Request By:
Hon. John R. Leathers
Frost & Jacobs
1100 Vine Center Tower
333 West Vine Street
Lexington, Kentucky 40507-1634
Opinion
Opinion By: Frederic J. Cowan, Attorney General; Thomas J. Hellman, Assistant Attorney General
This letter is in response to your correspondence dated December 7, 1990, in which you requested an opinion of the Attorney General. Your question relates to KRS 142.050 which imposes a tax upon the transfer of real estate. Specifically, you ask whether the conveyance of real estate and the transfer of title from a parent corporation to a subsidiary corporation is exempt from the real estate transfer tax imposed under KRS 142.050. This statute exempts transfers from a subsidiary corporation to a parent corporation, KRS 142.050(7)(i), but does not specifically provide for an exemption for a transfer from a parent to a subsidiary corporation.
Under such a circumstance, the transfer of real estate from a parent corporation to a subsidiary corporation is not exempt from the real estate transfer tax. The Kentucky Supreme Court has stated that, "[e]xemptions from taxation are generally disfavored and all doubts are resolved against an exemption. " Delta Air Lines, Inc. v. Com., Revenue Cabinet , Ky., 689 S.W.2d 14, 18 (1985). In addition, "[a]n exemption from tax will not be presumed or implied." Stoner Creek Stud v. Revenue Cabinet, Ky. App., 746 S.W.2d 73, 76 (1988), citing George v. Scent, Ky., 346 S.W.2d 784, 789 (1961). Consequently, for the transfer to be exempt from the tax, there must be a specific statutory authorization for the exemption. Since KRS 142.050(7) exempts only real estate transfered from a subsidiary to a parent corporation, the transfer from a parent to a subsidiary corporation is not exempt from the real estate transfer tax.