County Bulletin
TO: ALL COUNTY AUDITORS - Bulletin No. 147
FROM: Stanley J. Bowers, Tax Commissioner
DATE: January 19, 1960
RE: Taxation of Leased Machinery and Equipment
Under date of November 13, 1959, the Ohio Board of Tax
Appeals, in the case of First National
Bank of Akron,
Trustee v. Bowers, B. T. A. No.
40577, determined that machinery and equipment leased by a
nonmanufacturing lessor to a manufacturing lessee was
entitled to be listed for taxation by the lessor-owner at
fifty per cent (50%) of its depreciated book value even
though the lessor-owner was not a manufacturer under Section
5711.16 of the Revised Code.
In so finding the Board of Tax Appeals concluded that the
"use" to which the property was being put was determinative
of the question of its proper listing rather than the status
of the owner as a manufacturer or a merchant under the
personal property tax law.
Hereafter, this Department will, consistent with the Board's
decision, in all questions involving the listing of leased
machinery and equipment, determine the proper listing
percentage based upon the "use" of the property involved on
tax listing date.
References to this matter in the Personal Property Tax Manual
are herewith voided and will be corrected when the Manual is
next supplemented.
IMPORTANT NOTE OF
INTEREST:
As a result of a declaratory judgment action brought in the
Common Pleas Court of Belmont County in the case of
McCort v.
Woods, it is
now settled that a County Auditor, duly appointed and serving
as an agent of the Tax Commissioner under Section 5731. 43 of
the Revised Code in inheritance tax matters, may receive the
compensation provided therefor by law without being in
violation of Ohio Constitutional provisions prohibiting
changes of salary during a term of office. The opinion of the
Attorney General, #982, issued December 3, 1959, to the
contrary is thus rendered null and void. No appointments as
agents were revoked as a result of the Attorney General's
opinion and, of course, none will be in view of the Court's
decision. You are then entitled to the compensation provided
by law for all months since your appointment as agent.