Trump: Lower my tax burden

President fights with officials over 2016 bill

Even after moving to the White House, President Donald Trump is still trying to shrink what he owes in South Florida property taxes.

Trump and his companies paid at least $2.9 million in 2016 taxes. By comparison, local law enforcement has spent $3.7 million to protect him during seven visits to Palm Beach since January.

His 2016 taxes are paid in full, but his representatives are using tax assessment appeals and a court fight to try to win refunds on two of his golf courses.

Trump’s property tax payments included:

Almost $1.8 million for Trump National Doral, which is appealing its assessment to try to lower the tax bill.

Nearly $400,000 for the Trump National Golf Club in Jupiter. The club lost a tax assessment appeal in January.

About $140,000 for the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, which gets a big discount by using land

leased from the county.

About $460,000 for the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, a resort that Trump calls his Southern White House.

Another $183,000 for two homes and a vacant lot near Mar-a-Lago.

Trump was among about 5,100 Palm Beach County property owners who filed challenges to their property assessments last year in an attempt to reduce their tax bills. Only 6 percent of those won their appeals, according to the property appraiser’s office.

The challenges haven’t worked for four years in a row for Trump’s Jupiter golf course, and the fact that he’s now the president doesn’t change anything, said Vince McLaren, who did the appraisal for the Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s Office.

“It’s just business as usual,” said McLaren, who argued against Trump’s representatives at an appeal hearing less than a week after Trump’s inauguration. “I don’t really concern myself with the ownership side.”

Tax consultant Stan Beck, of Hallandale Beach, has made a living challenging South Florida tax assessments for everyone from individual condo owners to large shopping centers.

He doesn’t expect Trump’s new job to win him any favor.

“Property taxes are based upon the property appraiser’s opinion of value,” Beck said. “The identity of the owner is not a factor.”

The White House, the Trump Organization and Trump’s South Florida tax attorney did not respond to requests for comment about his property taxes.

Trump’s challenges in Palm Beach County have met mixed results.

Trump National in Jupiter: Trump bought the course in 2012 and the following year started appealing the county’s property value assessments to try to lower the tax bill.

The appeal was denied again this year, six days after Trump was sworn in as president.

Trump’s almost $400,000 tax bill still could change, though, because a 4-year-old lawsuit is pending between the club and the county over how much Trump’s course should be charged in taxes.

The course’s appraised value has increased from $13.6 million in 2013 to $18.4 million, thanks in part to a new banquet room and other improvements made to the golf course, said McLaren, who specializes in country club appraisals for the county.

Trump International in West Palm: Trump already gets a built-in tax break for the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach. Because the golf course was constructed on nearly 300 acres that Trump leases from Palm Beach County, he avoids paying property taxes on the land.

That leaves Trump paying about $140,000 for taxes on buildings and other facilities there — a little less than half what he otherwise might owe in property taxes for the golf course and private club.

Mar-a-Lago: At Mar-aLago, Trump has gone round and round with the county through the years, trying to shrink the tax bill on the historic oceanfront estate that he converted to a private club.

He won a $118,000 tax break on Mar-a-Lago in 1991, after convincing a hearing officer that the property’s designation as a historic landmark limited its development potential and value. But a year later, Mar-a-Lago’s tax bill went up again after the county argued that nearby sales showed its value was on the rise.

In 1993, a new county property appraiser split the difference, which saved Trump almost $40,000 in taxes that year.

Two years later, Trump was back with another appeal.

Last year, about three weeks after Trump was elected president, Mar-aLago’s 2016 property taxes of about $460,000 were paid in full, according to the county tax collector’s office.

Palm Beach County Tax Collector Anne Gannon said it would send “a bad message” if Trump as president tried to fight his tax assessment at Mar-a-Lago, which he already has visited seven times since taking office.

“Typically he challenges his property taxes on Mara-Lago,” Gannon said. “This year he paid in full.”

Mar-a-Lago has became a target for Trump critics pushing for the president to disclose more about what he pays in taxes.

During Trump’s Easter weekend visit to Palm Beach, nearly 700 protesters on April 15 marched from West Palm Beach over the bridge toward Mar-aLago — calling for the president to release his federal tax records.

Visits like that one could end up increasing South Florida’s tax revenues over time, despite Trump’s challenges to his property taxes.

Business leaders anticipate a long-term tourism boost from all of the images of blue skies, palm trees and beaches broadcast around the world by the media throng that follows the president to Mar-a-Lago.

Yet in the short term, Trump’s frequent visits are racking up extra costs for local law enforcement that already exceed what his properties in Palm Beach and Miami-Dade counties paid in 2016 taxes.

The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office estimates that overtime and other expenses have cost about $3.7 million for South Florida’s law enforcement agencies to help provide security for Trump’s visits since the election.