In August 2015, the Orange County Property Appraiser issued "Notices of Proposed Property Taxes" for 2015 for the Disney Vacation Club resorts located at Walt Disney World. These notices indicate that taxes are going up, and in most cases they are going up more than anticipated.
Every December, the Disney Vacation Club Board of Directors establishes the budgets and maintenance fees for the next calendar year, which include an estimate of the ad valorem property taxes. The taxes are only an estimate because the taxing authorities do not set the actual tax amounts until several months later. In December 2014 the Board of Directors estimated that ad valorem taxes in 2015 for Bay Lake Tower at Disney’s Contemporary Resort and for the Villas at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort would be $1.3335 per point and $1.4785 per point, respectively.
Quite often, the estimated tax amount is different than the actual amount that is ultimately billed by the tax collector. Any difference between the tax estimate and actual taxes paid on the DVC Member’s behalf is applied towards the Member’s subsequent year’s tax assessment.
"Notices of Proposed Property Taxes" for 2015 were released in August 2015 for eight of the nine DVC resorts located at Walt Disney World. (Unfortunately, a Notice was not available for Disney’s Polynesian Villas & Bungalows, the newest DVC resort.) As shown in the chart below, the assessed value for each resort is going up in 2015 compared to 2014. Grand Floridian has, by far, the largest increase in assessed value.
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Property assessments are only part of how ad valorem taxes are computed. The other part is based on the mill rate set by each of the taxing authorities. The DVC resorts at Walt Disney World are subject to seven taxing authorities, each of which sets its own mill rate. The taxing authorities are School by State Law, School by Local Board, Orange County (General), County Library, South Florida Water Management District, Reedy Creek Improvement District, and either the City of Bay Lake or the City of Lake Buena Vista. Disney’s Old Key West Resort and Disney’s Saratoga Springs Resort & Spa and located within Lake Buena Vista’s jurisdiction; the other DVC resorts are located within the City of Bay Lake’s jurisdiction.
The mill rates in 2015 for each taxing authority are either the same or lower than in 2014. The DVC resorts located in Lake Buena Vista are scheduled to have a 2.6% drop in millage, while those in the City of Bay Lake are scheduled to have a 2.4% drop in millage.
But given the large increase in property assessment values, the proposed overall tax amounts are higher in 2015. Furthermore, the increases are more than what was estimated by the DVC Board of Directors last December when the budgets and maintenance fees were announced for 2015.
The chart below shows the tax amounts and an estimate of what the ad valorem tax per point will be for the DVC resort listed.
For seven of the eight DVC resorts, the proposed tax amounts for 2015 appear to exceed the original estimates. Bay Lake Tower, with a shortfall of $07.18 per point, has largest negative difference. Ironically, Grand Floridian, which had the largest property assessment increase, is the only resort whose ad valorem tax amount was overestimated.
Public hearings were held in September on the proposed taxes and the final tax notices are due November 1, 2015. Until then, the dollar amounts in these charts may change, resulting in a change in the ultimate tax liability of the resorts and the Disney Vacation Club owners.
Wil Lovato is a contributor to DVCNews.com and has been a Disney Vacation Club owner since 2009. His DVC Home Resorts include Bay Lake Tower, Animal Kingdom Villas, and Aulani. He can be found posting on many Disney discussion forums under the username of “wdrl”.
