If Mar-a-Lago is worth over $1 billion Trump should be paying a lot more in taxes: report

Columnist David Frum pointed out a Palm Beach Daily News report about Donald Trump's property taxes that showed him trying to claim the value of Mar-a-Lago in 2020 was less than $26.6 million.

As of Tuesday, the former president's son Eric Trump said publicly that it was actually worth more than $1 billion – a post his father later shared on his personal social media accounts. And a civil court in New York overseeing a fraud trial heard that Trump claimed the estate was actually worth $1.5 billion as he tried to secure loans.

The Palm Beach report explained that a notice was mailed out across the county telling owners the official values assessed for their properties. Those figures would then be used for their tax bills. The property owners would then have 25 days to appeal the assessment.

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"Tax representatives at Marvin F. Poer & Co., acting on behalf of Trump’s property ownership entities, filed petitions this year to the state-authorized Value Adjustment Board challenging the valuations assigned to Mar-a-Lago and the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter, according to a spokeswoman for the county appraiser’s office," said the report.

"The petition for the Jupiter property was subsequently withdrawn, said agency spokeswoman Becky Robinson. A virtual hearing has been scheduled Dec. 3 to consider Mar-a-Lago’s valuation, which at $26.6 million is unchanged," from the previous year.

Trump disputed the value of Mar-a-Lago at $26.6 million.

"'In conversations with the Trump (tax) representative, we’re thinking the Mar-a-Lago one will be withdrawn, too,' before the hearing date," Robinson told the paper in 2020.

The report claimed that the latest (2020) "total market value" of Trump-related properties in the entire U.S. is $80.792 million. Of that, records show $80.785 million is "taxable value."

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"In addition to Mar-a-Lago, the other Trump-controlled properties in the town of Palm Beach include the three houses next door to the club and a couple of adjacent lots," the report explained. "Those properties have a total taxable value of about $28.03 million, up from last year’s total of $27.16 million."

Using the "income approach" formula, the Trump club near West Palm Beach is only taxable using the clubhouse, according to contracts Trump negotiated with the county. The club leases the land or the golf course for more than $1 million annually. Trump owns the clubhouse, taxed at $166,303 in 2020 for a value of $9.48 million. The prior year the taxes were a little over $165,000.

"At the golf club in Jupiter, taxes billed this year for the property’s multiple parcels tally $338,450, up from last year’s total of $336,430," cited the report. "The clubhouse's taxable value is about $13.06 million, while the value of the golf course land and a service building total about $3.62 million."

The report concludes that, while Mar-a-Lago is valuable, it doesn't come close to $1 billion and neither does Trump's total assets.

Read the full report.