That's not how the real property tax system works in New York. The local tax assessor, who is a public officer, determines the value of the real property for tax purposes in the first instance. The owner of the real property has no say in this initial determination. Once the assessment rolls for the municipality are released, the owner can file a tax grievance alleging that the properties are over-assessed. The grievance is then determined by the Board of Assessment Review. In most cases, the initial assessment is affirmed. The owner then has a very short time to commence a legal action challenging the assessment in the court system. The owner has the burden of proof and must submit a certified appraisal to the court from a qualified independent appraiser. For commercial properties, the appraisal report will include three methods of determining value: Comparative sales of similar properties; the cost of reconstructing the improvement on the property less depreciation, and the capitated income the that property generates based upon the present value of a future stream of income. The burden then shifts to the taxing authority, who must also submit a certified appraisal using the three methods of valuation.
Other than bribery, the only way for a landowner to cheat the system is to provide false information to the appraiser with respect to the income that the real property generates, but that is highly unlikely given the independence of the appraiser and the red flags that would go up if the assessed value based on capitalized income is significantly different than the assessed value based on comparative sales and reproduction costs. To cheat on his real property taxes, Trump would have to fool the assessor, board of assessment review, two independent appraisers, and the trial judge.
Thank you for the explanation. I agree from what you said that this is probably not what any suit would be. The only other thing would be using a different value on loan applications. But that would be subject to the banks appraiser agreeing to the value Trump assigned to any property he wanted to use as collateral.
This all leads me to believe the NY AG is not going to be the source of any surprise, at least in this area.