Driggs nails Davis over homestead tax break

Senate candidate Rich Davis applied for a homestead tax deduction on a property in Washington D.C. that he no longer uses as a primary residence, and one of his opponents has pounced on the mistake.

Rep. Adam Driggs, who is in a three-way primary race for the Senate, has distributed a campaign flyer by mail saying that Davis acted unethically.

“I think it’s a big problem for him. You can’t have two primary residences. So he either lives in Washington, D.C. and is not eligible to hold office in Arizona, or he lives in Arizona and has not complied with the tax laws (in Washington),” Driggs said. “This is a person who hasn’t been very forthright in divulging his records.”

The mailer claims that Davis was seeking a homestead tax credit on a $510,000 residential property in the nation’s capital. In order to get the tax deduction, a person must own and occupy the residential property as a primary residence.

Davis’ political consultant, Constantin Querard, said the claim for a homestead deduction was made in error and has been corrected.

Querard said the D.C. home was Davis’ residence when Davis worked for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Davis has already called his accountant about the matter, Querard said.

“Nobody had ever updated it after they moved from D.C. back to Arizona. The exemption was just left on there,” he said. “The deduction was claimed in error. The error has been corrected.”

A website that provides information on taxes in the District of Columbia shows that an owner is obligated to inform the Office of Tax and Revenue when the owner is no longer domiciled in D.C. or when the property is no longer the owner’s principal place of residence.