Benjamin Franklin Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Department of Revenue

801 P.2d 771, 310 Or. 651, 1990 Ore. LEXIS 355
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 26, 1990
DocketOTC 2697; OTC 2698; OTC 2699; OTC 2700; OTC 2701; SC S36694
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 801 P.2d 771 (Benjamin Franklin Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Department of Revenue) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Benjamin Franklin Savings & Loan Ass'n v. Department of Revenue, 801 P.2d 771, 310 Or. 651, 1990 Ore. LEXIS 355 (Or. 1990).

Opinion

VAN HOOMISSEN, J.

Plaintiffs (taxpayers) challenged the 1987 assessed value of certain computer equipment (the property) used in their banking and savings and loan businesses.1 Defendant Department of Revenue (the department) valued the property subject to this appeal at $26,452,567. After hearings before the Multnomah County Board of Equalization and the department, taxpayers appealed to the tax court.

Before trial, the tax court issued an order dismissing the appeal as to the assessed value of certain property on which taxpayers had paid taxes, but which they leased rather than owned. The tax court based its dismissal on taxpayers’ failure to exhaust their administrative remedies with regard to that property. After trial, the tax court found the true cash value of the subject property as of January 1, 1986, to be $23,407,6762 and awarded the department costs and disbursements. Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan v. Dept. of Rev., 11 OTR 260 (1989).

Taxpayers appeal the pre-trial order dismissing their appeal with regard to their leased property, the tax court’s valuation of the property that they owned, and the award of costs and disbursements to the department. On de novo review, ORS 305.445 and 19.125, we reverse and remand for further proceedings as to the award of costs and disbursements to the department; otherwise, we affirm.

FACTS

A. The Assessed Property.

The property subject to this appeal is personal property used in taxpayers’ banking and savings and loan businesses and is located in Multnomah County. The property consists of. computers and other property necessary to the operation of computers. The computer equipment includes [655]*655central processing units (CPUs) and peripherals. A CPU is the “brain” of a computer. It is the machine that processes data. A CPU may also be called a “system” or a “main frame,” depending on its features. Peripherals are hardware used to put information into and extract information from the CPU. Examples of peripherals are terminals, disk drives, tape drives, modems, and printers. The subject property that is not computer equipment, but is necessary to the operation of computers, consists of air conditioners, fire protection systems, and security systems. Taxpayers purchased the property between 1978 and 1985 at a combined acquisition cost exceeding $55,000,000. The parties agree that the property is assumed to be in good working condition.

B. The Appraisal and Assessment.

Under ORS 308.290,3 taxpayers reported all acquisitions and dispositions of personal property on their property tax returns. On their returns they provided information for each piece of property including a description of the property and the year and cost of its acquisition. Some of the descriptions provided by taxpayers were either inaccurate or incomplete.

Due to limited resources, county assessors typically use “mass appraisal techniques” to assess personal property for taxation. The assessors base their opinions of value on the information provided on the tax returns. They then develop and apply a depreciation schedule against the property’s reported acquisition costs.4 Generally, the older the property is, the less it is worth. “True cash value,” however, is the [656]*656statutory benchmark for tax-assessed valuation and is defined as “the market value of the property as of the assessment date.” ORS 308.232; 308.205.5 Therefore, as the tax court noted, the validity of the “mass appraisal” valuation depends on how accurately the depreciation schedule reflects market values. Benj. Franklin Savings and Loan v. Dept. of Rev., supra, 11 OTR at 262.

The depreciation schedule formulated by the department and adopted by Multnomah County in the 1987 tax year for the category of property at issue here was:6

Age Retained Value

1 88%

2 75%

3 63%

4 50%

5 38%

6 30%

The assessment date was January 1, 1986. At that time, as applied to taxpayers’ property, the schedule resulted in an assessed value of $26,452,567.

PROCEEDINGS BELOW

Taxpayers initially challenged the department’s valuation before the Multnomah County Board of Equalization and then proceeded to a hearing before the department. Although taxpayers did not know the department’s exact [657]*657valuation figure at the time,7 they challenged its appraisal by arguing that application of the 1987 depreciation schedule to their property resulted in a valuation exceeding its true cash value. Taxpayers argued that rapid advancement in computer technology, as reflected by market values, justified a more accelerated depreciation schedule. Their proposed schedule was:

1 62%

2 50%

3 31%

4 26%

5 25%

Before the hearing at the department level, however, the department had developed a revised computer equipment depreciation schedule for the 1988 tax year. That schedule provided:

1 75%

3 30%

4 20%

5 10%

Ultimately, the department’s Opinion and Order adopted the county’s stipulation to have the 1988 schedule apply to taxpayers’ property for the 1987 tax year.

Taxpayers then appealed to the tax court, alleging that application of the 1988 depreciation schedule to their property inflated its true cash value. Before trial, the tax court granted the department’s motion to dismiss the appeal as to certain property leased by taxpayers. That property was deemed to be “lessor-assessed” property, because it is property owned by a third party and taxed under that third party’s [658]*658tax account number, but taxpayers are, because of lease provisions, responsible for payment of the tax.8 In granting the department’s motion, the tax court accepted its argument that, because taxpayers had described the property, the values for which they were challenging, in the proceedings below by their account number, they had failed to challenge the assessed value of the lessor-assessed property and, therefore, had failed to exhaust their administrative remedies with regard to that property. The tax court concluded, therefore, that it lacked subject matter jurisdiction to consider the assessments on the lessor-assessed property. As a result, the 1987 roll values of that property were considered unchallenged and, consequently, remained in effect.

At trial, the department chose to abandon its complete reliance on a depreciation schedule and, instead, made an item-by-item appraisal of taxpayers’ property.

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Bluebook (online)
801 P.2d 771, 310 Or. 651, 1990 Ore. LEXIS 355, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/benjamin-franklin-savings-loan-assn-v-department-of-revenue-or-1990.