Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D) sent a letter to the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser on Thursday asking that they reexamine Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate to see if the value of the property is as much as Trump has claimed it is. The former president's valuation of his real estate empire is currently at the center of a fraud trial.
If it turns out Trump is correct and the property is worth over $1 billion then he owes a lot more in property taxes, the congressman argues.
"As I'm sure you are aware, your valuation of Mar-a-Lago has been cited in Judge Arthur Engoron's determination this week that former President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization committed fraud by inflating the value of their assets," wrote Moskowitz. "Between 2011 and 2021, you valued the Mar-a-Lago property between $18 million and just under $28 million."
He went on to cite a tweet from Eric Trump making the claim that Mar-a-Lago was worth maybe even 100 times that amount.
"Mar-a-Lago was listed as worth $490 million in financial documents given to banks. If the property value of Mar-a-Lago is so much higher than it was appraised, will you be amending the property value in line with the Trump family belief that the property is worth well over a billion dollars?"
Raw Story wrote two weeks ago about the taxes being paid by Trump, citing a 2020 Palm Beach Daily News report in which Trump tried to claim the value of Mar-a-Lago was less than $26.6 million.
"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"The petition for the Jupiter property was subsequently withdrawn, said agency spokeswoman Becky Robinson.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.
See the full letter from Rep. Moskowitz below or at the link here.
