Disney Demands Reimbursement From Orange County After Miscalculated Assessment

The Walt Disney Company is demanding compensation after it spent over $500,000 to prove that the Orange County Property Appraiser miscalculated the taxable value of Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts.

Disney initially challenged the assessment in 2016 after the value of the Yacht and Beach Club jumped 118% between 2014 and 2015. After a nearly decade-long battle, Judge Thomas W. Turner ruled in April that the property appraiser’s 2015 assessment of the resort was “unconstitutional and invalid.”

Disney is demanding reimbursement from Orange County. Photo: Orange County Government

Now, Disney wants restitution.

How The Orange County Property Appraiser Inflated the Value of Disney’s Resorts

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Turner determined that the appraiser’s assessment of the Yacht & Beach Club had inflated Disney’s tax bill by including the value of Disney’s intangible property, “namely the value of the Disney Brand, Disney’s managerial skills, its assembled workforce,” among other factors.

Photo: Amy Mercado

The ruling could impact more than the single valuation. In the years since, the Orange County Property Appraiser has used a similar formula on all of Disney’s hotels.

Last week, Property Appraiser Amy Mercado filed a notice to appeal the ruling.

Disney Wants Compensation

In the two-page motion filed Friday, Disney demanded compensation for the tax assessment trial. They presented 180 pages of invoices totaling $518,00. That total included $430,000 spent on experts used by Disney to argue their case.

Photo: Miriam-Webster

The legal expenses in question do not include attorney fees but encompass a range of costs, including the aforementioned experts and $2,257.75 in copying costs.

The appeal by Mercado is now being considered.