Category Archives: Commercial Real Estate

In the past decade, businesses, particularly restaurant chains have been utilizing real estate sale-leasebacks as a financing tool. The sale-leaseback typically involves an above market purchase price followed by an above market lease; providing current cash to the seller/lessee and an income stream for the buyer/lessor. Federal tax law encourages this system with favorable tax treatment.

However, this system tends to clash with Ohio’s property valuation scheme mandating that an arm’s-length purchase price was the “market value” for property tax purposes. Thus, much of the federal tax benefit of the sale-leaseback was eaten up by the increased property taxes.

Two recent changes to Ohio law recognize the nature of sale-leasebacks; allowing businesses the carrot of the federal tax advantages without the stick associated with Ohio’s prior tax law.

First, the auditor is now required to determine the value of real property “as if unencumbered,” meaning that the value of the leaseback portion of the sale-leaseback is to be disregarded in determining the value of the real estate (i.e., to the extent the price paid is elevated by consideration of the income stream).

Second, purchase price is no longer dispositive of market value, underscoring the necessity of recognizing the hybrid nature of the sale-leaseback and allowing a proper allocation between the financing tool and the real estate purchase.

Finney Law Firm’s property valuation team is versed in these changes, assisting our clients achieve fair values for properties before local Boards of Revision.

Many of Ohio’s major urban counties, including Hamilton (Cincinnati), Franklin (Columbus), and Montgomery (Dayton), as well as Butler and Warren in Southwest Ohio have either major reassessment years or simpler “updates” for property tax year 2014  (bills issued first in 2015), and thus the total value of property in each taxing district will either rise and fall next year.

Now this is all a bit complicated, but, vastly simplified, the way taxes work in Ohio is that as property valuations at large fall, tax rates automatically rise close to the same percentages, thus raising much the same revenue off of the new, smaller tax base that that the larger base raised in the prior tax year.  And, conversely, as property tax valuations rise, rates automatically fall.  This entry from the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer explains a little more about this.

As this entry explains, the early returns in Ohio for Dayton area assessments and Summit County (Akron) show that the tax bills first issued in 2015 will have lower on-average assessments for properties.  That means, even without a single tax increase on the ballot in those counties, rates will rise about the percentage.  Thus, if your property does not decline in assessed value the amount of the “average” property in that county, your overall taxes will rise.

The effect of this can be seen most noticeably in Montgomery County, where today real property tax rates exceed 3% of of the Auditor’s assessed total true value of properties.  This compares to rates in the sub-2.5% range in most of the rest of the state.  Much of this is due to the rapidly-declining tax base in this area.  Based upon 2014 tax year preliminary assessments, that trend appears to be continuing.

If you are concerned your tax bill is too high, let us counsel you on how to achieve tax savings in your real estate portfolio.

When closing a real estate transaction, every state requires that one or both parties report to the local taxing authority the sales price of the property.  This report is used for two primary reasons: (i) to establish the amount of the transfer tax or conveyance fee for the transaction and (ii) to establish the taxable value of the property for real estate taxation purposes going forward.

In Ohio the sale price is signed by the grantee under the deed, and is reported on a state-mandated conveyance fee form.  In Kentucky, the grantor and grantee must sign an affidavit of consideration attesting to the sales price.  Both forms are prerequisites to getting a deed of record.

Now, before we go any further with this post, it is important to note that the amount reported is not discretionary and not to be treated lightly.  In both Ohio and Kentucky, the reporting form is a sworn statement (i.e., under oath), the falsification of which is a felony.  So we are not suggesting misrepresenting anything on those forms.  But  an honest approach to the consideration question can yield different results depending on the circumstances.

With those items as background, many considerations drive the reported sales price on the conveyance fee form or consideration affidavit: (i) the stated contract price, (ii) federal tax considerations (e.g. basis and capital gains), (iii) the value to be “booked” for a sale, and (iv) appearances for banks and equity partners.  But frequently overlooked by the dealmakers is one of the most significant consequences of the price reported: the real estate taxes for years and years going forward will either be dictated by or strongly influenced by the number appearing on that form.

Many times we find in our property tax valuation work that buyers and sellers thoughtlessly put a high value on those forms, which may include the value of the business operating inside the property, furniture, fixtures and equipment, and other factors unrelated to the actual value of the real estate acquired.

With annual rates of taxation in Ohio ranging between 1.7% to 3.2% of the valuation and annual rates of taxation in Kentucky being around 1.1% annually, the consequence of unnecessarily over-reporting the sales price can be costly year after year after year.

Thus, we carefully counsel buyers to consider stripping  from the reported sales price the FF&E, the goodwill, cash and A/Rs of a business being acquired, and other factors that are unrelated to the real estate transaction.  The net effect can be an annualized savings going forward of 1.1 to 3.2 percent of the excised property’s value going forward.