Secretary of State Mark Martin and his wife, Sharon, made a $100 payment Thursday toward homestead tax credits the couple improperly received.
From 2004 through 2013, the couple claimed $3,350 in homestead tax credits they shouldn't have gotten. The credits are available only on a family's primary residence, but the Martins claimed the credit on two homes -- one in Rogers and one in Prairie Grove.
Last month, the Martins paid the $2,100 they were required to pay under Arkansas Code Annotated 26-26-1119. That amount included $1,050 in penalties. There's a three-year statute of limitations on both the payments and the penalties.
But Martin, a Republican, has said he and his wife intend to pay back the entire amount that they improperly received, which would include tax credits from 2004 through 2010.
"My wife and I believe that as Christians, while not legally required, we should make arrangements to pay anything that we owe so that we might be above reproach," he wrote in an Aug. 18 email to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
Neither Mark nor Sharon Martin responded to messages sent Thursday.
Gloria Peterson, the Benton County collector, said Thursday that if the Martins want to pay back all the credits they received improperly, it would cost them another $2,200 after the $100 payment. Peterson said the $100 received Thursday would be applied toward the Martins' 2004 tax credits.
Mark Martin said last month in an email that he doesn't plan to pay any more penalties, and he isn't required to under the law. The tax credit for each year is $350, and a 100 percent fine can apply. Before 2007, the tax credit was $300 per year.
Peterson said the check she received Thursday was signed by "S. Martin." In the memo section was written "homestead exemption." Peterson said no letter accompanied the check, but Sharon Martin told her by telephone that she would be sending payments.
Sharon Martin is a candidate for mayor of Prairie Grove. She is running against Charles "Sonny" Hudson, who has been mayor since 2002.
The Martins have said they didn't know they were taking homestead tax credits on two homes until news stories surfaced last month.
Mark and Sharon Martin both signed a document for the Benton County assessor Jan. 15, 2001, stating that they owned a homestead at 18156 Posy Mountain Drive in Rogers and that it was their primary residence.
Sharon Martin alone signed a similar document for the Washington County assessor Oct. 27, 2003, pertaining to a house at 123 N. Pittman St. in Prairie Grove.
When that happened, the Martins should have notified the Benton County collector so the exemption could be removed in that county, said Peterson.
"The responsibility concerning homestead credits is up to the taxpayer," Peterson wrote in an email.
The Martins' two-story, 1,620-square-foot house in Rogers was built in 1996 and appraised in 2011 for $87,450, according to the Benton County assessor's office. The Martins have owned the land at the site since 1994.
The couple's 2,066-square-foot house in Prairie Grove is listed as one story and built in 1949, but Mark Martin said it's a two-story house and more than 100 years old. It has an estimated market value of $146,100, according to the Washington County assessor's office.
NW News on 09/19/2014