Shoshone County, Silver Mountain tax saga nears end

It was more than five years ago that Shoshone County and Silver Mountain Resort squared off in what has become a lengthy legal battle over what the value of the resort is and how much it should be taxed.

The whole legal battle first began in July 2017 when Silver Mountain owner Tryg Fortun appealed the county assessor’s appraised value of his then newly acquired property — essentially asking the county to lower the value of the property.

The Shoshone County Board of Equalization heard Fortun and his lawyer state their case in February 2018, but ultimately decided to uphold their assessed appraised value.

Fortun, who purchased Silver Mountain Resort in October 2016 from longtime owners, Jeld-Wen Holdings Inc., argued that the value of Silver Mountain should be based on the $5 million price that he paid to acquire the property. Contrary to this sale price though, the Shoshone County assessor assessed Silver Mountain Resort (and its associated properties) to be worth approximately $22 million.

These two very different figures set two very different tax rates for the resort to pay.

While Jeld-Wen owned the property, the company paid taxes on the county appraised value of approximately $22 million and never appealed the decision.

After the Shoshone County Board of Equalization’s decision to uphold Assessor Jerry White’s valuation, Fortun appealed to the state to make their own determination.

On May 1, 2018, the Idaho Board of Tax Appeals concluded that the disputed resort properties in total were worth $6,310,000 — far south of the county’s number.

Within 10-days of the state’s announcement, county representatives decided to appeal the $6,310,000 valuation and take the dispute to the courtroom.

Following months of litigation and delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an agreement was reached between the two sides that the combined properties were worth approximately $9.2 million on average from 2018 to 2020.

Because Silver Mountain continued to pay taxes based on the $22 million figure throughout this legal battle, they have been owed a refund from the entities that benefited from those tax funds.

The only item left in limbo is a decision on the 2017 valuation — a decision that remains up in the air.

The county appealed the 2017 valuation to the Idaho District Court, which initially sided with the BTA and Silver Mountain.

“After bench trial,” The District Court’s Decision and Order on Remand document read, “this Court affirmed the BTA’S decision and order. In doing so, this Court determined that the County’s appraisal evidence was more credible than Taxpayers’ evidence but ultimately held the County had not satisfied its burden of showing that the BTA had erred.”

The county was once again quick to appeal the decision and sent the matter to the Idaho Supreme Court, arguing that they had indeed met the burden of showing an error. This move would pay off for the county, as the high court agreed.

“The Idaho Supreme Court determined that by establishing that its valuation was more likely accurate than not, the County met its burden to establish that the BTA’s valuation decision was erroneous,” court documents read. “Thus, the Idaho Supreme Court remanded the case with instructions for the district court to issue a new decision based on the evidence presented at the de novo trial as to the value of the property.”

With the matter back in the hands of the District Court, Judge Rich Christensen relied heavily on the testimony of the county’s appraiser, as Silver Mountain’s was found to be untrustworthy.

“The Court found the Taxpayers’ (Silver Mountain) appraiser’s testimony to be so greatly compromised by his ‘fluid’ appraisal conclusions that the Court could not (and cannot) ascribe any weight to the Taxpayers’ appraiser’s testimony,” court documents read.

Since the court is constrained to accept only those valuations supported by substantial evidence, Judge Christensen modified the BTA’s numbers, coming up with a 2017 grand total valuation of 14,666,029 and fully agreeing with the county’s evaluation.

Shoshone County Prosecuting Attorney Ben Allen was pleased with the District Court’s decision to accept the county valuation and not split the difference.

“It’s the county’s belief that the District Court made the right determination at this juncture and is wholly supportive of the court's decision,” Allen said. "That said, we have maintained a good working relationship with Silver Mountain through this process. Although the two sides don’t necessarily have to agree on what they believe the evaluation should have been, both agree that there is a necessity to ensure that taxes are assessed fairly and that individuals responsible for those taxes have a fair opportunity to appeal those decisions when necessary and allow a court to make the ultimate determination.”

Looking forward, Allen explains that the county now needs to assess what the tax amount Silver Mountain should have paid in 2017, based on the District’s decision, and propose it to the resort. He expects this process to be done in the next week.

Silver Mountain can either accept the county’s tax rate evaluation, appeal it to the District Court or appeal the District Court’s most recent decision to the Idaho Supreme Court.

Silver Mountain General Manager Jeff Colburn declined to comment on the situation, but is looking forward to the saga concluding.