Mar-A-Lago is listed as a private club on the county tax rolls. For taxes “We look at their memberships—the number of members—their annual membership dues, the expenses that it costs to run the facility, and then we trade a capitalization rate, which includes the tax rate for that jurisdiction.”
IOWs, a big tax break!
Valuation and worth are totally separate things.
Residential lots are taxed at the highest valuation.
Agricultural is a fraction of that. Club use even less. Common area in an HOA next to nothing.
A developer deeded an undeveloped lot to an HOA client of mine. For years, the Association paid several thousand in property taxes. I pointed out that the lot was designated as “Residential” by the county tax accessor instead of “CE”. After a quick tax hearing, the classification was changed to “CE” (common element) and the appraised value dropped from over $300,000 for that lot to $1.
Only the land use designation on the tax rolls changed. That’s it. Nothing else.
If the Association changed it back, the valuation would go back up to over $300,000. They would take the property tax hit but could then sell it for that or more on the open market.
The valuation may be $1 based on land use, but the worth is $300,000.
One acre lots in Palm Beach go for $100,000,000. Mara Lago has 17 acres plus improvements. It’s easily worth over $1 billion but because of its current land use designation, it is only valued at $28 million for tax purposes (completely legal, I might add. The Palm Beach Golf Club down the street from Mara Lago is only valued at $18M). Why? Because in its current iteration, Trump will not parcel it out and develop it as residential lots. A rezoning hearing to convert it back to residential and viola! Instantly valued back at nearly $2B for tax purposes.
This judge is a clown and the lying MSM are idiots. They are all intentionally conflating value and worth in a sick attempt to “get Trump.”
People in real estate know they are full of crap.