AN
ACT Relating to the ad valorem taxation of vessels or ferries used for the
conveyance for compensation of either persons or property, or both, between
fixed termini or over a regular route; amending RCW 84.12.200, 84.12.280,
84.12.330, 84.12.360, 84.36.080, and 84.40.036; and providing an effective
date.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE
LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
Sec.
1. RCW
84.12.200 and 1994 c 124 s 13 are each amended to read as follows:
For
the purposes of this chapter and unless otherwise required by the context:
(1)
"Department" without other designation means the department of
revenue of the state of Washington.
(2)
"Railroad company" means and includes any person owning or operating
a railroad, street railway, suburban railroad or interurban railroad in this
state, whether its line of railroad be maintained at the surface, or above or
below the surface of the earth, or by whatever power its vehicles are
transported; or owning any station, depot, terminal or bridge for railroad
purposes, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(3)
"Airplane company" means and includes any person owning, controlling,
operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in
connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and transportation of persons
and/or property by aircraft, and engaged in the business of transporting
persons and/or property for compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(4)
"Electric light and power company" means and includes any person
owning, controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or
to be used for or in connection with or to facilitate the generation,
transmission or distribution of electricity in this state, and engaged in the
business of furnishing, transmitting, distributing or generating electrical
energy for light, heat or power for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(5)
"Telegraph company" means and includes any person owning,
controlling, operating or managing any telegraph or cable line in this state,
with appliances for the transmission of messages, and engaged in the business
of furnishing telegraph service for compensation, as owner, lessee or
otherwise.
(6)
"Telephone company" means and includes any person owning,
controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be
used for or in connection with or to facilitate the transmission of
communication by telephone in this state-owned or controlled exchanges and/or
switchboards, and engaged in the business of furnishing telephonic
communication for compensation as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(7)
"Gas company" means and includes any person owning, controlling,
operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be used for or in
connection with or to facilitate the manufacture, transportation, or
distribution of natural or manufactured gas in this state, and engaged for
compensation in the business of furnishing gas for light, heat, power or other
use, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(8)
"Pipe line company" means and includes any person owning,
controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be
used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance or
transportation of oils, natural or manufactured gas and/or other substances, except
water, by pipe line in this state, and engaged in such business for
compensation, as owner, lessee or otherwise.
(9)
(("Steamboat company" means and includes any person owning,
controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be
used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and
transportation of persons and/or property by vessel or ferry, upon the waters
within this state, including the rivers and lakes and Puget Sound, between
fixed termini or over a regular route, and engaged in the business of
transporting persons and/or property for compensation as owner, lessee or
otherwise.
(10)))
"Logging railroad company" means and includes any person owning,
controlling, operating or managing real or personal property, used or to be
used for or in connection with or to facilitate the conveyance and
transportation of forest products by rail in this state, and engaged in the
business of transporting forest products either as private carrier or carrier
for hire.
(((11)))
(10) "Person" means and includes any individual, firm,
copartnership, joint venture, association, corporation, trust, or any other
group acting as a unit, whether mutual, cooperative or otherwise, and/or
trustees or receivers appointed by any court.
(((12)))
(11) "Company" means and includes any railroad company, ((motor
vehicle transportation company,)) airplane company, electric light and
power company, telegraph company, telephone company, gas company, pipe line
company, ((steamboat company,)) or logging railroad company; and the
term "companies" means and includes all of such companies.
(((13)))
(12) "Operating property" means and includes all property,
real and personal, owned by any company, or held by it as occupant, lessee or
otherwise, including all franchises and lands, buildings, rights-of-way, water
powers, motor vehicles, wagons, horses, aircraft, aerodromes, hangars, office
furniture, water mains, gas mains, pipe lines, pumping stations, tanks, tank
farms, holders, reservoirs, telephone lines, telegraph lines, transmission and
distribution lines, dams, generating plants, poles, wires, cables, conduits,
switch boards, devices, appliances, instruments, equipment, machinery, ((vessels,
ferries,)) landing slips, docks, roadbeds, tracks, terminals, rolling stock
equipment, appurtenances and all other property of a like or different kind,
situate within the state of Washington, used by the company in the conduct of
its operations; and, in case of personal property used partly within and partly
without the state, it means and includes a proportion of such personal property
to be determined as in this chapter provided.
(((14)))
(13) "Nonoperating property" means all physical property owned
by any company, other than that used during the preceding calendar year in the
conduct of its operations. It includes all lands and/or buildings wholly used
by any person other than the owning company. In cases where lands and/or
buildings are used partially by the owning company in the conduct of its
operations and partially by any other person not assessable under this chapter
under lease, sublease, or other form of tenancy, the operating and nonoperating
property of the company whose property is assessed hereunder shall be
determined by the department of revenue in such manner as will, in its
judgment, secure the separate valuation of such operating and nonoperating
property upon a fair and equitable basis. The amount of operating revenue
received from tenants or occupants of property of the owning company shall not
be considered material in determining the classification of such property.
Sec.
2. RCW
84.12.280 and 1997 c 3 s 114 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
In making the assessment of the operating property of any railroad or logging
railroad company and in the apportionment of the values and the taxation
thereof, all land occupied and claimed exclusively as the right-of-way for
railroads, with all the tracks and substructures and superstructures which
support the same, together with all side tracks, second tracks, turn-outs,
station houses, depots, round houses, machine shops, or other buildings
belonging to the company, used in the operation thereof, without separating the
same into land and improvements, shall be assessed as real property. And the
rolling stock and other movable property belonging to any railroad or logging
railroad company shall be considered as personal property and taxed as such:
PROVIDED, That all of the operating property of street railway companies shall
be assessed and taxed as personal property.
(2)
All of the operating property of airplane companies, telegraph companies, pipe
line companies, ((water companies and toll bridge companies; the floating
equipment of steamboat companies,)) and all of the operating property other
than lands and buildings of electric light and power companies, telephone
companies, and gas companies ((and heating companies)) shall be
assessed and taxed as personal property.
(3)
Notwithstanding subsections (1) and (2) of this section, the limit provided
under RCW 84.40.0305 shall be applied in the assessment of property under this
section to the same extent as that limit is generally applied to property not
assessed under this chapter.
Sec.
3. RCW
84.12.330 and 1997 c 3 s 116 are each amended to read as follows:
Upon
the assessment roll shall be placed after the name of each company a general
description of the operating property of the company, which shall be considered
sufficient if described in the language of RCW 84.12.200(((13))) (12),
as applied to the company, following which shall be entered the assessed value
of the operating property as determined by the department of revenue. No
assessment shall be invalidated by reason of a mistake in the name of the
company assessed, or the omission of the name of the owner or by the entry as
owner of a name other than that of the true owner. When the department of
revenue shall have prepared the assessment roll and entered thereon the
assessed value of the operating property of the company, as herein required, it
shall notify the company by mail of the valuation determined by it and entered
upon the roll.
Sec.
4. RCW
84.12.360 and 1997 c 3 s 118 are each amended to read as follows:
The
value of the operating property assessed to a company, as fixed and determined
by the department of revenue, shall be apportioned by the department of revenue
to the respective counties and to the taxing districts thereof wherein such
property is located in the following manner:
(1)
Property of all railroad companies other than street railroad companies,
telegraph companies and pipe line companies‑-upon the basis of that
proportion of the value of the total operating property within the state which
the mileage of track, as classified by the department of revenue (in case of
railroads), mileage of wire (in the case of telegraph companies), and mileage
of pipe line (in the case of pipe line companies) within each county or taxing
district bears to the total mileage thereof within the state, at the end of the
calendar year last past. For the purpose of such apportionment the department
may classify railroad track.
(2)
Property of street railroad companies, telephone companies, electric light and
power companies, and gas companies((, water companies, heating
companies and toll bridge companies))‑-upon the basis of relative
value of the operating property within each county and taxing district to the value
of the total operating property within the state to be determined by such
factors as the department of revenue shall deem proper.
(3)
Planes or other aircraft of airplane companies ((and watercraft of steamboat
companies))‑-upon the basis of such factor or factors of allocation,
to be determined by the department of revenue, as will secure a substantially
fair and equitable division between counties and other taxing districts.
All
other property of airplane companies ((and steamboat companies))‑-upon
the basis set forth in subsection (2) of this section.
The
basis of apportionment with reference to all public utility companies above
prescribed shall not be deemed exclusive and the department of revenue in
apportioning values of such companies may also take into consideration such
other information, facts, circumstances, or allocation factors as will enable
it to make a substantially just and correct valuation of the operating property
of such companies within the state and within each county thereof.
Sec.
5. RCW
84.36.080 and 1986 c 229 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
All ships and vessels which are exempt from excise tax under subsection (2) of
RCW 82.49.020 and excepted from the registration requirements of
subsection (10) of RCW 88.02.030 shall be and are hereby made exempt from all
ad valorem taxes, except taxes levied for any state purpose.
(2)
All ships and vessels listed in the state or federal register of historical
places are exempt from all ad valorem taxes.
Sec.
6. RCW
84.40.036 and 1986 c 229 s 2 are each amended to read as follows:
(1)
As used in this section, "apportionable vessel" means a ship or
vessel((, other than one operated by a steamboat company as defined in RCW
84.12.200,)) which is:
(a)
Engaged in interstate commerce;
(b)
Engaged in foreign commerce; and/or
(c)
Engaged exclusively in fishing, tendering, harvesting, and/or processing
seafood products on the high seas or waters under the jurisdiction of other
states.
(2)
The value of each apportionable vessel shall be apportioned to this state based
on the number of days or fractions of days that the vessel is within this state
during the preceding calendar year: PROVIDED, That if the total number of days
the vessel is within the limits of the state does not exceed one hundred twenty
for the preceding calendar year, no value shall be apportioned to this state. For
the purposes of this subsection (2), a fraction of a day means more than
sixteen hours in a calendar day.
(3)
((Days)) Time during which an apportionable vessel is in the
state ((exclusively)) for one or more of the following purposes shall
not be considered as ((days)) time within this state, if the
length of time is reasonable for the purpose:
(a)
Undergoing repair or alteration;
(b)
Taking on or discharging cargo, passengers, or supplies; and
(c)
Serving as a tug for a vessel under (a) or (b) of this subsection.
(4)
Days during which an apportionable vessel leaves this state only while
navigating the high seas in order to travel between points in this state shall
be considered as days within this state.
NEW SECTION. Sec. 7. This
act takes effect January 1, 1999.
