CHARLESTON -- Kanawha County officials have taken Al Summers to court to force him to pay more than $400,000 for allegedly underreporting the value of the Greenbrooke Building.
County officials have been taxing the property base on a value of about $1.5 million for years, but recently Summers sold the building to the state for $10.5 million, according to a complaint filed Nov. 17 in Kanawha Circuit Court.
County officials claim Summers knew the property was worth more than $1.5 million and provided them with incomplete and false information about the property's true value.
In the complaint, assistant prosecutor Rob Schulenberg and attorney Herschel Rose III claim Summers failed to provide adequate tax statements on the Greenbrooke property since at least 2003.
The Greenbrooke property was appraised at $1,577,600 in 2004 and 2005, $1,595,200 in 2006 and $1,598,800 in 2007 and 2008. But, county tax officials appraised the Greenbrooke property at $9,653,300 in 2009, according to the suit.
County officials want Summers to pay a penalty on the difference between the $9.65 million appraisal and the previous five appraisals The penalty comes to $403,185.
County tax officials can charge errant taxpayers a penalty of 1 percent of the difference between property's true value and its incorrectly appraised value on the tax books, according to state law. Counties can also charge the penalty for up to five previous tax years.
The case has been assigned to Circuit Judge Paul Zakaib Jr.
Kanawha officials take man to court for underreporting building value
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