Chapter 013
2011 -- S 0113
Enacted 04/20/11
A N A C T
RELATING TO
TAXATION -- PROPERTY SUBJECT TO TAXATION
Introduced By: Senators DeVall, and DaPonte
Date Introduced: January 27, 2011
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 44-3-3 of the General Laws in Chapter
44-3 entitled "Property
Subject to Taxation"
is hereby amended to read as follows:
44-3-3.
Property exempt. -- The following property is
exempt from taxation.
(1) Property belonging
to the state except as provided in section 44-4-4.1;
(2) Lands ceded or
belonging to the
(3) Bonds and other
securities issued and exempted from taxation by the government of
the
(4) Real estate, used
exclusively for military purposes, owned by chartered or
incorporated organizations approved by the adjutant general, and
composed of members of the
national guard, the naval militia, or the independent
chartered military organizations;
(5) Buildings for free
public schools, buildings for religious worship, and the land upon
which they stand and immediately surrounding them, to an
extent not exceeding five (5) acres so
far as the buildings and land are occupied and used
exclusively for religious or educational
purposes;
(6) Dwellings houses
and the land on which they stand, not exceeding one acre in size,
or the minimum lot size for zone in which the dwelling
house is located, whichever is the greater,
owned by or held in trust for any religious organization
and actually used by its officiating clergy;
provided, further that in the town of
paragraph is exempt in total, along with dwelling houses and
the land on which they stand in
dwelling house is located, whichever is the greater, owned by
or held in trust for any religious
organization and actually used by its officiating clergy, or used
as a convent, nunnery, or retreat
center by its religious order.
(7) Intangible personal
property owned by, or held in trust for, any religious or charitable
organization, if the principal or income is used or appropriated
for religious or charitable
purposes;
(8) Buildings and
personal estate owned by any corporation used for a school, academy,
or seminary of learning, and of any incorporated public
charitable institution, and the land upon
which the buildings stand and immediately surrounding them
to an extent not exceeding one acre,
so far as they are used exclusively for educational
purposes, but no property or estate whatever is
hereafter exempt from taxation in any case where any part of
its income or profits or of the
business carried on there is divided among its owners or
stockholders;
(9) Estates, persons,
and families of the president and professors for the time being of
estate, person, and family included, but only to the extent
that any person had claimed and
utilized the exemption prior to, and for a period ending
either on or after December 31, 1996;
(10) Property
especially exempt by charter unless the exemption has been waived in
whole or in part.
(11) Lots of land
exclusively for burial grounds;
(12) Property, real and
personal, held for or by an incorporated library, society, or any
free public library, or any free public library society,
so far as the property is held exclusively for
library purposes, or for the aid or support of the aged poor,
or poor friendless children, or the poor
generally, or for a hospital for the sick or disabled;
(13) Real or personal
estate belonging to or held in trust for the benefit of incorporated
organizations of veterans of any war in which the
body of which has been incorporated by act of congress, to
the extent of four hundred thousand
dollars ($ 400,000) if actually used and occupied by the
association; provided, that the city
council of the city of
described in this subdivision located within the city of
thousand dollars ($500,000);
(14) Property, real and
personal, held for or by the fraternal corporation, association, or
body created to build and maintain a building or buildings
for its meetings or the meetings of the
general assembly of its members, or subordinate bodies of the
fraternity, and for the
accommodation of other fraternal bodies or associations, the entire
net income of which real and
personal property is exclusively applied or to be used to
build, furnish, and maintain an asylum or
asylums, a home or homes, a school or schools, for the free
education or relief of the members of
the fraternity, or the relief, support, and care of
worthy and indigent members of the fraternity,
their wives, widows, or orphans, and any fund given or held
for the purpose of public education,
almshouses, and the land and buildings used in connection
therewith;
(15) Real estate and
personal property of any incorporated volunteer fire engine
company or incorporated volunteer ambulance or rescue corps
in active service;
(16) The estate of any
person who in the judgment of the assessors is unable from
infirmity or poverty to pay the tax; providing, that in the
town of
constitute a lien for five (5) years on the property where the
owner is entitled to the exemption. At
the expiration of five (5) years, the lien shall be
abated in full. Provided, if the property is sold or
conveyed or if debt secured by the property is refinanced
during the five (5) year period, the lien
immediately becomes due and payable; any person claiming the
exemption aggrieved by an
adverse decision of an assessor shall appeal the decision to
the local board of tax review, and
thereafter according to the provisions of section 44-5-26;
(17) Household
furniture and family stores of a housekeeper in the whole, including
clothing, bedding, and other white goods, books, and all other
tangible personal property items
which are common to the normal household;
(18) Improvements made
to any real property to provide a shelter and fallout protection
from nuclear radiation, to the amount of one thousand five
hundred dollars ($ 1,500); provided,
that the improvements meet applicable standards for
shelter construction established from time to
time by the
comply with the provisions of any building code or ordinance
with respect to the materials or the
methods of construction used and any shelter or its
establishment is deemed to comply with the
provisions of any zoning code or ordinance;
(19) Aircraft for which
the fee required by section 1-4-6 has been paid to the tax
administrator;
(20) Manufacturer's
inventory
(i)
For the purposes of sections 44-4-10, 44-5-3, 44-5-20, and 44-5-38, a person is
deemed to be a manufacturer within a city or town within
this state if that person uses any
premises, room, or place in it primarily for the purpose of
transforming raw materials into a
finished product for trade through any or all of the following
operations: adapting, altering,
finishing, making, and ornamenting; provided, that public
utilities, non-regulated power
producers commencing commercial operation by selling
electricity at retail or taking title to
generating facilities on or after July 1, 1997, building and
construction contractors, warehousing
operations including distribution bases or outlets of out-of-state
manufacturers, and fabricating
processes incidental to warehousing or distribution of raw
materials such as alteration of stock for
the convenience of a customer, are excluded from this
definition.
(ii) For the purposes
of sections 44-3-3, 44-4-10, and 44-5-38, the term "manufacturer's
inventory" or any similar term means and includes the
manufacturer's raw materials, the
manufacturer's work in process, and finished products manufactured
by the manufacturer in this
state, and not sold, leased, or traded by the manufacturer
or its title or right to possession
divested; provided, that the term does not include any
finished products held by the manufacturer
in any retail store or other similar selling place
operated by the manufacturer whether or not the
retail establishment is located in the same building in
which the manufacturer operates the
manufacturing plant.
(iii) For the purpose
of section 44-11-2, a "manufacturer" is a person whose
principal
business in this state consists of transforming raw materials
into a finished product for trade
through any or all of the operations described in paragraph (i) of this subdivision. A person will
be deemed to be principally engaged if the gross
receipts which that person derived from the
manufacturing operations in this state during the calendar year or
fiscal year mentioned in section
44-11-1 amounted to more than fifty percent (50%) of
the total gross receipts which that person
derived from all the business activities in which that person
engaged in this state during the
taxable year. For the purpose of computing the percentage,
gross receipts derived by a
manufacturer from the sale, lease, or rental of finished products
manufactured by the
manufacturer in this state, even though the manufacturer's store
or other selling place may be at a
different location from the location of the manufacturer's
manufacturing plant in this state, are
deemed to have been derived from manufacturing.
(iv)
Within the meaning of the preceding paragraphs of this subdivision, the
term
"manufacturer" also
includes persons who are principally engaged in any of the general activities
coded and listed as establishments engaged in manufacturing
in the standard industrial
classification manual prepared by the technical committee on
industrial classification, office of
statistical standards, executive office of the president,
revised from time to time, but eliminating as manufacturers
those persons, who, because of their
limited type of manufacturing activities, are classified in
the manual as falling within the trade
rather than an industrial classification of manufacturers.
Among those thus eliminated, and
accordingly also excluded as manufacturers within the meaning of
this paragraph, are persons
primarily engaged in selling, to the general public, products
produced on the premises from which
they are sold, such as neighborhood bakeries, candy
stores, ice cream parlors, shade shops, and
custom tailors, except, that a person who manufactures
bakery products for sale primarily for
home delivery, or through one or more non-baking retail
outlets, and whether or not retail outlets
are operated by person, is a manufacturer within the meaning
of this paragraph.
(v) The term
"Person" means and includes, as appropriate, a person, partnership,
or
corporation.
(vi)
The department of revenue shall provide to the local assessors any
assistance that is
necessary in determining the proper application of the
definitions in this subdivision.
(21) Real and tangible
personal property acquired to provide a treatment facility used
primarily to control the pollution or contamination of the
waters or the air of the state, as defined
in chapter 12 of title 46 and chapter 25 of title 23,
respectively, the facility having been
constructed, reconstructed, erected, installed, or acquired in
furtherance of federal or state
requirements or standards for the control of water or air pollution
or contamination, and certified
as approved in an order entered by the director of
environmental management. The property is
exempt as long as it is operated properly in compliance with
the order of approval of the director
of environmental management; provided, that any grant of
the exemption by the director of
environmental management in excess of ten (10) years is approved by
the city or town in which
the property is situated. This provision applies only to
water and air pollution control properties
and facilities installed for the treatment of waste
waters and air contaminants resulting from
industrial processing; furthermore, it applies only to water or
air pollution control properties and
facilities placed in operation for the first time after April
13, 1970;
(22) New manufacturing
machinery and equipment acquired or used by a manufacturer
and purchased after December 31, 1974. Manufacturing
machinery and equipment is defined as:
(i)
Machinery and equipment used exclusively in the actual manufacture or
conversion
of raw materials or goods in the process of manufacture
by a manufacturer as defined in
subdivision (20) of this section, and machinery, fixtures, and
equipment used exclusively by a
manufacturer for research and development or for quality assurance
of its manufactured products;
(ii) Machinery and
equipment which is partially used in the actual manufacture or
conversion of raw materials or goods in process of manufacture
by a manufacturer as defined in
subdivision (20) of this section, and machinery, fixtures, and
equipment used by a manufacturer
for research and development or for quality assurance of
its manufactured products, to the extent
to which the machinery and equipment is used for the
manufacturing processes, research and
development or quality assurance. In the instances where
machinery and equipment is used in
both manufacturing and/or research, and development,
and/or quality assurance activities and
non-manufacturing activities, the assessment on machinery and equipment
is prorated by
applying the percentage of usage of the equipment for the
manufacturing, research, and
development and quality assurance activity to the value of the
machinery and equipment for
purposes of taxation, and the portion of the value used for
manufacturing, research, and
development, and quality assurance is exempt from taxation. The
burden of demonstrating this
percentage usage of machinery and equipment for manufacturing
and for research, and
development and/or quality assurance of its manufactured products
rests with the manufacturer;
and
(iii) Machinery and
equipment described in section 44-18-30(7) and (22) that was
purchased after July 1, 1997; provided that the city or town
council of the city or town in which
the machinery and equipment is located adopts an
ordinance exempting the machinery and
equipment from taxation. For purposes of this subsection, city
councils and town councils of any
municipality may by ordinance wholly or partially exempt from
taxation the machinery and
equipment discussed in this subsection for the period of time
established in the ordinance and
may by ordinance establish the procedures for taxpayers
to avail themselves of the benefit of any
exemption permitted under this section; provided, that the
ordinance does not apply to any
machinery or equipment of a business, subsidiary or any
affiliated business which locates or
relocates from a city or town in this state to another city or
town in the state.
(23) Precious metal
bullion, meaning any elementary metal which has been put through a
process of melting or refining, and which is in a state or
condition that its value depends upon its
content and not its form. The term does not include fabricated
precious metal which has been
processed or manufactured for some one or more specific and
customary industrial, professional,
or artistic uses;
(24) Hydroelectric
power generation equipment, which includes, but is not limited to,
turbines, generators, switchgear, controls, monitoring
equipment, circuit breakers, transformers,
protective relaying, bus bars, cables, connections, trash racks,
headgates, and conduits. The
hydroelectric power generation equipment must have been purchased
after July 1, 1979, and
acquired or used by a person or corporation who owns or leases
a dam and utilizes the equipment
to generate hydroelectric power;
(25) Subject to
authorization by formal action of the council of any city or town, any real
or personal property owned by, held in trust for, or
leased to an organization incorporated under
chapter 6 of title 7, as amended, or an organization meeting
the definition of "charitable trust" set
out in section 18-9-4, as amended, or an organization incorporated
under the not for profits
statutes of another state or the
open space, as that term is defined in chapter 36 of title
45, as amended, provided the property is
used exclusively for the purposes of the organization;
(26) Tangible personal
property, the primary function of which is the recycling, reuse, or
recovery of materials (other than precious metals, as defined
in section 44-18-30(24) (ii) and
(iii)), from or the treatment of "hazardous
wastes", as defined in section 23-19.1-4, where the
"hazardous wastes"
are generated primarily by the same taxpayer and where the personal property
is located at, in, or adjacent to a generating facility
of the taxpayer. The taxpayer may, but need
not, procure an order from the director of the department
of environmental management
certifying that the tangible personal property has this
function, which order effects a conclusive
presumption that the tangible personal property qualifies for the
exemption under this
subdivision. If any information relating to secret processes or
methods of manufacture,
production, or treatment is disclosed to the department of
environmental management only to
procure an order, and is a "trade secret" as
defined in section 28-21-10(b), it shall not be open to
public inspection or publicly disclosed unless disclosure is
otherwise required under chapter 21 of
title 28 or chapter 24.4 of title 23;
(27) Motorboats as
defined in section 46-22-2 for which the annual fee required in
section 46-22-4 has been paid;
(28) Real and personal
property of the
corporation as of December 31, 1986;
(29) Tangible personal
property owned by, and used exclusively for the purposes of, any
religious organization located in the city of
(30) Real and personal
property of the Travelers Aid Society of Rhode Island, a
nonprofit corporation, the Union Mall Real Estate Corporation,
and any limited partnership or
limited liability company which is formed in connection with,
or to facilitate the acquisition of,
the
(31) Real and personal
property of
for-profit
liability company which is formed in connection with, or to
facilitate the acquisition of, the
properties designated as the Meeting Street National Center of Excellence
on
(32) The buildings,
personal property and land upon which the buildings stand, located
on
001.00, which consists of approximately twenty-one
thousand three hundred (21,300) square feet
and is located approximately eight hundred sixty feet
(860´), more or less, from the shore, and
limited exclusively to these said buildings personal estate
and land, provided that said property is
owned by a qualified 501(c)(3) organization, such as the
American Lighthouse Foundation, and is
used exclusively for a lighthouse.
SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC00363
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