If you are not domiciled in the District or the property is not your principal residence, you are obligated to inform the Office of Tax and Revenue."

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove found himself in a similar controversy last year when the Washington Post disclosed that he was claiming a homestead deduction on both his home in D.C. and a home in Texas where he is registered to vote. The D.C. government demanded that Rove repay the taxes he avoided paying by falsely claiming the homestead deduction. Rove agreed to repay the D.C. government $3,400 for the taxes he saved by claiming the credit.

Presumably, Kris Kiser has registered to vote in Indianapolis and is claiming his home here as his principal residence in order to qualify as a candidate for Congress in Indiana, in which case he is not eligible to claim the homestead deduction on his valuable residential property in D.C. It is unclear why he is able to claim the homestead deduction on two separate residential properties in D.C on T Street--perhaps they've been combined into a single unit.

Curiously, we reported last week that a person approached Kiser and his partner, Daryl Johnson, in a local gay bar, and the two told the person they were from Louisville. Oh what a tangled web we weave, when at first we practice to deceive.

Hat tip to the anonymous tipster for this note-worthy item.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

the property on Butler that Kiser claims is still in his grandparents name: the deed is from 1945 !

Gary R. Welsh said...

After AI's initial report, the DC records were updated and now show that Kiser is no longer claiming the homestead exemption for his D.C. residence.

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