Washington Tax Board Lowers Taxpayer’s Seattle Hotel Valuation

The Washington Board of Tax Appeals (BTA) lowered the valuation of the taxpayer’s hotel in Seattle. The taxpayer argued that the Assessor overvalued the property, while the King County Assessor contended the original valuations were correct. The Board found that the Assessor erred in calculating deductions for the hotel’s personal property when using the income approach to value. Specifically, the Assessor used incorrect figures for the “return of” and “return on” investment related to the personal property based on guidance from the Rushmore Approach for separating real and personal property values. After correcting these errors, the Board determined a lower ...