Why Hotels and Nursing Homes Prove Especially Vulnerable to Inaccurate Taxation

"The most valuable asset the team would acquire through that contract would be a continued association with the Derek Jeter name, a brand in which the team has invested a great deal. The Yankees' challenge in reaching a new contract with Jeter, recently accomplished, indeed echoes the difficulty faced by many municipal assessors in valuing properties that are as much business as they are parcels of real estate."

By Elliott B. Pollack, Esq., as published by Commercial Property Executive, April 2011

Tax laws across the United States typically prohibit assessors from including intangible assets such as good will, franchise value or business value in a property tax assessment. Only tangible real and personal property may be placed on assessment rolls. But taxpayers and assessors alike sometimes have difficulty differentiating between tangibles and intangibles.

That's understandable on the part of taxpayers who may need to include intangibles in their calculations when buying or selling a hotel, nursing home or assisted-care property. For purposes other than property taxes, intangibles often are part of a property's overall value. Indeed, rivers of ink in appraisal and valuation literature—not to mention judicial rulings— have been devoted to the issue of intangibles.

Unfortunately, many assessors don't fully understand how to exclude these non-taxable elements from their calculations, either. For the unwary property owner, the resulting overassessment can result in an equally overstated tax bill. One way to gain a clearer perspective on the degree to which intangible assets can affect value is to turn our lenses on another field entirely—a baseball field, in fact. On Nov. 10, 2010, sports columnist Richard Sandomir presented an illuminating look at the talents of the New York Yankees' redoubtable shortstop, Derek Jeter, in an article for the New York Times. "The Yankees would not quite be the Yankees if (Derek Jeter) suited up with another team," Sandomir noted. The writer contended that Jeter adds substantially to the Yankees' overall value, much in the same way, it can be argued, that a respected brand boosts the worth of a hotel. Without Jeter's headline-grabbing performances, the team would be less valuable, just as an unflagged hotel is likely to be less valuable than its branded competitor. Sandomir quoted a business consultant who observed that Jeter's playing, were he less celebrated, might be worth $10 million a year. But as an iconic draw for ticket sales, Jeter's value to the team is closer to $20 million each year. The Yankee captain's "value as a brand builder," the expert noted, not merely as a hitter or infielder, is what drives his intangible worth differential, again, very much like the business value inherent in a well-managed hotel or convalescent facility.

With Jeter's lengthy contract concluded, it would be foolish for the Yankees not to sign him up again as he enters free agency, even though his baseball skills have eroded, the expert opined. The most valuable asset the team would acquire through that contract would be a continued association with the Derek Jeter name, a brand in which the team has invested a great deal. The Yankees' challenge in reaching a new contract with Jeter, recently accomplished, indeed echoes the difficulty faced by many municipal assessors in valuing properties that are as much business as they are parcels of real estate.

After years of resistance from taxpayers and their attorneys, it seems taxing authorities in the United States are getting the message about intangible assets. It now appears that the majority of assessors recognize that the net operating income generated by a hotel, as an example, does not result exclusively from its real estate value. In fact, the management expertise—which drives revenues from non-occupancy hospitality services such as food service, special events and recreation revenues—is an asset independent of and severable from the real estate itself.

Similarly, the intensive services furnished to the patients of long-term-care convalescent facilities are distinct from the property in which those services operate. Indeed, nursing and medical care, meals and rehabilitation produce revenues that have little to do with the real property and should not be capitalized when the health-care facility is valued using an income methodology.

There is case law to provide examples of the correct way to value commercial real estate without inflating taxable value by rolling intangible assets into the equation. Taxpayers interested in doing a little research will find one court's approach toward the separation of intangibles and the valuation of health-care real property in the case of Avon Realty L.L.C. v. Town of Avon, decided in 2006 by the Superior Court of Connecticut, Judicial District of New Britain. In that case, the owner of the Avon Convalescent Home, a 120-bed skilled nursing facility, appealed an assessed value in excess of $5 million on the grounds that the assessor hadn't deducted sufficient value attributable to intangible assets from the business's overall value. Upon review, the court deemed the value to be a little more than $4 million, supporting the taxpayer's appeal.

A thorough understanding of the issues and methodologies involved in properly differentiating and valuing tangibles and intangibles marks the difference between fair and excessive property tax assessments for hotels, nursing homes and assisted-care facilities.

Elliott B. Pollack is chair of the property valuation department of the Connecticut law firm Pullman & Comley L.L.C. He cautions that he is an avid Boston Red Sox fan. The firm is the Connecticut member of the American Property Tax Counsel, the national affiliation of property tax attorneys. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..