Washington Tax Appeals Board Partially Reduces Commercial Property Valuation After Vacancy Rate Dispute

The Washington State Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) partially reduced the taxpayer’s commercial property valuation after a vacancy rate dispute. The dispute centered on the true and fair market values assigned to the commercial property for the relevant assessment years. The Board found that the Owner provided clear, cogent, and convincing evidence that the Assessor overvalued the property for the 2022 assessment year because the Assessor’s vacancy rate was not supported by the evidence, leading the Board to set the 2022 value at $31,290,000 using a 15 percent vacancy rate rather than the Assessor’s 9 percent rate. However, for the ...