DFS Group, L.P. v. County of San Mateo

by
DFS is in the business of duty-free sales at airports and holds an exclusive lease and concession to sell merchandise duty-free in the San Francisco International Airport (SFO) international terminal. AN extension of DFS’s lease agreement triggered a reassessment; the Assessor valued DFS’s possessory interest in the leased properties using the income approach. The parties disputed the income stream used by the Assessor in applying that methodology, which was the full amount of the Minimum Annual Guaranteed rent (MAG). For 2011 this was $26.4 million. Capitalizing that entire amount, and after deducting certain expenses and applying a discount factor, the Assessor arrived at a present value for the possessory interest of $59 million. DFS challenged the assessment under Revenue and Taxation Code provisions that bar the taxation of intangible rights. Section 110(d)(3) expressly exempts from taxation the exclusive right to operate a concession. DFS argued that the MAG was consideration not only for its taxable use and occupancy of space but also for the valuable but non-taxable exclusive concession rights it obtained under the agreement to sell merchandise on a duty-free basis. The court of appeal agreed and reversed. Exclusivity is essential to the business and DFS was willing to pay extra money for it and would have no interest in being at SFO without it. View "DFS Group, L.P. v. County of San Mateo" on Justia Law