A new report from the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlights big local tax breaks Derrick Anderson, Republican U.S. House nominee for the 7th District, has received on the house he bought in Fairfax County three years ago. Anderson has continued to deny that he lives outside the 7th District, pointing to the townhouse in Spotsylvania he rents as his primary residence, but in order to receive these tax breaks in Fairfax, “it has to be his primary place of residence,” one Fairfax official says.

So, is Derrick Anderson lying to voters about primarily living in Spotsylvania, or is he lying on tax documents by listing his Fairfax home as his primary residence?

• Yet it is Anderson who continues to face questions about whether he lives in the district he wants to represent, or simply rents in the district while owning a house in Fairfax with an Alexandria mailing address. 

• It was a hot issue in the Republican primary that Anderson won on June 18 in a political proxy battle between Republican leaders in the House who supported him and members of the House Freedom Caucus who backed Cameron Hamilton, runner-up in the five-way race.

• Hamilton alleged that Anderson had bought the house with a Veterans Administration loan as his primary residence, but Anderson still went on to win the primary by 8 percentage points.

• Now, a Democratic-aligned political action committee, American Bridge, is resurrecting the issue with a new wrinkle: Anderson has received big local tax breaks from Fairfax in the past two years on the house he bought three years ago, relying on a state tax exemption for military veterans with a 100% service-connected disability.

• The exemption lowered his property tax liability from $9,680 in 2022 to $1,503 last year, according to tax records that American Bridge received under a Freedom of Information Act request and shared with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This year, his tax liability on the house plummeted to $555.

• The question is whether he’s supposed to live there to receive the exemption.

• “It has to be the primary place of residence,” said Tim Tangen, manager of tax relief for Fairfax County.

• Anderson has consistently denied that he lives outside the district. He bought the house while working as a clerk for a federal judge after graduating from Georgetown University Law School, but he said he lives in a rental townhouse in Spotsylvania, just south of Fredericksburg.