Request By:
John L. Arnett
City Attorney
128 West Dixie Avenue
Elizabethtown, Kentucky 42701
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter the question is whether a motor vehicle leased to a 4th class city by an automobile dealer, the later retaining ownership of the vehicle, is subject to the motor vehicle usage tax under KRS 138.470.
KRS 138.470 sets out 13 different situations in which there is an exemption from the tax imposed by KRS 138.460. Nowhere are there any provisions made for an exemption of usage tax on a transaction of this type. Since exemptions from the tax are the exceptions and the application of the tax is the rule, in the absence of a specific exemption the motor vehicle usage tax applies to the lease of the vehicle so long as title remains in the automobile dealer.