Florida/Georgia Personal Injury & Workers Compensation

...of ad valorem taxes by reason of the provision of this chapter, and to make it possible for the board of county commissioners of such county to provide the additional public services that will be required in a county where oil and gas are produced." Section 211.13 of the Act prohibits the imposition by any other taxing unit of an additional excise tax and directs the several tax assessors of the counties and cities not to increase the value of the land for ad valorem tax purposes because of the...

...gas for the reason that "it is impossible under known valuation methods to accurately ascertain the true value of oil and gas in place and taxation thereof is more certainly accomplished after its capture or severance from the earth or water." Sec. 211.13....

...n of the location thereon of any producing oil or gas equipment or machinery used in and around any oil or gas well and actually used in the operation thereof and no ad valorem tax shall be imposed upon such producing equipment and machinery. " Sec. 211.13, Fla....

...he Legislature has, by necessary implication, changed its previously expressed policy of exempting from ad valorem taxation any right, title or interest in gas or oil in place, whether owned separately or held intact by the owner of the surface. See § 211.13 et seq., Fla....

...Stat., F.S.A., levying a severance tax on the production of oil and gas and providing, in substance, that the value of the surface of the land shall not be increased for ad valorem tax purposes by reason of the fact that oil or gas may, or does, exist under the surface of such land. § 211.13....

...n place, regardless of whether the title thereto is in the owner of the surface or in a separate ownership. By necessary implication, the Legislature must have intended, in enacting § 193.221, to repeal to some extent the tax exemption conferred by § 211.13, as to separately owned oil and gas rights....

...Nor does § 193.221 require the tax assessor to take into consideration the value of separately owned sub-surface rights in oil or gas in fixing the value of the surface, where not separately assessed against the owner of such sub-surface rights, and thus effect, by necessary implication, a repeal of the provisions of § 211.13 referred to above....

...enforcement are obvious. And, I'm sure, the members of the legislature charged with the duty of drafting these laws are aware of this even more than we are. Moreover, it seems to me they have already spoken on this subject, when, in the enactment of § 211.13 F.S.A....

...S.) Among other factors attributable to an excise tax, the depletion tax is figured on the amount of business done, not on the value of the asset concerned. This conclusion is bolstered by Small v. Sun Oil Company, 222 So.2d 196 (Fla. 1969). The court was required to construe s. 211.13 , F. S. 1975, dealing with an oil and gas `severance' tax. The court called the severance tax an excise tax. Indeed, s. 211.13 itself begins `[n]o other excise or license tax in addition to the tax provided herein . . . .' [Section 211.13 , F....

...1975; emphasis supplied.] Having concluded the depletion tax in question is an excise tax (or `other' tax as used in s. 9(a), Art. VII, State Const.), it must now be determined if the depletion tax is authorized by general law as required in s. 9(a), Art. VII. Section 211.13 , F....

...I would also like to make some additional comments pertinent to the subject. Because of the affirmative duty of the taxing authority to show a general law as authority for an excise tax, the lack of a provision in part II comparable to the directive in s. 211.13 (in part I), that `[n]o other excise or license tax' shall be imposed is not material and does not govern your question....

...the payment of the tangible personal property tax owing on the producing equipment. There are no factual issues. The determination of the issues turns on the case of Small v. Sun Oil Company, 222 So.2d 196 (Fla.1969) and the subsequent amendment to Section 211.13, Florida Statutes (1971)....

...Sun Oil Company, supra, was decided, imposed an excise tax of 5% on the production of oil and gas in the state. Eighty percent of the tax would go to the state’s general revenue fund and the remaining 20% to the county in which the oil and gas was produced. Section 211.13, Florida Statutes (1967) prohibited the value of land for ad valorem taxes from being increased by the location of any oil or gas equipment used on the land, and any additional ad valorem tax from being imposed upon such equipment....

...o.2d at 200-201 . (Emphasis in original.) The producer, Sun Oil Company, was allowed to set off the amount owed in ad valorem taxes on its equipment against the 1% severance tax paid. We find, however, the Small decision is inapplicable here because Section 211.13 has since been amended to delete the statute’s invalid portion, which had provided “and no ad valorem tax shall be imposed upon such producing equipment and machinery”. The above portion, though found unconstitutional, was considered by the Supreme Court in determining the legislative intent. With the deletion of the above language from Section 211.13 by Chapter 72-360, Laws of Florida (1972), there is no longer a legislative intent by which we can validly determine a set-off should be made against the severance tax for any ad valorem taxes due on equipment....

valuing these severed subsurface mineral rights. Section 211.13, Florida Statutes (1981), in chapter 211, which

legislature admonished property appraisers in Section 211.13 that, “when assessing the value of any land