Guide to Property Tax Valuation

I was asked to review the book Guide to Property Tax Valuation (2008, Chicago, Willamette Management Associates Partners) written by Robert Reilly and Robert Schweihs of Willamette Management Associates, for the ASCPA’s blog. The concepts in the book are well discussed and can be used for property tax valuations and as a reference for other types of valuations. The book is well laid out and using the table of contents it is easy to find specific topics, a must for any good reference book. The book is written more for appraisers than CPAs and has a section on valuation reporting which lists the standards by which an appraiser must complete a report but it does not mention the AICPA’s Statement on Standards for Valuation Services No. 1 (SSVS 1) that all CPAs must follow.

The authors also do not mention SFAS 157, though they do reference valuation approaches for SFAS 144 and SFAS 141, which dates the book for current practices. Since these are relatively new pronouncements, I would expect to see them included in the next edition of the book. 

Overall the concepts in the book are easy to understand and follow, and the flow of the book goes from elementary to more complex valuations. The authors do not present any revolutionary valuation concepts, but do present concepts currently in practice in an easy to understand manner. The authors explain the use of the market approach, the cost approach and the income approach, in determining valuations of assets. In Chapter 27 following the presentation of the USPAP standards the authors present seven common errors found in valuation reports, so don’t skip this chapter thinking it won’t apply to CPAs. Also, Chapter 32 gives some good insight in presenting expert testimony on valuation issues. I would recommend this book as a good addition to the library of any CPA performing valuations for commercial property tax appeals, something we might all be doing more frequently with the declining asset prices in our current economy.

 

Robert K Minniti, CPA, CFE, Cr.FA, CFF, MBA

www.minnitiaccounting.com

www.linkedin.com/in/robertminniti