FuelCell Energy, Inc. v. Groton

Citations

• 350 Conn. 1

Syllabus

The defendant, the town of Groton, appealed from the judgment of the trial court. The trial court had sustained the plaintiff's appeal from the defendant's denial of the plaintiff's applications seeking municipal property tax exemp- tions for certain of the plaintiff's fuel cell modules and related equipment. On appeal, the defendant claimed, inter alia, that the trial court, in concluding that the property at issue was exempt from taxation, had improperly con- strued the statute (§ 12-81 (57)) exempting class I renewable energy sources from municipal taxation and claimed that § 12-81 (63), which permits but does not require municipalities to exempt congeneration systems from taxa- tion, controlled. Held: The plaintiff was entitled to a tax exemption under § 12-81 (57) for tax years 2017 through 2019, and, accordingly, this court upheld the trial court's determination that the property at issue should have been exempted from taxation under § 12-81 (57) rather than under § 12-81 (63) for those tax years. The trial court correctly determined that, for the 2016 tax year, the property at issue constituted goods in the process of manufacture and was therefore exempt from taxation in that tax year under § 12-81 (50). This court upheld the trial court's determination that the plaintiff was not required to file with the defendant a declaration of the personal property at issue, as such property was not subject to taxation, and the penalties 1 that the defendant levied for the plaintiff's failure to file that declaration therefore were not permitted. Argued February 7—officially released July 24, 2024