Dozens double billed for property taxes

TAMPA - Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden says as many as 195 Hillsborough taxpayers were double billed for their property taxes.

Belden said it was a computer error by a county vendor, and affected only people who paid their taxes online with the E-check function on Monday, November 1st.

Jo McGuire of Tampa was one of the customers who was double billed. She checked her bank account Tuesday morning and found that $3,400 was taken out. $1700 was correctly taken for her two Hillsborough properties. But the same amount was also taken out for Charlotte County.

"I don't own property in Charlotte County," McGuire said.

Larry Tong, a spokeman for RT Lawrence, the county vendor that runs the on-line E-check feature, says the problem was caused by a processing problem, and wasn't the fault of the Hillsborough Tax Collector.

"RT Lawrence is taking full responsibility for any issue with a customer affected by this double billing," Belden said.

Tong says the company is in the process of crediting the money back to all accounts affected. He says his company will pay any overdraft fees or other penalties taxpayers incur.