Utilities, marketers identify with tax issures in Supreme Court case
- ed.
A recent US Supreme Court decision effectively highlights the continuing disparity that exists in the taxation of regulated vs. nonregulated energy companies that engage in similar activities. While the federal case (General Motors Corp., vs. Tracy) and its decision involved natural gas utilities and natural gas marketers and how they are taxed locally, some noted electric utility industry professionals said the ruling has the potential of impacting the electric utility industry as it deregulates and works through the tax inequities that exist between it and independent unregulated power marketers. According to the Washington, DC-based law firm Chadbourne & Park LLP, under the Supreme Court ruling, which was handed down in late February and favored gas utilities, {open_quotes}a state can discriminate in favor of regulated utilities by exempting natural gas purchased from local distribution companies from sales taxes while collecting taxes on so-called selfhelp gas bought from gas producers at the wellhead or from independent marketers.{close_quotes} The US Supreme Court ruling appears to be important for the electric utility industry and independent power marketers in that there currently exists similar disparities with respect to taxation. The case involved Ohio and a tax it levies on natural gas. Ohio collects a 5 percent sales or use tax on gas purchased for consumption. According to Chadbourne & Park, in Ohio this tax can be as much as 7 percent when local taxes are tacked on to the state`s 5 percent tax. However, local distribution companies (LDC) are exempt from this tax. LDCs are essentially the local natural gas company or companies that many states, such as Ohio, have. In Ohio, these natural gas companies, which have generally been interpreted as those companies that produce, transport and deliver natural gas to Ohio consumers, are fully exempt from sales and use taxes.
- OSTI ID:
- 468404
- Journal Information:
- Electric Light and Power, Journal Name: Electric Light and Power Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 75; ISSN ELLPAJ; ISSN 0013-4120
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Responding to the attacks on municipal bonds
Oil and gas tax handbook, 1986