Robert De Niro in spat with small New York town after challenging multi-million dollar tax assessment A barn was made into a leisure centre with a games room, gym, basketball court, swimming pool, steam room, sauna, film studio and, as befits the star of Raging Bull, a boxing ring. There are also two guesthouses, a tennis court and a ski slope. The town of Gardiner issued De Niro with a tax bill of $170,000 (£107,000) based on its estimate of the property's current value, which it said stood at $5.6 million (£3.5 million). Gardiner is in line to receive just 10 per cent of the bill, with the rest going to the local school district and the county. However it is the town which must pick up the legal fees in the case, which have so far reached more than $100,000 (£63,000). The bill is set to rise further after Riverside Trust challenged the assessment, saying Ulster County property values were lower than the town had suggested, and that the true value stood at $3.7 million (£2.3 million), a reduction of a third which would shave $57,000 (£36,000) million off the tax bill. The challenge was backdated to cover a period from 2010. In June, at a hearing presided over by Justice Mary Work of State Supreme Court in Ulster County, an independent assessor appointed by the court said the property was in fact worth more than Gardiner had asked for, estimating the value at just under $9 million (£5.7 million). As a compromise, the town agreed to stick to the original $5.6 million, an offer Riverside has so far refused and is appealing the court's rejection of its lower assessment. Although De Niro, who is worth an estimated $200 million (£126 million), is not named in the court proceedings, the local paper, The Times Herald-Record, reported that New York Supreme Court in a 2006 case involving the Riverside Trust described it as "the personal trust for the benefit of Robert De Niro." Locals say they rarely see the De Niro family, although they know when the actor is home because he usually flies there by helicopter. Dawn Foti-Correa, who runs the town's only barber shop, told The New York Times that three-quarters of her customers had originally been on De Niro's side: "But now he won't let up, and that's got people ticked off, too." Warren Wiegand, a member of the town board, told the Times Herald-Record: "Nothing in my two terms has gotten people so upset - I've talked to commuters, old-line firemen, entrepreneurs. It's the lack of fairness that bothers them. John E Watkins, who represents the Riverside Trust, said he was not sure why the challenge had come up when it did. "Perhaps it was just a ... moment, where someone was going through the books and just smacked their head on this," he told the New York Times. A spokesman for De Niro did not comment.