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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Donald Trump's boast that his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, is worth much more than previously estimated has backfired and led to a demand to have it reappraised, which could lead to the former president paying higher taxes on the property.
A Palm Beach County property appraiser, Dorothy Jacks, estimated the value of Mar-a-Lago in the decade between 2011 and 2021 to between $18 million and $27.6 million—much lower than the hundreds of millions the former president claims the property is worth.
Her valuation was cited by Judge Arthur F. Engoron, who's overseeing Trump's civil fraud trial, in his ruling on September 26. He sided with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who launched the civil lawsuit, finding that the former president had inflated the value of his assets by as much as $2.2 billion.
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Engoron determined there was "conclusive evidence" that Trump, the Trump Organization, and the former president's two adult sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, had committed fraud by misrepresenting his wealth and inflating the value of his assets.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, and in the case of Mar-a-Lago, he claimed that the value of the property is much higher than the $18 million cited by the judge.
In his ruling, Engoron wrote that Trump had put the value of Mar-a-Lago at between $426.5 million to $612.1 million in filings—what the judge called "an overvaluation of at least 2,300 percent."
"This highly partisan Democrat 'Judge' (All the Clubs, etc.) just ruled that Mar-a-Lago was WORTH just 18 Million Dollars when, in fact, it may be worth 100 times that amount," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social.
In a following post on X, formerly known as Twitter, Eric Trump alleged that Mar-a-Lago was worth "well over a billion dollars," adding that it was "arguably the most valuable residential property in the country."
A new valuation of Mar-a-Lago in line with Trump's claims could lead to the former president paying much higher taxes on the property.
Citing both social media posts, Florida Rep. Jared Moskowitz, a Democrat, sent a letter to Jacks on Thursday asking her whether she would be modifying her previous appraisal of Mar-a-Lago to reflect those claims.
"Mar-a-Lago was listed as worth $490 million in financial documents given to banks," Moskowitz wrote. "If the property value of Mar-a-Lago is so much higher than it was appraised, will you be amending the property value in line with the Trump's family belief that the property is worth well over a billion dollars?"
Cecil Jackson, chief property appraiser for Palm Beach County, previously told Newsweek that the evaluations of Mar-a-Lago were "based on assessments for tax purposes only and not for financing or... for a lending institution."
He added that the Florida resort was among nine clubs in the county that were appraised on their net operating income.
"We look at their memberships—the number of members—their annual membership dues, the expenses that it costs to run the facility, and then we trade a capitalization rate, which includes the tax rate for that jurisdiction."
Some real estate experts agree that the value of the Florida resort might be higher if Mar-a-Lago were put on the market. According to Forbes' latest evaluation of the property in March 2022, Mar-a-Lago was worth $350 million.
Newsweek contacted Moskowitz for comment by email on Friday.
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