Colorado § 42-3-106 - Tax imposed - classification - taxable value.

§ 42-3-106. Tax imposed - classification - taxable value.

(1) The owner of each item of classified personal property shall pay an annual specific ownership tax unless exempted by this article. Such specific ownership tax shall be annually computed in accordance with section 42-3-107 in lieu of all annual ad valorem taxes.

(2) For the purpose of imposing graduated annual specific ownership taxes, the personal property specified in section 6 of article X of the state constitution is classified as follows:

(a) Every motor vehicle, truck, laden or unladen truck tractor, trailer, and semitrailer used in the business of transporting persons or property over any public highway in this state as an interstate commercial carrier for which an application is made for apportioned registration, regardless of base jurisdiction, shall be Class A personal property.

(b) Every truck, laden or unladen truck tractor, trailer, and semitrailer used for the purpose of transporting property over any public highway in this state and not included in Class A shall be Class B personal property; except that multipurpose trailers shall be Class D personal property.

(c) Every motor vehicle not included in Class A or Class B shall be Class C personal property.

(d) Every utility trailer, camper trailer, multipurpose trailer, and trailer coach shall be Class D personal property.

(e) Every item of special mobile machinery, except power takeoff equipment, that is required to be registered under this article 3 or that is covered by a registration exempt certificate issued by the department in accordance with section 42-3-107 (16)(g) is Class F personal property. If a farm tractor, meeting the definition of special mobile machinery, is used for any purpose other than agricultural production for more than a seventy-two-hour period at the site where it is used for nonagricultural purposes, it is Class F personal property, but it is granted a prorated registration under section 42-3-107 to cover the use. The authorized agent shall notify the owner of the farm tractor of the prorated registration. Storing a farm tractor at a site does not give rise to a presumption that the tractor was used for the same purposes that other equipment is used for at the site.

(3) (a) An owner of a vehicle shall not permanently attach to the vehicle mounted equipment unless:

(I) The owner applies for registration of the mounted equipment to the authorized agent in the county where the equipment is required to be registered within twenty days after the equipment is mounted to the vehicle; or

(II) The mounted equipment is power takeoff equipment.

(b) The application shall be on forms prescribed by the department and shall describe the equipment to be mounted, including serial number, make, model, year of manufacture, weight, and cost.

(4) The taxable value of every item of classified personal property shall be the value determined for the year of its manufacture or the year it is designated by the manufacturer as a current model, and such determined taxable value shall not change. Regardless of the date of acquisition by an owner, the year of manufacture or the year for which designated by the manufacturer as a current model shall be considered as the first year of service. The maximum rate of specific ownership taxation shall apply to the taxable value in the first year of service, and annual downward graduations from such maximum rate shall apply to such taxable value for the number of later years of service specified for each class of personal property.

(5) Manufactured homes shall not be classified for purposes of imposing specific ownership taxes but shall be subject to the imposition of ad valorem taxes in the manner provided in part 2 of article 5 of title 39, C.R.S.

(6) (a) If a vehicle and the equipment mounted on the vehicle are the same model year:

(I) The owner of the vehicle and the mounted equipment may register both as Class F personal property; or

(II) The owner of the vehicle may register the vehicle as Class A, Class B, Class C, or Class D personal property and the mounted equipment may be registered as Class F personal property.

(b) If a vehicle and the equipment mounted on the vehicle are different model years:

(I) The owner of the vehicle shall register the vehicle as Class A, Class B, Class C, or Class D personal property; and

(II) The owner of the vehicle shall register the mounted equipment as Class F personal property.

Source: L. 2005: Entire article amended with relocations, p. 1079, § 2, effective August 8. L. 2008: (2)(b) and (2)(d) amended, p. 638, § 2, effective August 5. L. 2010: (2)(e) and (3) amended, (SB 10-144), ch. 289, p. 1345, § 2, effective July 1; (2)(e) amended and (6) added, (HB 10-1172), ch. 320, p. 1488, § 5, effective October 1. L. 2011: (2)(e) amended, (HB 11-1093), ch. 258, p. 1132, § 1, effective June 2. L. 2021: (2)(e) amended, (SB 21-257), ch. 478, p. 3417, § 2, effective July 1, 2022.

Editor's note: Amendments to subsection (2)(e) by House Bill 10-1172 and Senate Bill 10-144 were harmonized.

ANNOTATION

Annotator's note. Since § 42-3-106 is similar to § 42-3-106 as it existed prior to the 2005 amendment to article 3 of title 42, which resulted in the relocation of provisions, relevant cases construing that provision and its predecessors have been included in the annotations to this section.

The facial disparity in this section and § 42-3-107 between ownership tax rates applicable to interstate and intrastate vehicles ten years old and older violated the Commerce Clause of the United States Constitution where trucking company was able to show that the statutes discriminated against interstate commerce by unfairly imposing an economic disadvantage upon interstate carriers that operated vehicles subject to the tax. Riverton Produce Co. v. State, 871 P.2d 1213 (Colo. 1994).

The court concluded that the discriminatory provisions of this section and § 42-3-107 were severable from the remainder of the statutes where the discrimination in tax rates was not "inextricably intertwined" with the valid provisions and where severing the disparity between interstate and intrastate vehicles would not frustrate the legislature's efforts to raise revenue for the maintenance of its roads and highways. Riverton Produce Co. v. State, 871 P.2d 1213 (Colo. 1994).

Specific ownership tax is in lieu of ad valorem taxes. The so-called specific ownership tax on motor vehicles and trailers authorized by this section is a tax directly fixed according to a prescribed method with reference to each particular vehicle by the statute itself, and is in lieu of any and all ad valorem taxes. N. Colo. Water Conservancy Dist. v. Witwer, 108 Colo. 307, 116 P.2d 200 (1941).

After having "elected" to make application for the registration of its special mobile equipment and having in fact paid a special ownership tax thereon, the owner of such property is not thereafter subject to assessment by the county assessor by virtue of § 6 of art. X, Colo. Const., which provides, in part, that the graduated annual specific ownership tax shall be in lieu of all ad valorem taxes upon such property. Bd. of County Comm'rs v. E.J. Rippy & Sons, 161 Colo. 261, 421 P.2d 461 (1966).