Property Tax Audit Automation

About the Program

Category: Financial Management (Best in Category)

Year: 2016

ABSTRACT OF THE PROGRAM Harris County is the third largest county in the United States with a population of over four million residents. On an annual basis, The Harris County Tax Office collects over $6 billion in property taxes. These taxes are collected from approximately 1.5 million tax accounts for over seventy different taxing jurisdictions. Annually, the Harris County Tax Office collects the taxes and distributes them to the various taxing entities (utilities, school districts, hospitals districts, etc.). Starting with the fiscal year 2015, Quarter 2 (June-August 2014), the Auditor’s Office developed an automated process to review 100% of property tax receipts for certain attributes and calculations. This analysis conducts a number of tests on property tax payments to check for: reconciliation between payments recorded on the tax system and various bank statements, duplicate payments, accurate assignment of penalty, interest and attorney fees and Timely deposits. Rather than reviewing a limited number of transactions, the Tax Audit Department is now able to review specific transactions for specific exceptions and attributes. This significantly increases audit coverage (up to 100%) and reduces the time of the engagement.