Following our reporting of a single lawsuit win yesterday, Disney has stacked up even more wins over excessive property taxes. Disney has settled a long-running batch of property tax lawsuits over three of its Walt Disney World resort hotels. The settlements have been filed, covering the Animal Kingdom Lodge, the Wilderness Lodge Resort, and Disney’s BoardWalk. Nearly every settlement landed at a 10% reduction from the Property Appraiser’s just value. Across the six cases, the reductions total nearly $174 million in assessed value. Combined with the 2015 tax-year case reported yesterday, Disney has now achieved more than $215 million in total assessed value reductions through these property tax challenges.
Disney Property Tax Wins Cut Hotel Values by $215+ Million
IN THIS ARTICLE:
- A look at the property value reductions agreed to in the settlement
- Why a 10% value cut does not mean a 10% tax cut
- How the BoardWalk case differed from the others
- What these judgments do and do not settle going forward
THE CASES, AND WHAT WAS AT STAKE
Each year, the Orange County Property Appraiser sets a property value for tax purposes. Every year, Disney challenges those values in a series of lawsuits. The company argued the assessments exceeded market value and improperly included intangible property. The result, Disney says, is a property tax bill that is too high.
These judgments involve six cases. Five involve the Animal Kingdom Lodge and the Wilderness Lodge Resort, covering tax years 2016 through 2020. Meanwhile, the sixth, filed by Disney Vacation Development, covers the BoardWalk Resort for the 2015 tax year. Each settlement lowers the just value while, in most years, leaving the assessed value unchanged.
THE FULL BREAKDOWN, YEAR BY YEAR
The table below compares the Property Appraiser’s original just value against the settled just value for each parcel and tax year. It shows the raw dollar reduction, the percentage cut, and the tax Disney paid at the original value. What it does not show, and what we don’t know yet, is just how much money Disney is going to save, or receive as a refund, when the dust settles. The refund could top more than nine figures. That refund is why Cast Member unions are protesting, asking Disney to drop its many lawsuits against the Orange County Property Appraiser. The unions argue that even if Disney overpaid, which the court says it did, Disney can afford to pay more in taxes to the stressed public school system.
| Resort / Year | Original Just Value | Settled Just Value | Reduction | % Cut | Original Tax Paid |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Animal Kingdom Lodge | |||||
| 2016 | $263,582,044 | $237,223,840 | $26,358,204 | 10.0% | $2,895,391 |
| 2017 | $254,903,461 | $229,413,115 | $25,490,346 | 10.0% | $2,971,947 |
| 2018 | $265,859,576 | $239,273,618 | $26,585,958 | 10.0% | $3,099,028 |
| 2019 | $269,647,780 | $242,683,002 | $26,964,778 | 10.0% | $3,175,144 |
| 2020 | $196,006,646 | $176,405,981 | $19,600,665 | 10.0% | $2,551,103 |
| Wilderness Lodge Resort | |||||
| 2016 | $139,507,946 | $125,557,151 | $13,950,795 | 10.0% | $1,702,384 |
| 2017 | $78,476,966 | $70,629,269 | $7,847,697 | 10.0% | $1,095,142 |
| 2018 | $81,900,612 | $73,710,551 | $8,190,061 | 10.0% | $1,119,653 |
| 2019 | $82,554,605 | $74,299,145 | $8,255,460 | 10.0% | $1,103,479 |
| 2020 | $81,300,676 | $73,170,608 | $8,130,068 | 10.0% | $1,058,160 |
| BoardWalk Resort (DVC) | |||||
| 2015 | $82,000,201 | $79,540,195 | $2,460,006 | 3.0% | $936,696 |
| TOTAL | $173,834,038 | $21,708,127 |
HOW MUCH WILL DISNEY SAVE?
As we noted above, we’re only able to see the reduction in just values for the affected properties. We don’t know what Disney’s new tax bill will be. However, property taxes can be complicated, so we don’t expect the 10% reduction in just value to translate cleanly to a 10% reduction in the property tax bill. Instead, Disney’s property tax bill will likely be reduced by less than 10%, but we may never know the refund. Either way, it is very likely that these cases alone have saved Disney north of $1 million. Whatever Disney’s ultimate savings are, the money will return to Disney in the form of a refund, given that Disney already paid the taxes up front, and in full, before allowing the decades-long court case to play out.
THE BOARDWALK CASE STANDS APART
The BoardWalk Resort settlement breaks the pattern. Disney Vacation Development filed it for the 2015 tax year. It stands as the oldest case in the new batch and the only one tied to a different plaintiff entity.
The Appraiser had set the BoardWalk’s just value at $82,000,201. The settlement then revised it to $79,540,195, a reduction of just $2,460,006. That figure works out to roughly a 3% cut, far smaller than the flat 10% applied to the other two deluxe properties. Whether it reflects a different negotiating posture, a stronger underlying assessment, or simply an older case resolved on different terms, the filings do not say.
WHY THE NUMBERS LINE UP SO NEATLY
Five tax years, two parcels, and the same 10% reduction on all ten. It reads less like ten separate case-by-case, property-by-property negotiations and more like a single global settlement figure applied across the board. Notably, the complaints themselves repeat near-identical boilerplate arguments and verbiage from year to year. Each one alleges the assessment exceeded market value and improperly captured intangible value.
A SMALL SLICE OF A MUCH BIGGER FIGHT
For the hundreds of millions of dollars involved, these six judgments cover a narrow corner of Disney’s running battle with the Property Appraiser. As we have reported, Disney has challenged its Orange County property tax assessments year after year, filing fresh suits annually since at least 2015. The company filed another round in late 2024. Then it came back with more than a dozen suits in December 2025 alone, covering dozens of buildings and parcels with claimed values topping $5.4 billion. Disney will likely continue its challenges to property taxes in the years ahead as well.
Against that backdrop, these settlements resolve just three resort hotels across a handful of tax years. The fresh December 2025 challenges will see their first days in court in 2027. This is a long battle that is worth fighting for Disney, so long as the courts continue to rule that they were overcharged.
Therefore, while the numbers in this article loom large in isolation, they represent only a sliver of the assessments Disney is still contesting. The bulk of the fight, by parcel count and by dollars, remains unresolved.
WHAT THESE JUDGMENTS SETTLE, AND WHAT THEY DON’T
Each judgment carefully limits its own reach. The orders state plainly that they do not amount to an admission by any party about the correctness of the appraisal procedures or the revised values. Moreover, no party can use them as evidence of just value for any other tax year or any other property. In other words, these settlements close specific contested years, rather than setting a precedent that Disney or the Appraiser can point to in the next dispute.
The cases also illustrate Disney’s persistence on this front. Year after year, the company filed suit, paying the assessed taxes in full first as the statute requires, then litigating the value. Following these wins, the Tax Collector and Central Florida Tourism Oversight District will recalculate what Disney owes or is owed for each year. Because Disney paid at the higher original values, refunds are the likely outcome.
As always, keep checking back with us here at BlogMickey.com as we continue to bring you the latest news, photos, and info from around the Disney Parks!