Marsico Capital Management, LLC v. Denver Board of County Commissioners

2013 COA 90, 342 P.3d 462, 2013 WL 2449589, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 868
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedJune 6, 2013
DocketNo. 12CA1266
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 2013 COA 90 (Marsico Capital Management, LLC v. Denver Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marsico Capital Management, LLC v. Denver Board of County Commissioners, 2013 COA 90, 342 P.3d 462, 2013 WL 2449589, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 868 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion by

JUDGE ROMAN

T1 Marsico Capital Management, LLC (MCM), challenges the Board of Assessment Appeals' (BAA) order upholding the Denver Board of Equalization's (BOE) order denying its petitions challenging special notices of value (SNOVs) for the 2008 and 2009 tax years resulting from an audit of its personal property by the City and County of Denver Assessor's Office (City Assessor). We affirm.

I. Background

12 MCM is an investment advisory firm that leases office space in a downtown Denver commercial building. In 2004 and 2005 MCM expanded and remodeled its leased office space and made tenant improvements. Following MCM's filing of its first personal property declaration schedule in February 2006 for the 2005 tax year, the City Assessor issued an SNOV, assessing the value of MCM's personal property.

{3 In 2009 and 2010, the City Assessor audited MCM for tax years 2005 through 2009. The audit revealed that although MCM had timely reported its tenant improvements annually in its personal property declaration schedules, its tenant improvements were not valued or assessed personal property taxes for tax years 2005 through 2009 because the City Assessor's computer system had not included them. As a result, the City Assessor valued the tenant improvements and added these values to each of the five tax year assessment rolls. The City Assessor then notified MCM of the value assigned to the tenant improvements through five SNOYVs.

T4 MCM filed protests with the City Assessor challenging all five SNOVs. The City Assessor granted the protests for tax years 2005 through 2007, because the statute of limitations had run, but denied the protests for tax years 2008 and 2009. The City Assessor also notified the City Treasurer of the amount of unpaid taxes for the tenant improvements for tax years 2008 and 2009. On May 10, 2010, the Treasurer billed MCM for those unpaid taxes.

15 MCM challenged the 2008 and 2009 SNOVs before the BOE. The BOE reduced the overall value on the two SNOVs but denied the petitions MCM appealed the BOE's decision to the BAA. The BAA denied MCM's appeal.

T 6 This appeal followed.

IIL. Standard of Review

¶ 7 It is the function of the BAA, not the reviewing court, to weigh the evidence and resolve any conflicts therein. See Bachelor Gulch Operating Co. v. Bd. of County Comm'rs, 2013 COA 46, ¶ 13, 316 P.3d 43, 2013 WL 1245329; Jefferson Cnty. Bd. of Cnty. Comm'rs v. S.T. Spano Greenhouses, Inc., 155 P.3d 422, 424 (Colo.App.2006). A decision of the BAA, however, may be set aside if it is unsupported by competent evidence or reflects a failure to abide by the statutory scheme for calculating property tax assessments. S.T. Spano, 155 P.3d at 424.

¶ 8 Although the BAA's findings are entitled to deference, its interpretation of a property tax statute is a question of law that we review de novo. Id.

T 9 When interpreting a statute, "[oJur primary objective is to effectuate the intent of the General Assembly by looking to the plain meaning of the language used, considered within the context of the statute as a whole." Bly v. Story, 241 P.3d 529, 533 (Colo.2010) (citing Romanoff v. State Comm'n on Judicial Performance, 126 P.3d 182, 188 (Colo.2006)).

III, "Omitted Property" or "Omitted Value"

¶ 10 The central issue in this case is whether tenant improvements, later discovered by a taxing authority, constitute "omitted [464]*464property" or "omitted value." If tenant improvements constitute "omitted property," then they are subject to retroactive revaluation. But if tenant improvements constitute "omitted value," then additional taxes may not be imposed.

111 Tenant improvements are "personal property" under section 39-1-102(1 1), C.R.S. 2012, and are subject to personal property tax imposed by title 39 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. However, the statutory scheme prevents taxing authorities from imposing additional taxes based on revaluations of property that has already been valued and taxed. See Jet Black, LLC v. Routt County Bd. of County Comm'rs, 165 P.3d 744, 750 (Colo.App.2006); In Stitches, Inc. v. Denver County Bd. of Comm'rs, 62 P.3d 1080, 1081 (Colo.App.2002).

{ 12 Here, the parties disagree on whether personal property taxes were previously assessed on the tenant improvements.

T13 MCM claims that by retroactively adding the 2004 and 2005 tenant improvements to the assessment rolls for the 2008 and 2009 tax years, the City Assessor included an omitted value of previously taxed property that, onee taxed, could not be reassessed. According to MCM, the tenant improvements from 2004 and 2005 are a subclass of affixed property and because the affixed property class had already been taxed, retroactive revaluation of the entire class amounts to retroactively assessing an "omitted value," which is prohibited.

114 The BAA and the City Assessor contend that the tenant improvements were never included in the computer system due to an error by the City Assessor, and thus were not included in the assessment rolls for tax years 2005 through 2009. According to the BAA and the City Assessor, personal property taxes were therefore never assessed on the tenant improvements and thus those improvements could be retroactively assessed because they are "omitted property."

1 15 We agree with the Board and the City Assessor.

A. Section 89-5-125(1)

{16 Section 39-5-125(1), C.R.S.2012, allows the assessor to add omitted property to the tax rolls "whenever it is discovered that any taxable property has been omitted from the assessment roll of any year or series of years." Colorado courts have interpreted this statute as authorizing retroactive assessments of taxes for prior years on previously omitted property. See In Stitches, 62 P.3d at 1081; Cabot Petroleum Corp. v. Yuma County Bd. of Equalization, 847 P.2d 152, 155 (Colo.App.1992), rev'd on other grounds, 856 P.2d 844 (Colo.1993); see also Chew v. Bd. of Assessment Appeals, 673 P.2d 1028, 1029 (Colo.App.1983) (concluding that § 39-5-125(1) is unambiguous).

1 17 We conclude that the tenant improvements at issue were previously omitted from the assessment roll and therefore constitute omitted property because they are distinct additions being taxed for the first time.

B. Tenant Improvements

{18 In Chew, 673 P.2d at 1029, another division of this court affirmed a retroactive assessment of taxes on property improvements, after the property's initial appraisal, because the improvements had previously been omitted from the assessment rolls.

{19 Courts in other jurisdictions have agreed with this result.

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2013 COA 90, 342 P.3d 462, 2013 WL 2449589, 2013 Colo. App. LEXIS 868, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marsico-capital-management-llc-v-denver-board-of-county-commissioners-coloctapp-2013.