189 S.W.2d 963 | Ky. Ct. App. | 1945
Affirming.
The appellants, Blue Diamond Coal Company, Harvey Coal Corporation and Hardy-Burlingham Mining Company, are engaged in the coal mining business in Perry county, and each of them listed its property for taxation as of July 1, 1943, for the tax year 1944. The Perry County Board of Tax Supervisors in each instance fixed the valuation of the property for tax purposes at a substantially higher amount than the valuation placed on its property by the property owner in its tax schedule filed with the County Tax Commissioner. For example, the Blue Diamond Coal Company listed its property as follows: Real estate $183,347, tangible personal property $173,239, and intangible personal property $12,084, a total of $368,670. The County Board of Supervisors fixed the valuation of the real estate at $328,900, tangible personal property at $286,537, and intangible personal property at $12,084, a total of $627,521. The assessments of Harvey Coal Corporation and Hardy-Burlingham Mining Company were similarly increased. The aggrieved taxpayers appealed to the *648
Kentucky Tax Commission in the manner provided by subsection 4 of section
Appellants rely upon the case of McCracken Fiscal Court v. McFadden,
KRS
These Statutes clearly contemplate that the Kentucky Tax Commission shall act as a state board of equalization. When it hears a taxpayer's appeal from the final action of a county board of supervisors, it must hear the evidence de novo and fix not the fair cash value of the property but a value "which shall be equitable with assessments determined for other property by the county tax commissioner or the board of supervisors." If the State Tax Commission, on an appeal from a county board of supervisors, fixed the assessment of the taxpayer's property at its fair cash value and the evidence showed that all other property in the county of a similar character was assessed at less than its fair cash value, the Commission's action would have to be set aside on appeal. Eminence Distillery Company v. Henry County *651
Board of Supervisors,
The circuit court properly dismissed appellants' petitions, and the judgment in each care is affirmed. *652