Request By:
Mr. M. Brooks Sinn
Attorney at Law
1700 Kentucky Home Life Building
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By: Elizabeth E. Blackford, Assistant Attorney General
You have pointed out that some county clerks are now requiring that the exact amount of the indebtedness be shown on a financing statement. You have asked whether there has been new legislation to support the demand, or whether the financing statement need only state that the indebtedness is two hundred dollars or more.
KRS 355.9-402 provides in part "If at the time a financing statement is filed there is an indebtedness of two hundred dollars or more, that fact shall be stated." This provision was added to the Code by the Legislature in order to effectuate KRS 142.010(1)(b) [amended Acts 1978, ch. 233, § 21] which requires a one dollar tax be paid on any chattel mortgage, security agreement or financing statement when the amount thereof exceeds two hundred dollars. The purpose of the provision then is merely to determine whether the tax must be paid. This purpose is fully served by stating that the amount of the indebtedness is two hundred dollars or more. Neither the spirit nor the letter of KRS 355.9-402 requires the exact amount of the indebtedness to be stated [See enclosed OAG 77-391].
There has been no new legislation changing this result. Therefore, financing statements need only show that the amount of the indebtedness is "200, or more."