Like every other person and company in Florida, Disney has to pay property taxes on every property it owns in the state.
However, according to The Orlando Sentinel, Disney is currently questioning the amount of its tax bill from Orange County, FL, and is pursuing several lawsuits to challenge how the county came up with the amounts that Disney currently owes.
Disney made several filings in the Circuit Court in Orlando claiming that the property assessments were excessive. The appraiser calculated the following taxable values that Disney is questioning: $621 million for Magic Kingdom, $794 million for EPCOT, $639 million for Disney’s Hollywood Studios, $495 million for Disney’s Animal Kingdom, $72.5 million for Blizzard Beach, and $53 million for Typhoon Lagoon.
Other filings also challenged the amounts assessed for Disney’s Caribbean Beach Resort at $243 million, Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort at $349 million, Disney’s Fort Wilderness Resort and Campground at $91 million, Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort at $333 million, and the now-shuttered Star Wars: Galactic Starcruiser at over $2.1 million.
The lawsuits allege that the Orange County Property Appraiser’s office failed to use “professionally accepted appraisal practices.” The office has previously disputed such claims when Disney has questioned the assessments.
State law dictates that Disney pay its 2025 property tax before it can challenge its tax assessment in court, which comes to over $105 million. However, the company is requesting reassessments, refunds of any overpayments, and reimbursement of legal costs.
One of the defendants named in the lawsuits, tax collector Scott Randolph, pointed out that Disney has been challenging its tax assessments for almost ten years. Since then, only one case has gone to trial that’s still pending in an appeals court. That case concerned the appraisal of Disney’s Yacht and Beach Club Resorts…