Request By:
Benjamin J. Lookofsky
Graves County Attorney
Graves County Courthouse
Mayfield, KY 42066
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your December 31, 1979, letter to the Attorney General an opinion is requested concerning whether religious institutions are exempt from the payment of the three percent (3%) utilities gross receipts license tax for schools.
Under KRS 160.613 the utility gross receipts license tax for schools is applied to the gross receipts of a utility furnishing, within the county, telephonic and telegraphic communications services, electric power, water and natural, artificial and mixed gases. The tax is levied by the fiscal court at the request of the school district board of education. See KRS 160.603. Any utility required to pay the tax may increase its rates in any county in which it pays the tax by three percent (3%).
A utility increasing its rates is required to separately state on the bills sent to its customers the amount of its increase and identify such amount as "rate increase for school tax." See KRS 160.617. The only gross receipts not covered by the tax are those received for energy-furnishing or energy-producing fuels in the course of manufacturing, processing, mining, or refining. See KRS 160.613.
Since the tax is denominated a rate increase with only those exceptions set out in the statute, religious institutions would not be exempt from paying the tax.