Assessors seek
higher cap
on property tax liabilities
Association crafted, submitted two bills last year
By Steven
Miller
Nevada’s
county assessors like to pose as advocates for taxpayers.
But for the last year,
they’ve been drafting new legislation that would substantially
increase the tax liabilities of every home or business
property owner.
Two
measures—Senate Bill 394 and Senate Bill 486—were introduced
the last week of March into the 2005 Legislature. Because most
eyes were on the property tax relief issue, the bills drew
little attention. But they reflect bill-draft requests 32-258
and 32-259, submitted by the Nevada Assessors’ Association
last July.
The state
Senate’s Taxation committee—chaired by Mike McGinness,
R-Central Nevada Senatorial District—introduced the bills on
behalf of the assessors.
Both of the
measures are written to remove one of the most important
protections Nevada taxpayers have—NRS 361.228, which protects
all manner of intangible personal property from taxation.
Subsection 1
of NRS 361.228 says “All intangible personal property is
exempt from taxation,” then goes on to spell out the exact
kinds of property it means.
Included,
“without limitation,” are shares of stock, bonds, mortgages,
notes, bank deposits, company goodwill, customer lists,
patents, trademarks, custom computer programs, copyrights,
trade secrets, franchises and licenses, etc.
Subsection 2
of NRS 361.228 goes on to say that the value of intangible
personal property cannot be used by assessors to “enhance or
be reflected in the value of real property or tangible
personal property.”
It’s both of
those subsections that the assessors are seeking to nullify
with SB 394 and SB 486. If they succeed, they will be able
calculate significantly higher taxable values for home and
business properties and wring much more out of Nevada
taxpayers.
That’s because
the assessors will have circumvented more well known Nevada
law that says that the “computed taxable value of any property
must not exceed its full cash value.” In both SB 394 and SB
486, new provisions say, “To determine the full cash value of
any property for the purposes of this requirement, the
provisions of subsections 1 and 2 of NRS 361.228 do not
apply.”
Thus, if the
assessors get their way, when they officially proceed to
determine the “full cash value of any property,” they’ll be
able to count almost everything of value that property owners
happen to own.
Members of the
Nevada Assessors Association are all elected politicians. They
include, in Carson City, Dave Dawley; in Churchill County,
Norma Green; in Clark County, Mark W. Schofield; in Douglas
County, Doug Sonnemann; in Elko County, Joe Aguirre; in
Esmeralda County, Ruth Lee; in Eureka County, J. P. “Jim”
Ithurralde; in Humboldt County, William (Jeff) Johnson; in
Lander County, Lura Duvall; in Lincoln County, William Lloyd;
in Lyon County, Mike Glass; in Mineral County, Gloria Hughes;
in Nye County, Sandra Musselman; in Pershing County, Celeste
Hamilton; in Storey County, Kathy Weeks; in Washoe County,
Robert Mcgowan, and in White Pine County, Robert Bishop.
