Apple wants $33.6 billion wiped from its Silicon Valley property tax bill.
The Cupertino-based tech giant has filed more than 1,400 outstanding property assessment appeals with Santa Clara County for the largest local drop in assessed real estate value, the Silicon Valley Business Journal reported, citing county figures.
The appeals add up to a $33.6 billion discrepancy between the company’s estimates of its local property values and the assessed values by the county.
In comparison, major companies across the county filed fewer than 300 appeals for values that fell under $7 billion.
The Business Journal reported in August that Santa Clara County’s total property value had risen to a record $696.8 billion.
It reported last month that out of the $123 billion in total value under appeal, half were made by just 10 firms.
Santa Clara County has in recent years retained 90 percent of the total value under appeal. Nonetheless, in 2019 it lost $36 million to the San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s stadium.
Apple’s billions of dollars in appeals for its real estate and depreciating equipment could greatly impact property tax revenues, which fund school districts and local cities.
The appeals by the iPhone maker come as office values in Silicon Valley have fallen during a pandemic shift to remote work. Office vacancy across the region hit a record 22 percent in the third quarter ending in September, according to JLL.
Last year, Apple’s value in dispute was an estimated $28 billion; in 2022 it was $26 billion, according to the Business Journal. In 2018, the figure was $8.49 billion for 489 appeals.
Among the properties Apple has under appeal is the Apple Park campus, built for $5 billion, and its former headquarters, the Infinite Loop campus off De Anza Boulevard.
County Assessor Larry Stone said he has been asked why his office doesn’t assess Apple Park at $5 billion. He said he wants people to understand the property assessment is based on its fair value in the marketplace.
“If Apple vacated Apple Park, the next person would not pay $5 billion. It’s a trophy property where they over improve them because they’re headquarters,” Stone told the Business Journal. “The next tenant that came in would change it completely.”
The last known tally of Apple’s real estate portfolio was in a 2018 earnings report, when the company said it owned 16.5 million square feet and leased 24.3 million square feet across the nation.
This year’s property tax appeals in Santa Clara County include Mountain View-based Intuit with 254 active appeals, with $1.38 billion in dispute.
Read more
Commercial
New York
Apple takes another bite of Penn District
Commercial
Seattle
Apple leases Seattle building formerly occupied by Meta
Residential
San Francisco
CIM tops $600K per unit for multifamily near Apple HQ
Other companies looking to reduce their property tax bill include Applied Materials, with 87 active appeals and $6.88 billion in dispute; Hitachi Global Storage, with 37 appeals disputing $5.76 billion; and Vantage Data Centers, with 60 appeals disputing $4.2 billion.
Equinix has filed 214 appeals disputing $2.7 billion; San Jose Health Care System, with 27 appeals disputing $2.68 billion; Nvidia, with 53 active appeals disputing $2.5 billion; Western Digital, with 79 appeals disputing $2.16 billion; and Santa Clara Phase II Property, with 15 appeals and $2.15 billion in dispute.
— Dana Bartholomew