Opinion ID: 1148392
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: can a political candidate revoke his application for homestead exemption and the effect thereof on his domicile by repaying the amount credited under the exemption?

Text: It is undisputed that as soon as Jack Gadd understood that his filing for homestead exemption had jeopardized his chances of running for the legislature in Benton County, he went immediately to the Oxford City Hall and Lafayette County tax assessor and repaid the amounts credited to him under the homestead exemption. Gadd argues that since MCA § 27-33-41(k) (Supp. 1987) gives the State Tax Commission a period of a year in which to disallow an application for a homestead exemption, a taxpayer ought to be able to revoke his application during the same period. No authority is cited for this. It must be remembered that Gadd did not refund his credit until after he had received it; his case would be much stronger if he had rescinded his application before receiving the benefit of it. We found no case on this issue, but it seems that sound considerations of policy support the rejection of Gadd's argument. If taxpayers were allowed to do what Gadd proposes, very undesirable consequences could ensue. For example, a debtor could foil his creditors by designating certain property as his homestead, thereby preventing the creditors from levying on it, and then refund his credit and change his homestead as soon as he thought the coast was clear. This would be an open invitation to chicanery and deceit. For the foregoing reasons, the special judge's decree must be affirmed. Jack Gadd is de-certified as the Democratic nominee for State Representative, District 13. Andy Morris is hereby declared the lawfully elected representative for that district. AFFIRMED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur. HAWKINS and DAN M. LEE, P.JJ., and GRIFFIN, J., dissent.