OXY USA Inc. v. Mesa County Board of Commissioners

Citations

• 2017 CO 104
• 405 P.3d 1142

Syllabus

Taxation—Abatement—Overvaluation. The Supreme Court held that CRS § 39-10-114(1)(a)(I)(A) allows abatement and refund for illegally or erroneously levied taxes based on overvaluation caused by taxpayer error. This result follows from the statute's plain text that allows abatement for \overvaluation\ without making a distinction between government- and taxpayer-caused overvaluations. The Court rejected the Court of Appeals' holding that Coquina Oil Corp. v. Larimer County Board of Equalization, 770 P.2d 1196 (Colo. 1989), and Boulder County Board of Commissioners v. HealthSouth Corp., 246 P.3d 948 (Colo. 2011), require a different result. Coquina was superseded by the 1991 legislative amendment that added \overvaluation\ as a ground for abatement, and HealthSouth's holding was limited to intentional taxpayer overvaluations. The Court reversed the Court of Appeals' judgment and remanded for further proceedings.