Proposed Florida Timeshare Valuation Bill Would Give Large Tax Breaks to Disney

[Ariel620]

It looks like this bill will save tax $ for DVC. Does it only benefit the company? I think it might benefit owners too, since the taxes are reflected in our dues, correct?

 

[bluecruiser]

One source: A New Florida Bill Would Give Timeshare Owners A Tax Break

Since the bill would allow valuation to be based on resale prices, this has huge potential to save owners money on property taxes.

 

[Sandisw]

Well, that could be a good plus for declining resale value!!! LOL

 

[supersnoop]

I feel like this is not going to do what it sounds like it does. Disney protests the assessed value of their property every year and has even gone to court to fight the appraisals. I don't think the value is based on timeshare sales price at all. If I did the math right, the tax appraisal on BWV is about $58/point. If this bill establishes a new method to calculate value, it could more than double our taxes. ($271MM value and 4.7M points)

This might be good for most timeshares that are worth so much less in the resale market, but it could hurt DVC owners.

 

[RoseGold]

Yea, there's no way FL is going to let all those buildings of worthless timeshares pay no taxes.

 

[Anthony1971]

I as well think it the taxes would go up..... There were people on here in the past maybe still are that could run the numbers fast but being the small % 150 point contract has and the current resale values I see this as an increase. I know I can sell my points for more then I paid direct 20 years ago. But here's to the resale value dropping -- after I sell one of my contracts but can not decide the smaller or larger. Truthfully I would see this as a nightmare the points price dropped considerable in the late 2000's then rebounded this is to be expected again if we have another serious housing down turn.

 

[Epcot Forever Forever]

I feel like this is not going to do what it sounds like it does. Disney protests the assessed value of their property every year and has even gone to court to fight the appraisals. I don't think the value is based on timeshare sales price at all. If I did the math right, the tax appraisal on BWV is about $58/point. If this bill establishes a new method to calculate value, it could more than double our taxes. ($271MM value and 4.7M points)

This might be good for most timeshares that are worth so much less in the resale market, but it could hurt DVC owners.

That’s what I calculated too overall. It’s another thing specifically targeted at Disney, since most Disney timeshares are worth considerably more now than they were when they were new, and virtually all non-Disney timeshares are worth considerably less.

It won’t affect their for-sale properties but it will affect (almost) everything older than VGF. Downright punitive for BCV.

 

[drusba]

This could ultimately increase your DVC taxes but potentially not in the way many may think. Currently, resale prices are a key factor in determining valuations for timeshares in Florida as long as there are many resales Of the resorts that have them. If the appraiser believes there is insufficient resale information, it uses original sales prices, i.e., the prices when sold new by the developer rather than resale prices.

Since DVC has lots of resales, the appraiser has that information to do evaluations. Thus, requiring the appraiser to use resales is probably not going to really change the appraisal methodology already being used for DVC.

The bill would allow timeshare owners to challenge appraisal values if the timeshare owner comes up with a different evaluation based on a “reasonable” number of resales of other like timeshares based on Uniform Standards of Professional Appraisal Practice, that evaluate properties based on resale values and require only a minimum of three similar sales to be able to do the evaluation. That low-number standard, applicable to homes, has usually not been followed by appraisers appraising timeshares.

The possible effect of the new law is to greatly reduce the appraised value of the many timeshares to which the appraiser is currently using original sales numbers because there are too few timeshare sales of a resort because of the lack of any real resale value. How much of an impact the change could have is unclear but numbers being mentioned are a loss in tax revenue of hundreds of millions for the groups of counties that have large numbers of timeshares.

The ultimate impact on DVC may not be on the appraised value of the DVC timeshares, but over time we could see a substantial increase in taxes as counties significantly raise the tax rates applicable to properties in general that are applied to the appraised values, to make up for the revenues lost due to law’s impact on appraisals of timeshares that now have little to no resale value.

 

[CarolynFH]

It’s another thing specifically targeted at Disney, since most Disney timeshares are worth considerably more now than they were when they were new, and virtually all non-Disney timeshares are worth considerably less.

Not really targeted at Disney, actually came from a Marriott owner and also sponsored by Travel+Leisure (formerly Wyndham). See this article: https://jasongarcia.substack.com/p/florida-leaders-are-talking-tough

That’s why, as @drusba says above, it may hurt DVC members more than help us, because DVC has such high resale values. Marriott does too, but Wyndham doesn’t.