NORTH COUNTRY RIDER |
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Stables' tax breaks seem to be safe
Horse-boarding stables have won a reprieve from the possibility of losing property-tax breaks that many have received for years.
Brad Flaherty, assistant director of the state Department of Revenue’s Property Tax Division, asked county assessors across the state Friday to hold off on raising taxes on stables that have been considered eligible for the breaks — even if they don’t technically qualify for them.
Flaherty’s request comes after a two-session hearing Thursday that drew more than 200 people to Olympia. Seventy-six testified against interpreting the Open Space Taxation Act of 1970 to mean that stables that don’t offer a full range of boarding, training and breeding services would not qualify for property tax relief of as much as 75 percent.
“I am requesting that you take no enforcement or collection action with respect to the removal or reclassification of property currently in farm and agricultural land until we have the opportunity to work through the rule-making process,” Flaherty wrote in a memo to assessors.
Horse groups, stables and individual owners have worried in recent weeks that the state’s decision to re-examine the rules would result in higher taxes for boarding facilities, leading to higher fees that could price some owners out of the market.
The issue arose when state officials realized that tax assessors in some Washington counties have been allowing the relief for years, even though the Department of Revenue has consistently held that the provision applied only to stables that met the letter of the law.
“A lot of the assessors didn’t know that,” department spokesman Mike Gowrylow explained.
Gowrylow and Flaherty said revenue department officials might have an emergency rule drafted as early as next month, when a second public hearing on the rules is scheduled in Yakima.
“We are working as quickly as possible to review information and provide guidance that will include the issuance of an emergency rule before the end of December,” Flaherty’s memo said.
The Yakima session is set for 1-3 p.m. Dec. 4 in the Upper Terrace Conference Room of the Red Lion Hotel, 607 E. Yakima Ave.
For more information, contact Marilou Rickert in the Department of Revenue’s Interpretations and Technical Advice Division, 360-570-6115 or MarilouR@dor.wa.gov
