TAMPA, Fla. – April 21, 2011 – A group of Florida’s biggest taxpayers, including Florida Power & Light, Walt Disney Co. and Publix Super Markets, appears to be getting more active in fighting property taxes.
Since October, a group called the Florida United Tax Managers Association, or FUTMA, has intervened in two property tax lawsuits around the state. In the first case, FUTMA filed a legal brief in support of Sprint-Florida, which was challenging a tax bill in Lee County.
And, last month FUTMA filed another brief in a lawsuit pitting most of Florida’s county property appraisers against the state Department of Revenue. The property appraisers claim the state revenue agency issued new rules that will let big companies exploit loopholes and lower their taxes, but the revenue department says the rules will benefit all taxpayers alike.
FUTMA’s president, Tom Flowers, said he’s not sure his group is really more active, but he acknowledged the two recent lawsuits mark the first time FUTMA has intervened in tax lawsuits in as long as he could remember. Flowers has been with the group since 1999, he said.
His group isn’t well known in Florida, but its members include roughly 50 of Florida’s biggest property taxpayers, including FP&L, Disney, Publix, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Progress Energy, Tropicana, hotelier Marriott and mall owner Simon Property Group, said Flowers, who works for FP&L.
The nonprofit meets once a year to talk about tax issues, especially “tangible personal property” such as business equipment, and will meet next in June in Orlando.
In the Lee County case, Sprint-Florida, now known as CenturyLink, argued that the Lee County Property Appraiser overvalued some of its telecommunications equipment. The case eventually went to the state’s Second District Court of Appeal, and Sprint-Florida won a $215,000 refund.
FUTMA filed a brief in October in support of Sprint-Florida regarding how computer software should be taxed.
More recently, FUTMA has jumped into a court fight between the Department of Revenue and most of Florida’s property appraisers.
Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Rob Turner sued the revenue agency in February, claiming that new rules from the DOR will give taxpayers a leg up over county appraisers in disputes over property taxes. Most other county appraisers in Florida have joined Turner’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit concerns a process that taxpayers use to challenge their property valuation, called a value adjustment board hearing.
When evaluating property, county appraisers are supposed to factor out any non-real estate costs of a property. The idea is that people shouldn’t pay property taxes on the real estate commissions they paid or, if they bought a hotel, the value of a hotel’s franchise, said Will Shepherd, a lawyer in Turner’s office.
The new rules essentially say property owners automatically get 15 percent off their valuation to account for these non-real estate costs. Property appraisers say taxpayers who fight their assessments shouldn’t get an automatic 15-percent reduction and should have to prove what their costs actually were.
The property appraisers have suggested the Department of Revenues’ new rules are a gift to big businesses and the tax representatives they hire to fight their tax bills.
Shepherd said he’s not surprised the state’s biggest taxpayers are supporting the new rules through FUTMA.
“I think it’s telling that they are getting involved on the side of the Department of Revenue in a case that we believe would benefit large taxpayers,” Shepherd said.
However, some tax lawyers say the new rules don’t only benefit big businesses. Ben Phipps, a tax lawyer in Tallahassee, has also filed a court paper in the lawsuit supporting the Department of Revenue’s new rules.
He’s representing an Odessa woman named Sara Cucchi who has tried to fight her tax assessment with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser for a few years. He said she ought to get the benefit of a 15-percent reduction off her valuation, which he said is customary among property appraisers in Florida.
“Without the rules, she was denied her access and due process,” Phipps said.
Copyright © 2011 Tampa Tribune, Fla., Michael Sasso. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
Since October, a group called the Florida United Tax Managers Association, or FUTMA, has intervened in two property tax lawsuits around the state. In the first case, FUTMA filed a legal brief in support of Sprint-Florida, which was challenging a tax bill in Lee County.
And, last month FUTMA filed another brief in a lawsuit pitting most of Florida’s county property appraisers against the state Department of Revenue. The property appraisers claim the state revenue agency issued new rules that will let big companies exploit loopholes and lower their taxes, but the revenue department says the rules will benefit all taxpayers alike.
FUTMA’s president, Tom Flowers, said he’s not sure his group is really more active, but he acknowledged the two recent lawsuits mark the first time FUTMA has intervened in tax lawsuits in as long as he could remember. Flowers has been with the group since 1999, he said.
His group isn’t well known in Florida, but its members include roughly 50 of Florida’s biggest property taxpayers, including FP&L, Disney, Publix, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, AT&T, Progress Energy, Tropicana, hotelier Marriott and mall owner Simon Property Group, said Flowers, who works for FP&L.
The nonprofit meets once a year to talk about tax issues, especially “tangible personal property” such as business equipment, and will meet next in June in Orlando.
In the Lee County case, Sprint-Florida, now known as CenturyLink, argued that the Lee County Property Appraiser overvalued some of its telecommunications equipment. The case eventually went to the state’s Second District Court of Appeal, and Sprint-Florida won a $215,000 refund.
FUTMA filed a brief in October in support of Sprint-Florida regarding how computer software should be taxed.
More recently, FUTMA has jumped into a court fight between the Department of Revenue and most of Florida’s property appraisers.
Hillsborough County Property Appraiser Rob Turner sued the revenue agency in February, claiming that new rules from the DOR will give taxpayers a leg up over county appraisers in disputes over property taxes. Most other county appraisers in Florida have joined Turner’s lawsuit.
The lawsuit concerns a process that taxpayers use to challenge their property valuation, called a value adjustment board hearing.
When evaluating property, county appraisers are supposed to factor out any non-real estate costs of a property. The idea is that people shouldn’t pay property taxes on the real estate commissions they paid or, if they bought a hotel, the value of a hotel’s franchise, said Will Shepherd, a lawyer in Turner’s office.
The new rules essentially say property owners automatically get 15 percent off their valuation to account for these non-real estate costs. Property appraisers say taxpayers who fight their assessments shouldn’t get an automatic 15-percent reduction and should have to prove what their costs actually were.
The property appraisers have suggested the Department of Revenues’ new rules are a gift to big businesses and the tax representatives they hire to fight their tax bills.
Shepherd said he’s not surprised the state’s biggest taxpayers are supporting the new rules through FUTMA.
“I think it’s telling that they are getting involved on the side of the Department of Revenue in a case that we believe would benefit large taxpayers,” Shepherd said.
However, some tax lawyers say the new rules don’t only benefit big businesses. Ben Phipps, a tax lawyer in Tallahassee, has also filed a court paper in the lawsuit supporting the Department of Revenue’s new rules.
He’s representing an Odessa woman named Sara Cucchi who has tried to fight her tax assessment with the Hillsborough County Property Appraiser for a few years. He said she ought to get the benefit of a 15-percent reduction off her valuation, which he said is customary among property appraisers in Florida.
“Without the rules, she was denied her access and due process,” Phipps said.
Copyright © 2011 Tampa Tribune, Fla., Michael Sasso. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
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