Senate Bill No. 475–Committee on Taxation

 

CHAPTER..........

 

AN ACT relating to taxation; revising the manner of assessing the value of certain electric light and power companies; and providing other matters properly relating thereto.

 

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEVADA, REPRESENTED IN

SENATE AND ASSEMBLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

 

    Section 1. NRS 361.320 is hereby amended to read as follows:

    361.320  1.  At the regular session of the Nevada Tax

 Commission commencing on the first Monday in October of each

 year, the Nevada Tax Commission shall establish the valuation for

 assessment purposes of any property of an interstate or intercounty

 nature used directly in the operation of all interstate or intercounty

 railroad, sleeping car, private car, natural gas transmission and

 distribution, water, telephone, scheduled and unscheduled air

 transport, electric light and power companies, and the property of

 all railway express companies operating on any common or

 contract carrier in this state. This valuation must not include the

 value of vehicles as defined in NRS 371.020.

    2.  Except as otherwise provided in subsections 3 [and 6] , 4

 and 7 and NRS 361.323, the Commission shall establish and fix the

 valuation of all physical property used directly in the operation of

 any such business of any such company in this state, as a collective

 unit. If the company is operating in more than one county, on

 establishing the unit valuation for the collective property, the

 Commission shall then determine the total aggregate mileage

 operated within the State and within its several counties and

 apportion the mileage upon a mile-unit valuation basis. The number

 of miles apportioned to any county are subject to assessment in that

 county according to the mile-unit valuation established by the

 Commission.

    3.  After establishing the valuation, as a collective unit, of a

 public utility which generates, transmits or distributes electricity,

 the Commission shall segregate the value of any project in this state

 for the generation of electricity which is not yet put to use. This

 value must be assessed in the county where the project is located

 and must be taxed at the same rate as other property.

    4.  After establishing the valuation, as a collective unit, of an

 electric light and power company that places a facility into

 operation on or after July 1, 2003, in a county whose population

 is less than 100,000, the Commission shall segregate the value of

 the facility from the collective unit. This value must be assessed in

 the

county where the facility is located and taxed at the same rate as

other property.

    5.  The Nevada Tax Commission shall adopt formulas and

 incorporate them in its records, providing the method or methods

 pursued in fixing and establishing the taxable value of all property

 assessed by it. The formulas must be adopted and may be changed

 from time to time upon its own motion or when made necessary by

 judicial decisions, but the formulas must in any event show all the

 elements of value considered by the Commission in arriving at and

 fixing the value for any class of property assessed by it. These

 formulas must take into account, as indicators of value, the

 company’s income and the cost of its assets, but the taxable value

 may not exceed the cost of replacement as appropriately

 depreciated.

    [5.] 6.  If two or more persons perform separate functions that

 collectively are needed to deliver electric service to the final

 customer and the property used in performing the functions would

 be centrally assessed if owned by one person, the Nevada Tax

 Commission shall establish its valuation and apportion the

 valuation among the several counties in the same manner as the

 valuation of other centrally assessed property. The Nevada Tax

 Commission shall determine the proportion of the tax levied upon

 the property by each county according to the valuation of the

 contribution of each person to the aggregate valuation of the

 property. This subsection does not apply to a qualifying facility, as

 defined in 18 C.F.R. § 292.101, which was constructed before July

 1, 1997 [.] , or to an exempt wholesale generator, as defined in 15

 U.S.C. § 79z-5a.

    [6.] 7.  A company engaged in a business described in

 subsection 1 that does not have property of an interstate or

 intercounty nature must be assessed as provided in subsection [8.

    7.] 9.

    8.  As used in this section:

    (a) “Company” means any person, company, corporation or

 association engaged in the business described.

    (b) “Commercial mobile radio service” has the meaning

 ascribed to it in 47 C.F.R. § 20.3 , as that section existed on

January 1, 1998.

    [8.] 9.  All other property, including, without limitation, that of

 any company engaged in providing commercial mobile radio

 service, radio or television transmission services or cable television

 services, must be assessed by the county assessors, except as

 otherwise provided in NRS 361.321 and 362.100 and except that

 the valuation of land and mobile homes must be established for

 assessment purposes by the Nevada Tax Commission as provided

 in NRS 361.325.

    [9.] 10.  On or before November 1 of each year, the

Department shall forward a tax statement to each private car line

 company based on the valuation established pursuant to this section

 and in accordance with the tax levies of the several districts in each

 county. The company shall remit the ad valorem taxes due on or

 before December 15 to the Department which shall allocate the

 taxes due each county on a mile-unit basis and remit the taxes to the

 counties no later than January 31. The portion of the taxes which is

 due the State must be transmitted directly to the State Treasurer. A

 company which fails to pay the tax within the time required shall

 pay a penalty of 10 percent of the tax due or $5,000, whichever is

 greater, in addition to the tax. Any amount paid as a penalty must

 be deposited in the State General Fund. The Department may, for

 good cause shown, waive the payment of a penalty pursuant to this

 subsection. As an alternative to any other method of recovering

 delinquent taxes provided by this chapter, the Attorney General

 may bring a civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction to

 recover delinquent taxes due pursuant to this subsection in the

 manner provided in NRS 361.560.

    Sec. 2.  This act becomes effective on July 1, 2003.

 

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