HOUSE BILL NO. 511

INTRODUCED BY D. EWER

A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: "AN ACT REVISING LOCAL GOVERNMENT FINANCING LAWS; REQUIRING THAT ONLY PROPERTY TAXES AND FEES PAID IN PROTEST IN AN AMOUNT OF $100 OR MORE BE DEPOSITED IN THE COUNTY PROTEST FUND; REVISING THE INTEREST RATE PAID TO A SUCCESSFUL TAX PROTESTER; REQUIRING THE DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE TO PROVIDE COUNTIES WITH A LIST OF ALL OFFICES AND BRANCHES OF BANKS AND SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS WITHIN THE COUNTY AND THE AMOUNT OF CORPORATE TAXES, INTEREST, AND PENALTIES TO BE DISTRIBUTED TO EACH TAXING JURISDICTION WITHIN THE COUNTY WITH RESPECT TO THOSE BANKS AND SAVINGS AND LOAN ASSOCIATIONS; AND AMENDING SECTIONS 15-1-402 AND 15-31-702, MCA."

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MONTANA:

Section 1. Section 15-1-402, MCA, is amended to read:

"15-1-402. Payment of taxes under protest. (1) The person upon whom a property tax or fee is being imposed under this title may, before the property tax or fee becomes delinquent, pay under written protest that portion of the property tax or fee protested. The protested payment must:

(a) be made to the officer designated and authorized to collect it;

(b) specify the grounds of protest; and

(c) not exceed the difference between the payment for the immediately preceding tax year and the amount owing in the tax year protested unless a different amount results from the specified grounds of protest, which may include but are not limited to changes in assessment due to reappraisal under 15-7-111.

(2) A person appealing a property tax or fee pursuant to chapter 2 or 15 shall pay the tax or fee under protest when due in order to receive a refund. If the tax or fee is not paid under protest when due, the appeal may continue but a tax or fee may not be refunded as a result of the appeal.

(3) If a protested property tax or fee is payable in installments, a subsequent installment portion considered unlawful by the state tax appeal board need not be paid and an action or suit need not be commenced to recover the subsequent installment. The determination of the action or suit commenced to recover the first installment portion paid under protest determines the right of the party paying the subsequent installment to have it or any part of it refunded to the party or the right of the taxing authority to collect a subsequent installment not paid by the taxpayer plus interest from the date the subsequent installment was due.

(4) All property taxes and fees paid under protest to a county or municipality that are in an amount of $100 or more per tax statement must be deposited by the treasurer of the county or municipality to the credit of a special fund to be designated as a protest fund and must be retained in the protest fund until the final determination of any action or suit to recover the taxes and fees unless they are released at the request of the county, municipality, or other local taxing jurisdiction pursuant to subsection (5). This section does not prohibit the investment of the money of this fund in the state unified investment program or in any manner provided in Title 7, chapter 6. The provision creating the special protest fund does not apply to any payments made under protest directly to the state.

(5) The governing board of a taxing jurisdiction affected by the payment of taxes under protest in the second and subsequent years that a tax protest remains unresolved may demand that the treasurer of the county or municipality pay the requesting taxing jurisdiction all or a portion of the protest payments to which it is entitled, except the amount paid by the taxpayer in the first year of the protest. The decision in a previous year of a taxing jurisdiction to leave protested taxes in the protest fund does not preclude it from demanding in a subsequent year any or all of the payments to which it is entitled, except the first-year protest amount.

(6) (a) If action before the county tax appeal board, state tax appeal board, or district court is not commenced within the time specified or if the action is commenced and finally determined in favor of the department of revenue, county, municipality, or treasurer of the county or the municipality, the amount of the protested portions of the property tax or fee must be taken from the protest fund and deposited to the credit of the fund or funds to which the property tax belongs, less a pro rata deduction for the costs of administration of the protest fund and related expenses charged the local government units.

(b) If the action is finally determined adversely to the department of revenue, a county, a municipality, or the treasurer of a county or a municipality, then the treasurer shall, upon receiving a certified copy of the final judgment in the action from the state tax appeal board or from the district or supreme court, as appropriate, if the final action of the state tax appeal board is appealed in the time prescribed, refund to the person in whose favor the judgment is rendered the amount of the protested portions of the property tax or fee deposited in the protest fund, and not released pursuant to subsection (5), as the person holding the judgment is entitled to recover, together with interest from the date of payment under protest, at the greater of:

(i) the rate of interest generated from the pooled investment fund provided for in 17-6-203 for the applicable period; or

(ii) 5% a year.

(c) If the amount retained in the protest fund is insufficient to pay all sums due the taxpayer, the treasurer shall apply the available amount first to tax repayment, then interest owed, and lastly to costs.

(d) If the protest action is decided adversely to a taxing jurisdiction and the amount retained in the protest fund is insufficient to refund the tax payments and costs to which the taxpayer is entitled and for which local government units are responsible, the treasurer shall bill and the taxing jurisdiction shall refund to the treasurer that portion of the taxpayer refund, including tax payments and costs, for which the taxing jurisdiction is proratably responsible.

(e) In satisfying the requirements of subsection (6)(d), the taxing jurisdiction is allowed not more than 1 year from the beginning of the fiscal year following a final resolution of the protest. The taxpayer is entitled to interest on the unpaid balance at the greater of the rates referred to in subsections (6)(b)(i) and (6)(b)(ii) from the date of payment under protest until the date of final resolution of the protest and at the combined rate of the federal reserve discount rate quoted from the federal reserve bank in New York, New York, on the date of final resolution, plus four percentage points, from the date of final resolution of the protest until refund is made.

(7) A taxing jurisdiction may satisfy the requirements of this section by use of funds from one or more of the following sources:

(a) imposition of a property tax to be collected by a special tax protest refund levy;

(b) the general fund, except that amount generated by the all-purpose mill levy, or any other funds legally available to the governing body; and

(c) proceeds from the sale of bonds issued by a county, city, or school district for the purpose of deriving revenue for the repayment of tax protests lost by the taxing jurisdiction. The governing body of a county, city, or school district is authorized to issue the bonds pursuant to procedures established by law. The bonds may be issued without being submitted to an election. Property taxes may be levied to amortize the bonds."

Section 2. Section 15-31-702, MCA, is amended to read:

"15-31-702. Distribution of corporation license taxes collected from banks or savings and loan associations. (1) All corporation license taxes, interest, and penalties collected from banks and savings and loan associations must, in accordance with the provisions of 15-1-501, be distributed in the following manner:

(a) Twenty percent must be allocated as provided in 15-1-501(3).

(b)(i) Eighty percent is statutorily appropriated, as provided in 17-7-502, for allocation to the various taxing jurisdictions within the county in which a bank or savings and loan association is located.

(ii) The department shall furnish to each county information containing the location of each office or branch of a bank or savings and loan within the county, and the department shall inform the county of the amount of corporate license taxes, interest, and penalties to be distributed pursuant to this subsection to each taxing jurisdiction within the county.

(2) The corporation license taxes, interest, and penalties distributed under subsection (1)(b) must be allocated to each taxing jurisdiction in the proportion that its mill levy for that fiscal year bears to the total mill levy of the taxing authorities of the district in which the bank or savings and loan association is located.

(3) "Taxing jurisdictions" means, for the purposes of this section, all taxing authorities within a county permitted under state law to levy mills against the taxable value of property in the taxing district in which the bank or savings and loan association is located.

(4) If a return filed by a bank or savings and loan association involves branches or offices in more than one taxing jurisdiction, the department shall provide a method by rule for equitable distribution among those taxing jurisdictions.

(5) All corporation license taxes paid from consolidated returns in which 50% or more of the income is from banks or savings and loan associations must be distributed as provided in subsection (1).

(6) (a) The department shall annually distribute to each county having a bank or savings and loan association a percentage of the total amount collected pursuant to subsection (1), including penalties, interest, or additional taxes from assessments and less any refunds, from July 1 of the previous year through June 30 of the current year. The distribution must be sent to each county treasurer for distribution to the taxing jurisdictions in each district on or before August 1 of each year.

(b) The percentage for distribution must be calculated by taking an average of the ratios of total bank tax liability within a school district to total bank tax liability for all school districts in which a bank or savings and loan association is located in each of the 5 years preceding the current year. The total tax liability must be computed for each year by including all returns filed during that year and all amended returns and adjustments to tax filings made by the department during that year, no matter to which tax year the amended return actually applied."

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