Request By:
Mr. G. Stephen Manning
Manning & Gallenstein
P.O. Box 566
Cochran Building
Maysville, Kentucky 41056
Opinion
Opinion By: Robert F. Stephens, Attorney General; By William S. Riley, Assistant Attorney General
In your recent letter to the Attorney General it is asked if it is legal for the City of Tollesboro, a sixth-class city, to levy a $5.00 truck-automobile license tag tax on automobiles and trucks within the city limits regardless of whether they are used primarily for business or personal use.
Secondly, may a city which has enacted an ad valorem property tax also enact a sticker tax on motor vehicles?
Your attention is directed to KRS 92.281(5) which states that a sixth-class city may not levy fees on business, trades, occupations or professions and may not impose a percentage rate on salaries, wages, commissions or other compensation earned by persons for work done within the city or on net profits of professions or occupations in said city of the sixth-class. The prohibition does not extend to a license tax on motor vehicles for the use of the city streets.
To constitute double taxation two taxes must be imposed on the same property by the same governing body during the same taxing period for the same taxing purpose. See Second Street Propery v. Fiscal Court of Jefferson County, Ky., 445 S.W.2d 709, 715 (1969).
The levying of a license tax for the use of the streets of the City of Tollesboro where such vehicles are also subject to ad valorem tax is not within the rule against double taxation of the same property.