Upped value of Mar-a-Lago, other Palm Beach County property boosts Trump's tax bills

Former President Donald Trump’s famous Mar-a-Lago Club has been valued at $37 million in the just-finalized Palm Beach County property-tax rolls for 2023. That’s 19% more than the value assigned to it a year ago.

But the figure is far less than what many real estate observers say the 17.5-acre ocean-to-lake property would actually be worth if it were ever sold without its existing legal encumbrances.

Tax bills were scheduled this week to be mailed to every county taxpayer — including Trump and his representatives — to meet a state-mandated deadline of Nov. 1.

The latest bills for the 10 Trump-controlled taxable properties in the county hit a grand total of $1.83 million, tax records show.

The value of Mar-a-Lago lately has been hotly contested, thanks to a civil court case playing out in New York, where a judge has said Trump consistently misled banks, insurance companies and other entities by vastly overvaluing his properties, including his private club in Palm Beach.

Judge Arthur Engoron has based his valuation of the club on the county property appraiser’s valuations going back several years, from $18 million in 2011 to $27.6 million in 2021.

Trump, on the other hand, has variously claimed Mar-a-Lago is worth a minimum of $420 million and maybe as much as $1.5 billion.

One seasoned real estate agent in Palm Beach has told the Palm Beach Daily News the club would likely fetch at least $450 million if it could be sold.

“And that's a conservative estimate,” said the agent, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

VALUING MAR-A-LAGO: How much is Trump’s Mar-a-Lago actually worth? It depends on who you’re asking

But the much-lower “total market value” assigned to the club in the latest tax rolls is on par with the way that county property appraisers have traditionally valued the club for tax purposes, officials there say.

The appraisers use a standard formula called the “income approach,” a process dictated by longstanding deed restrictions that prevent Mar-a-Lago from being redeveloped or used for any purpose other than a private club, the office’s Chief Appraiser Cecil Jackson told the Palm Beach Daily News.

“You can’t compare apples to oranges,” Jackson said. “We look at ‘like’ properties. That’s why we use the same (formula) for the eight other private clubs in the county.”

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In all, Trump’s taxable properties in the county — including Mar-a-Lago, three adjacent houses and parts of his two golf clubs — have an overall market value of $123.81 million, according to an analysis of tax-roll data by the Palm Beach Daily News.

Overall, the former president’s countywide properties’ market value rose about 12.6%, year over year, from $109.98 million in 2022, the Daily News found in a review of the tax rolls.

Trump’s latest tax bills for his county properties also are up in the latest rolls, rising about 7.5%. Last year, the same tax bills rose 13% over the previous year.

How Palm Beach County determines Mar-a-Lago’s value

Using the income approach, analysts in county Property Appraiser Dorothy Jacks’ office arrive at Mar-a-Lago’s value by estimating the club’s revenue and expenses and determining its net operating income based on confidential information the club provides.

“The income approach is obviously based on the income a property produces minus the expenses, which would give you a net operating income. And then we could ‘capitalize’ that (net income) to create a net value, using a capitalized rate,” Jackson, the office's chief appraiser, explained.

In the latest tax rolls, Mar-a-Lago generated a property tax obligation of $599,234, based on its “taxable value” of $33.34 million. The bill is only slightly less than an estimate of $602,834 released by the property appraiser’s office in August.

The new bill for the club includes taxes levied by several taxing authorities plus an assessment to help pay for the Town of Palm Beach's ongoing project to bury utility lines, as well as fees charged by solid waste authorities.

The new tax bills were set based on values assigned to properties on Jan. 1 of this year.

Questions about Mar-a-Lago’s value made headlines after Judge Engoron, who serves in the New York Supreme Court's 1st Judicial District, ruled in late September that Trump had inflated the club’s value by 2,300%, based on the judge’s analysis of records kept by Palm Beach County’s property appraiser’s office.

Engoron is presiding over the penalty phase of a fraud case brought in September 2022 by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump and other defendants regarding the finances of The Trump Organization. Trump and others, the suit claims, fraudulently and regularly overvalued real estate holdings to suit their own ends.

Trump’s tax obligations at Trump golf courses in Palm Beach County

Tax bills in the county are figured starting with a property’s total market value before tax caps and any exemptions are figured in to generate the taxable value.

Almost all of Trump's individual properties in the county generated higher taxes this year, including the clubhouse at Trump International Golf Course near West Palm Beach. The taxes due on the clubhouse jumped from $185,656 last year to $198,066 in the new tax rolls.

The clubhouse is the only taxable parcel at Trump International under longstanding contracts Trump negotiated with the county and the authority that governs the Palm Beach International Airport. The golf club’s ownership company leases the land for the adjacent golf courses — nearly 275 acres — for more than $1 million a year.

Trump also is seeing higher bills this year for buildings at the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, where the clubhouse-and-spa structure saw a tax hike from $288,124 to $306,806. Taxes due on an outbuilding at the Jupiter property rose from $28,849 last year to $30,595 in the new tax rolls.

But the taxes billed for the 126 acres of golf-course land in Jupiter dropped slightly, from $44,272 in 2022 to $43,040 this year.

What are the tax bills for the three Trump houses next to Mar-a-Lago?

In Palm Beach alone this year, the market value of Trump-controlled properties totals $89.27 million — up from $78.26 million last year — with the total taxable value reduced to $69.46 million.

For the three Trump family houses next door to Mar-a-Lago, the market values used to figure their taxes take into account nearby recent real estate sales and other factors. But under Florida law, the taxable, or “assessed,” value of those non-homesteaded houses cannot increase more than 10% from year to year.

The Palm Beach house with the highest market value, at $23 million, is an oceanfront home plus a vacant parcel at 1125 S. Ocean Blvd. Combined, the house and vacant lot have a market value of $24.75 million, compared to $23 million last year. Their total taxable value is $19 million — up from $17.3 million last year — and the new tax bill for both totals $322,814, a hike from $304,446.

FROM THE 2022 ARCHIVES Trump's new Palm Beach County tax bills, including Mar-a-Lago's, are up. But by how much?

The house at 1094 S. Ocean Blvd. has a market value of $19.96 million, but its taxable value is far less at $12.77 million. Its tax bill is $240,324, compared to $223,615 last year.

The smallest Trump house, at 124 Woodbridge Road, has a market value of $7.56 million and a taxable value of about $4.27 million. It has been taxed this year at $85,958 versus $73,030 last year.

Trump, like every other county taxpayer, could get a discount on the amount demanded by his bills. Those who pay their bills in full in November get a discount of 4%, with the discount decreasing by 1% each month through the end of February, according to Tax Collector Anne Gannon’s office. Taxes become delinquent if not paid by April 1.

In August, the property appraiser's office estimated that overall property values in the county saw an annual jump of 13.36% — a much less dramatic rise than the 31% vault from the previous year.

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Darrell Hofheinz is a USA TODAY Network of Florida journalist who writes about Palm Beach real estate in his weekly “Beyond the Hedges” column. He welcomes tips about real estate news on the island. Email dhofheinz@pbdailynews.com, call 561-820-3831 or tweet @PBDN_Hofheinz.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Mar-a-Lago's hiked value means higher property taxes for Trump