The Kootenai County Clerk's Office is researching mistakes with property tax reporting that stretch back to 2004, the clerk announced on Tuesday.

The mistakes were all on the county's side, said Clerk Cliff Hayes.

"We're trying to straighten out our end of it," said Hayes, elected this past November. "We're trying to figure out whether everyone has been paid properly, and we can't decide that until we're through looking at everything."

The clerk said he believes it was the Treasurer's Office that initially pointed out the mistake.

The issue concerns instances when county property owners applied for homeowners' exemptions on their property taxes, but didn't qualify because they actually resided elsewhere.

"Some property owners lie," Hayes said. "The state Tax Commission or the county Assessor's Office eventually catch this lie."

In those cases, homeowners are billed for past taxes and fines. The county is then required to distribute the collected taxes to taxing districts, and report the resulting market valuation decreases to the districts and the state.

It appears that none of the market valuation changes were reported to taxing districts or the Idaho State Tax Commission, Hayes said, which is legally required.

The error came to light two weeks ago, Hayes said.

"There's no crime here," Hayes said. "We're trying to figure out who's been paid and what properties they are."

So far, county auditors have only investigated about 75 percent of the cases, Hayes said.

It appears that all the collected taxes in those instances were properly distributed to taxing districts, he added.

The remaining cases are being reviewed, Hayes said.

"I have no reason to disbelieve the rest of the individual parcels haven't been paid, too, but we can't decide that until we finish," he said.

Hayes wasn't sure how many cases went unreported, but he estimated that they concerned a total of about $40,000 in property taxes.

Reporting the market valuation changes was the responsibility of former chief Deputy Clerk Sandy Martinson, Hayes said.

Martinson, now retired, has also recently been charged with grand theft for embezzling $139,000 from a county account over a 10-year period.

Hayes expects to finish reviewing all the cases by the end of the month. He then plans to contact each taxing district with a full report.

"Idaho code is very clear about my division's responsibilities. We intend to comply with the law and to our jobs thoroughly, accurately and transparently," said Hayes, former Post Falls Police chief. "If I find that it wasn't done before I got here, then I'm going to tell the truth about that."