District of Columbia Property Tax Update Archive

Updated march 2018

Proposed Changes to Commercial Property Tax Rate

As part of her proposed budget, Mayor Muriel Bowser has included a $0.02 increase in the commercial real property tax rate to help pay for dedicated Metro funding. Her proposal would increase the tax rate from $1.85 per $100 of assessed value, for each dollar of assessed value over $3 million, to $1.87 per $100 of assessed value. The first $3 million of assessed value would continue to be taxed at $1.65. While Mayor Bowser characterizes her proposal as a 1% tax increase, the tax rate is only one part of the equation. The other part of the equation is the assessment. Over the past 10 years the commercial tax rate has not meaningfully changed, yet the average office building’s RET liability has increased 122%. Increasing the tax rate by any amount only compounds the increased tax burdens District tenants are already facing. Landlords should continue to pursue their appeal rights to minimize these increases.

Scott B. Cryder, Esq.
Wilkes Artis, Chartered
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated July 2017

Significant Appellate Actions by D.C. Office of the Attorney General

In September, 2016 the Tax Division of D.C. Superior Court issued a decision in Union Investment Real Estate GMBH v. District of Columbia, Tax Docket No. 2010 CVT 10219 (D.C. Super. Ct. Sept., 27 2016) completely rejecting the District’s assessment of a large commercial office building and adopting the taxpayer’s expert’s value. In January, 2017 the Tax Division of D.C. Superior Court issued a decision in Harrington Hotel Co., Inc. v. District of Columbia, Tax Docket No. 2010 CVT 9849 (D.C. Super. Ct. January 31, 2017) holding that the District’s unilateral decision to change the manner in which it calculated public space rental charges was arbitrary and capricious. As a result, the Court ordered the District to refund to the taxpayer that portion of the rental charge resulting from the arbitrary change. The Office of the Attorney General subsequently appealed both decisions to the D.C. Court of Appeals. However, before briefing even commenced the District withdrew its appeals in both cases, preserving these significant victories for the taxpayers. Both cases were litigated by Wilkes Artis, Chartered. 

Scott B. Cryder, Esq.
Wilkes Artis, Chtd.
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

UPDATED DECEMBER 2016

Significant Trial Court Decision

The Tax Division of D.C. Superior Court recently issued a decision in Union Investment Real Estate GMBH v. District of Columbia, Tax Docket No. 2010 CVT 10219, p. 4, (D.C. Super. Ct. Sept., 27 2016) completely rejecting the District’s assessment of a large commercial office building and adopting the taxpayer’s expert’s value. The court held that when a property is leased at above market rents that expire in the short-term it was improper for the District to capitalize the exiting above market rents. Rather, the court held that the appropriate valuation methodology is to impute market rents and then add back the excess rent to the stabilized value. The court also rejected the District’s capitalization rate, holding that its unexplained decision to simply add 30 basis points to the prior year’s standard capitalization rate was not rationally based or reflective of generally accepted appraisal methodology.

Scott B. Cryder, Esq.
Wilkes Artis, Chtd.
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated September 2016

Management Changes on the Horizon

The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”) is poised to enter a new phase of leadership in the coming months as several key management positions have yet to be filled or will soon become vacant. Last year, Mr. Robert Farr retired as the Director of Real Property Tax Administration, the department responsible for real property assessments and billing. Now over a year later, his permanent replacement has not yet been selected. In addition to Mr. Farr’s retirement, we have also learned that Mr. Stephen Cordi, the Deputy Chief Financial Officer for the Office of Tax and Revenue, will soon be departing as well. These two gentlemen had lengthy tenures with OTR and were responsible for overseeing the implementation of D.C. new assessment methodology. Given the importance of these positions, we will closely monitor the ongoing hiring process.

Scott B. Cryder, Esq.
Wilkes Artis, Chtd.
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated June 2016

Mounting Evidence of Flaws in District's Assessment Methodology

Since the District overhauled its assessment methodology for commercial office buildings in 2014, it has argued that its methodology is appropriate for both stabilized and non-stabilized buildings. In particular, the District has argued that non-stabilized buildings trade at similar rates to stabilized buildings. The District has provided no concrete evidence for this claim, instead relying on a few newspaper articles that ostensibly support this position. However, there is a growing body of sales of non-stabilized properties that provides concrete evidence that such properties trade at a discount to stabilized properties. Will the assessors and the Tax Commission finally accept this fact? We shall see. 

Scott B. Cryder, Esq.
Wilkes Artis, Chtd.
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated March 2016

DC Issues Tax Year 2017 Assessments

The District recently issued its proposed Tax Year 2017 real property assessments. Based upon our analysis, the average increase for office buildings is around 5%. When coupled with the large increases property owners have seen over the past two years, typical increases can range from 30% to 50% over this three year period. The District has justified these large, across-the-board increases by pointing to the sales of stabilized, core-plus properties. However, with a growing body of sales of non-stabilized assets trading at significant discounts to core properties (with more such sales in the pipeline), it will be harder and harder for the District to justify its increases for non-stabilized buildings. While we hope the District will finally recognize this dichotomy, past experience does not make us optimistic.

Scott B. Cryder, Esquire
Wilkes Artis, Chartered
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated December 2015

Upcoming Tsunami of Assessment Appeals

Two years ago the D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”) changed its assessment methodology for large office buildings, switching from a leased-fee valuation approach in which costs to stabilized were factored into the analysis to a fee simple approach in which no consideration was given to costs to stabilized. Due to timing quirks of the District’s assessment cycle and the general “pay-to-play” rule, taxpayers have not yet been able to challenge these changes in D.C. Superior Court. This will all change in 2016 as taxpayers filed record numbers of refund petitions this past September. You should expect to see taxpayers vigorously challenging many aspects of the District’s new methodology.

Scott B. Cryder, Esquire
Wilkes Artis, Chartered
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated March 2014

Questionable Changes in DC Deadlines Proposed

The D.C. Office of Tax and Revenue (“OTR”) has resuscitated long-tabled legislation that would significantly alter assessment and appeal deadlines. Under OTR’s most recent draft, the deadline to issues assessments would be moved three months from March 1^st to June 1^st. In addition, the deadline for property owners to file their income and expense reports with the District would be moved back one month from April 15^th to March 15^th.  OTR’s stated goal for these proposed changes is to allow assessors an opportunity to use a property’s most recent income and expense data in deriving assessments. It is unclear how this would benefit the assessment process, however, since OTR now employs a general “fee simple” valuation approach that relies on market rents and market expenses rather than a property’s actual performance. Moreover, the change in the date for the issuance of assessments would have cascading effects on the entire appeal process and would dramatically compress the appeal timeline. The likely result of this compression is fewer administrative reductions during the appeal process due to inadequate time for assessors to conduct their analyses and render decisions. This will ultimately increase the total number of appeals, particularly at the court level. Careful review of this legislation and full understanding of its effects will be needed in the coming months.

Scott B. Cryder, Esquire
Wilkes Artis, Chartered
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)

Updated June 2014

District of Columbia Wrestles With Possible Changes to the Assessment Cycle

For the new annual assessments issued this year the District of Columbia has completely overhauled its valuation methodology for large office buildings. For well over a decade the District has valued large office buildings using in place rents/expenses and deducting costs associated with leasing vacant space or space occupied under leases expiring in the near term. Starting this year, however, the District has moved towards a "fee simple" approach – using market rents and market expenses and making no adjustments for upcoming leasing costs. As a result of this change, the average assessment has increased by nearly 13% with some properties seeing much larger increases. While there has been a large outcry in the commercial real estate community regarding this new methodology and the attendant increases, the District has stood by its assessments as "reflecting market value." This has already resulted in a large increase in the number of commercial assessment appeals.

Wilkes Artis, Chartered
Scott B. Cryder
American Property Tax Counsel (APTC)