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Case Studies

Assuring property tax liabilities are minimized and properly managed requires a knowledge and understanding of much more than valuation.  The laws, practices and codes are as if not more important in simple valuation expertise.  Did you know that in many cases an asset’s taxable value can be reduced even if it is already below fair market value?  The following cases illustrate this:

Equity

The subject property was a 124-unit apartment complex assessed by the Clark County, Nevada Assessor’s Office with a total taxable value of $15,565,405.  The property transferred ownership within days of the valuation date at $10,400,000, which would have provided evidence to support a reduction in taxable value based on a “fair market value” approach to the purchase price.  However, understanding the taxable values established for other apartment properties in the tax district, we concluded that $10,400,000 was still not an equitable value.  As a result, we protested the assessment from an equity standpoint and compiled supporting data to strengthen our position.  We came to an agreement with the Assessor and were able to reduce the taxable value to $8,845,405 and save the client an additional $15,768.80 in tax liability over what would have been saved if appealed based on value.

Abatement

The subject was a partially-improved retail center located in Clark County, Nevada.  The taxable value of the property was lower than the purchase price, with the sale occurring approximately 12 months prior.  In addition, there were no recent sales transactions in the area that were below the taxable value.  As a result, there was no merit in challenging the assessment based on value.  However, after reviewing the Appraisal and Tax Bill records, we determined the parcel was a “new parcel” for the prior tax year, having been subdivided from the adjacent larger parcel.  The Assessor’s Office treated the parcel as “new land,” which under the statute allowed it to creating a new base year value for the parcel, rather than indexing the assessment from the prior abated amount.  We appealed the determination arguing that the parcel should have been considered a “remainder parcel” pursuant to the statute and the prior year’s abatement carried forward.  We prevailed in the matter saving the taxpayer $28,769 in tax liability.

Correction of Facts

The subject property was a pharmaceutical R & D campus located in San Diego County, California.  The property’s taxable value was less than what we determined the current “fair market value” to be.  However, after a complete audit of the both the secured and unsecured assessments we conclude that the company was being double assessed for some of the improvements made to the campus.  We appealed the assessment and had many of the improvements removed from the secured roll which saved the client $19,415 in tax liability.

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