Who is Louis Wilen? Maryland man wins 3-year battle with state to get homeowners $11M refund after tax error
Thousands of homeowners in Maryland are about to get a huge windfall, thanks to the persistent efforts of one former computer programmer. Loius Wilen discovered that in 2016, the State Department of Assessments and Taxation (SDAT) was improperly deducting other tax credits from the Homeowners Tax Credit (HTC).
Since 2017, he has been attempting to get the issue resolved, by contacting various state authorities and even his state representative, but to no avail. However, he kept at it and has finally won the battle. State lawmakers have passed a bill to provide refunds amounting to $11M, and now all it needs is the signature of Maryland Governor Larry Hogan. Wilen's efforts have made him something of a celebrity in Olney, where he lives. This is the story of Wilen, and how he got the state to pay its dues.
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Who is Louis Wilen?
A Maryland native, Wilen is a retired IT specialist. According to his LinkedIn profile, he graduated from Frostberg State University in 1978 with a degree in business and computer science. His first job was as a Systems Software Developer at Data General. After four years, he left for Northern Telecom. Wilen spent just six months at the company as a software developer before moving to Codex Corporation in 1982. Wilen spent six years at the Dallas office as a software specialist. In 1989, he moved back to Maryland and joined IBM as a senior IT specialist. He remained in that role till his retirement in 2013.
The retired father of three now lives in Olney, where he is a well-known community advocate. In 2010, Wilen ran for a seat on the Montgomery County Board of Education. As of 2020, he was also a member of the Board of the Cherrywood Homeowners Association, a delegate to the Greater Olney Civic Association and a member of the Montgomery County Civic Federation Executive Committee.
Apart from spotting the tax error, Wilen has brought many other issues in his community to the attention of the media. In January 2020, he spoke to ABC's 7 News about non-functional streetlights in the community. "I don’t really want to make this my life’s work, dealing with light outages and contacting the Public Service Commission," he said. In October, he again contacted the outlet after failed attempts to remove four tree stumps. "During the pandemic, the tree stumps are not the biggest problem the county has. I'll admit that. But, this is not a new problem. It's been happening. It's been going on even during the time when the county was in great financial shape," he said at the time. Reportedly, the state has a backlog of 10,669 tree stumps to be removed, and has been unable to do so.
Wilen's fight for refunds
In 2016, Wilen first uncovered the fact that the SDAT was miscalculating taxes. He traced the issue back to 2005. "I did put a lot of work into it," Wilen told Fox 5. "I didn’t anticipate putting so much work into it, but it just kept building." Homeowners across the state had been shorted for years, but Montgomery County was among the worst-affected. Wilen found that the County was frauded of $4.4M alone.
Wilen created a program to calculate the taxes homeowners under the HTC owed and found that it did not add up to what they were paying. He eventually found that the SDAT was deducting other tax credits, resulting in people not getting what they were supposed to get. He tipped the SDAT and state auditors, but in vain. In 2017, he approached his Delegate Al Carr, who introduced a bill. But the bill never got out of committee. Nonetheless, Wilen continued to pressure various state departments and lawmakers, leading to the bill being reintroduced in 2020.
It has now passed the legislature, and if signed by Governor Hogan it could see people get back their money by the end of the year. Years of persistence have managed to pay off for Wilen and thousands of Maryland homeowners as well. WMAR 2 reported that around 5,388 could be in line for refunds in Montgomery County alone.