Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Ass'n v. Youngker

1988 OK 146, 769 P.2d 109, 102 Oil & Gas Rep. 214, 1988 Okla. LEXIS 162, 1988 WL 135522
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 20, 1988
DocketNo. 63376
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1988 OK 146 (Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Ass'n v. Youngker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Ass'n v. Youngker, 1988 OK 146, 769 P.2d 109, 102 Oil & Gas Rep. 214, 1988 Okla. LEXIS 162, 1988 WL 135522 (Okla. 1988).

Opinions

SUMMERS, Justice.

In a companion case1 we ruled that a well used for disposal of salt water from oil and gas operations was exempt from ad valorem taxation by reason of the operator’s payment of gross production taxes,2 but that such exemption did not extend to that proportion of the disposal well attributable to the disposition of salt water from a lease separate and apart from that on which the well sat.

Left unresolved were two questions which we now address:

[111]*111(1) What is the date that governs when property used in oil and gas production should be considered exempt from ad valorem taxation?
(2) Must taxpayers annually list for ad valorem tax purposes all equipment used in oil and gas production?

The district court by Order of August 16, 1984 held (1) that January first marks the date upon which gross production tax must have been levied in order to trigger application of 68 O.S. § 1001(i),3 that being the section that exempts certain property from ad valorem taxes, and (2) that the taxpayers must annually list all oil and gas producing machinery and equipment with the assessor. The present confusion arises from the interplay of the applicable statutes, as well as from two lines of seemingly inconsistent cases. Today we hold that gross production tax which becomes due for the month of January triggers application of the exempting statute, and any property not qualified for treatment under the exemption must be listed for assessment ad valorem.

Both this matter and the companion Cumberland case began as declaratory judgment actions in Lincoln County after the Attorney General4 issued his Opinion No. 83-123 on June 29, 1983. Therein he opined that machinery and equipment involved in the production of oil and gas are not subject to ad valorem taxation for the ad valorem tax year beginning July 1 only if gross production tax was levied on oil or gas produced thereby during the gross production tax month covering the preceeding January 1. The appellants, Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Producers Assn., and two oil producers, plaintiffs below, contend that the language of 68 O.S.Supp.1988 § 1001(h) permits substitution of gross production tax for ad valorem tax if production and taxation occur any time during the year, and that the January first date, which marks the statutory assessment date for ad valorem taxation, fails to apply to gross production taxation.

The confusion is understandable. The statutory scheme for taxing personal property ad valorem rotates around a fiscal year, commencing July 1. The property must be listed and assessed as of January 1 preceeding the fiscal year. Okla. Const. Art. 10, § 1; 68 O.S.1981 § 2427(a); Appeal of Crescent Precision Products, Inc., 516 P.2d 275, 277 (Okla.1973). A statutory exemption to ad valorem taxability exists for property “actually necessary and being used and in use in the production of ... oil ... or ... gas,” 68 O.S.Supp.1988 § 1001(i), provided that gross production tax is paid on the oil and gas produced with the aid of the property sought to be exempted. The gross production tax, however, which is “in lieu of” ad valorem taxes, 68 O.S.Supp.1988 § 1001(h)5 is in no way tied to a fiscal year reporting system. Rather it becomes “due on the first day of each calendar month on all ... oil ... or ... gas produced in and saved during the preceding monthly period....” 68 O.S.1981 § 1009(b).

This case must decide the mechanics for harmonizing interplay between the two tax schemes, and we must determine when gross production tax must have been levied and eventually paid in order to trigger the exempting provisions of section 1001(i). Several cases appear to support the Attorney General’s position that January 1 is the date by which gross production tax must have been levied in order for the substitute tax to apply. See, e.g. In re: Sinclair [112]*112Prairie Oil Company, 53 P.2d 221 (Okla.1935); Board of County Commissioners v. Central Baptist Church, 136 Okl. 99, 276 P.726 (1929); In re: Assessment of Champlin Refining Company, 186 Okl. 625, 99 P.2d 880 (1940).

Read together, these cases support the January first theory. In Sinclair, this court reversed the trial court’s order in favor of the treasurer of Seminole County, and held that oil in “stock tanks” which was being tested and valued on January first was not subject to ad valorem taxes because the oil was not yet in storage, i.e. the oil was still necessary and being used in the production process. The court examined the existing statutes (predecessors to 68 O.S., 1001 et seq.), and determined that

the taxable status of property for the purpose of assessment for ad valorem purposes is fixed and determined as of January 1, and the machinery, appliances, and equipment used in the production of oil and subject to gross production tax on January 1 of any year are not subject to assessment ad valo-rem for taxes for the succeeding fiscal year. Sinclair, supra at 222 (court’s syllabus; emphasis added)

The court then analyzed the statutes which required that all taxable property be assessed ad valorem, and determined that those sections meant

that property, to be legally assessed ad valorem, must be within that class of property subject to such taxation on the assessment day. Assessing officials may not look beyond the time fixed for assessment in an effort to ascertain the taxability of property, but the question of its taxability must be determined as of the time fixed by law for such purpose. Sinclair at 227.

In explaining its ruling, the court cited its previous ruling in Board of County Commissioners v. Central Baptist Church, 136 Okl. 99, 276 P. 726 (1929). Here, the court held that the ownership status of property on January 1 subjected the property at issue to ad valorem taxation notwithstanding the fact that the property was transferred to a non-taxable purpose before the county excise board had approved the levies for Commanche County for the fiscal year. In so holding, the court found that “the purpose and object of said section is to fix a definite date or period upon or from which to determine the taxable status of property.” Central Baptist Church 276 P.2d at 729. (our emphasis)

The Attorney General, in attempting to reconcile the adamant language of those cases and ad valorem statutes with the language of 68 O.S.1981 § 1009 asserted that the provisions of the gross production scheme can only be triggered if the tax is levied during the gross production month covering the January first ad valorem assessment date. As earlier noted, gross production tax falls due “on the first day of each calendar month on all ... oil ... or ... gas ... produced in and saved during the preceeding monthly period....” 68 O.S.Supp.1987 § 1009(b).

The Champlin Refining case further supports the theory that January first controls:

[O]il in storage on January 1 of any year is properly assessed for general ad valo-rem taxation for the next succeeding fiscal year beginning the following July 1, regardless, when, before January 1, the oil was produced and the production tax thereon paid. Champlin [99 P.2d] at 881.

The rule continued to evolve with the case of Colonial Royalties v. Sitler,

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Bluebook (online)
1988 OK 146, 769 P.2d 109, 102 Oil & Gas Rep. 214, 1988 Okla. LEXIS 162, 1988 WL 135522, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-independent-petroleum-assn-v-youngker-okla-1988.