Each year since 2014, Jupiter Golf Club, LLC, which is owned by The Trump Organization, has sued to try to lower the assessment for a property that has been valued at $18 million by Palm Beach County. The organization has succeeded in getting tax liabilities reduced for many of its 12 U.S. club properties.
In a lawsuit filed on July 13 against Palm Beach County, Fla., lawyers for The Trump Organization argued that Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, Fla. is worth far less than the county’s $18.4 million assessment, CBS Miami reported.
Jupiter Golf Club, LLC, which is owned by The Trump Organization, has sued each year since 2014 over the amount of taxes it’s required to pay for the property, but so far hasn’t been successful at getting the value lowered, CNN Money reported.
The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser says the property has a value of more than $18 million, but the Trump business said in its 2014 lawsuit that the property wasn’t worth more than $5 million. The most recent suit doesn’t offer a value, but it does dispute the assessor’s figure, CNN Money reported.
The tax dispute by The Trump Organization, however, stands in direct contrast with what President Donald Trump himself claimed the property was worth in financial disclosure records. The President has repeatedly said that the Jupiter property has a value of over $50 million, including in his most recent disclosures from 2017.
The effect of getting the value of the property value lowered would mean the Trump business would save about $260,000 in taxes, CNN Money reported.
Public records show that President Trump has fought the tax assessments on all 12 of his U.S. golf courses, except the one in Bedminster, N.J., where he gets a farmland tax break for having goats on the property, CBS Miami reported.
The Trump Organization is also suing the small town of Ossining, N.Y., with a population of 40,000, to lower taxes on the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, N.Y., CBS Miami reported. Touting a 101-ft waterfall at the 13th hole, the organization has claimed it’s the most expensive golf hole ever constructed.
In campaign filings, President Trump said the Westchester course is worth more than $50 million. But in 2015, his attorneys argued the course was worth only $1.35 million.
The tax difference between those two values is about $425,000 a year, CBS Miami reported.
Trump Organization lawyers are also contesting the assessment of Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif. south of Los Angeles.
Public tax documents obtained by CNN show that in 2007, the course was worth $67 million. Year after year, however, The Trump Organization has filed hundreds of appeals to drop the value of the golf course by tens of millions of dollars. All of those appeals have dropped the value to $27.7 million, down $40 million in nine years.
The Trump Organzation has also been able to lower the value of Trump National Golf Club, in Charlotte, N.C., CNN Money reported. When the property was purchased, the course was valued at $24 million, but a challenge got it lowered to $7.9 million.
Trump’s businesses have also been able to slash millions off the value of clubs in Hudson Valley, N.Y., Washington, D.C., and Miami, CNN Money reported.
The Trump Organization recently lost a suit involving former members from its Jupiter, Fla., club, and was ordered to pay a $5.7 million class-action settlement those who sued to recoup their deposits and dues after being barred from the club while waiting for their resignations to be processed (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2017/02/trump-national-gc-jupiter-fla-owes-5-8m-lawsuit/).
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