Request By:
Mr. James Monroe
Executive Director
Providence Housing Authority
434 Center Ridge Drive
Providence, Kentucky 42450
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Alex W. Rose, Assistant Attorney General
In your letter to the Attorney General you ask whether the Providence Housing Authority, a tax exempt organization, should be required to pay the utility gross receipts license tax levied by KRS 160.613.
In
Luckett v. Electric and Water Plant Board of the City of Frankfort, Ky., 558 S.W.2d 611 (1977), the Kentucky Supreme Court held that the utility gross receipts license tax is levied on the utility company, not its customers. The utility company may raise its rates under KRS 160.617 to compensate for the tax, but this does not make it a tax levied on the customers. It remains the utility company's liability.
Consequently, the Providence Housing Authority is not paying the utility gross receipts license tax, it is paying for utility services.