JUSTICE MÁRQUEZ delivered the Opinion of the Court.
¶ 1 The petitioner in this case, Kinder Morgan CO
¶ 2 Because Colorado has established a self-reporting scheme for property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds, and because the legislature's amendments to that scheme describe the "underreporting of the selling price or the quantity of oil and gas sold [from a leasehold]" as a form of omitted property,
¶ 3 Because this case concerns the assessment of property taxes on oil and gas leaseholds, we begin by describing the legal framework governing these taxes and the relation of these taxes to other pertinent forms of taxation.
¶ 4 An estate in minerals such as oil and gas is a form of real property. § 24-65.5-101, C.R.S. (2016); § 39-1-102(14), C.R.S. (2016);
¶ 5 The legislature has plenary authority to assess, levy, and collect taxes, including taxes on real property.
¶ 6 The legislature also has the authority to prescribe appropriate methods for determining the "actual value" of property.
¶ 7 By contrast, oil and gas leaseholds and lands are valued under the provisions of article 7 of title 39. § 39-1-103(2). Under the provisions of article 7, the holder of an oil and gas lease must submit an annual statement, from which the county assessor determines the property's value and the leaseholder's property tax liability.
¶ 8 The sale of unprocessed oil or gas, however, rarely occurs at the wellhead; instead, the oil or gas is typically gathered from multiple wells, processed, and transported away from the wellsite before sale.
¶ 9 An operator's netback calculation depends on whether the operator contracts with a related or an unrelated party to perform these gathering, processing, and transportation services. If the operator enters into a bona fide, arm's-length transaction with an unrelated party to perform these services, then the operator may deduct the full amount paid for these services from its final, downstream sales price in its netback calculation (the "unrelated-parties netback method").
¶ 10 Section 39-2-109(1)(k), C.R.S. (2016), requires the Property Tax Administrator to prepare and publish guidelines providing procedures for county assessors to audit oil and gas leaseholds for property tax purposes, which the Administrator has done in the Assessor's Reference Library. Under these guidelines, an assessor may initiate an audit and request the source documents regarding sales volume and sales price from which the operator prepared its annual statement. 3 ARL 6.52. The assessor then determines whether a change in the property's valuation
¶ 11 With this legal framework in mind, we turn to the facts of this case.
¶ 12 Kinder Morgan CO
¶ 13 In addition to Kinder Morgan, several other companies and individuals own working interest leaseholds and royalty interests in the unit. As the operator of the unit, Kinder Morgan manages the unit's development by paying for the facilities and equipment and supplying the labor to produce CO
¶ 14 The Cortez Pipeline — through which the CO
¶ 15 When Kinder Morgan submitted its annual property tax statement for the 2008 tax year, it reported a wellhead selling price of 52 cents per MCF. Kinder Morgan calculated that wellhead selling price using the unrelated-parties netback methodology, under which Kinder Morgan deducted (among other costs) the full 22-cent transportation tariff it paid to Cortez Pipeline Company. Based on Kinder Morgan's annual statement, the assessor valued the Montezuma County leaseholds at approximately $157.5 million and assessed property taxes accordingly.
¶ 16 Following an audit of Kinder Morgan's property taxes for the 2008 tax year, the assessor increased its valuation of the leaseholds by $57 million, largely based on the auditor's discovery of Kinder Morgan's 50% partnership interest in Cortez Pipeline Company. The auditor concluded that Kinder Morgan and Cortez Pipeline Company were "related parties," and that under the related-parties netback methodology, Kinder Morgan could deduct only a portion of the 22-cent transportation tariff when calculating its wellhead selling price. Under the auditor's
¶ 17 Based on this audit, the assessor issued Special Notices of Valuation to Kinder Morgan, assessing the additional $2 million in property taxes in light of the revised valuation. Kinder Morgan paid the taxes under protest and later filed petitions for abatement, seeking refunds of the retroactively increased taxes. Those petitions argued, in relevant part, that the assessor lacked authority to issue the Special Notices of Valuation because no property had been "omitted" from Kinder Morgan's annual statement, and as a result, the retroactive assessment was not authorized under section 39-5-125, which permits retroactive assessment when "taxable property has been omitted from the assessment roll." Kinder Morgan further argued that even if the assessor had authority to retroactively assess these taxes, the retroactive assessment was erroneous because Kinder Morgan was entitled to deduct the full 22-cent transportation tariff in calculating its wellhead selling price. The Montezuma County Board of Commissioners denied the petitions.
¶ 18 Kinder Morgan appealed to the Colorado Board of Assessment Appeals. After a two-day hearing, in which Kinder Morgan and the Montezuma County Board of Commissioners presented witnesses and documentary evidence, the Board of Assessment Appeals affirmed. The Board of Assessment Appeals concluded that the Montezuma County Assessor had authority to issue the retroactive assessment under the audit guidelines of the Assessor's Reference Library. The Board of Assessment Appeals further concluded that Kinder Morgan and Cortez Pipeline Company were "related parties," meaning that the auditor had properly concluded that Kinder Morgan was not entitled to deduct the full 22-cent tariff in its netback calculation.
¶ 19 Kinder Morgan then appealed the Board of Assessment Appeals' decision to the court of appeals, which likewise affirmed. In a published opinion, the court of appeals agreed that the Montezuma County Assessor had statutory authority to issue the disputed assessment, concluding that House Bill 90-1018 "amended the property tax code to authorize retroactive property tax assessments on the value of oil and gas leaseholds and lands omitted due to underreporting of the selling price or quantity of oil and gas sold therefrom."
¶ 20 We granted Kinder Morgan's petition for writ of certiorari to review the court of appeals' ruling,
¶ 21 We first consider whether the statutory scheme governing property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds authorizes retroactive assessments when a leaseholder has correctly reported the volume of oil or gas sold but has underreported the wellhead selling price of the oil or gas. We conclude that the statutory scheme authorizes these retroactive assessments, given the self-reporting scheme for property taxation in this context and the legislature's amendments to that scheme, which describe the "underreporting of the selling price or the quantity of oil and gas sold [from a leasehold]" as a form of omitted property.
¶ 23 We review questions of statutory interpretation de novo.
¶ 24 Our primary task in construing a statute is to effectuate the intent of the General Assembly.
¶ 25 Applying these principles of construction to the statutory scheme governing property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds, we conclude that it authorizes retroactive tax assessments when an operator underreports the selling price or volume of oil and gas. Two statutory provisions provide the authority for an assessor to retroactively assess taxes on "omitted property."
¶ 26 Here, we are asked to decide whether an operator's underreporting of the value of oil and gas produced at a leasehold constitutes "omitted property" subject to a corrective assessment under section 39-5-125. Two aspects of the statutory scheme inform our answer to this question: the legislature's amendments to the statutory scheme and the self-reporting procedure for valuation of oil and gas leaseholds in Colorado.
¶ 27 In 1990, the legislature approved House Bill 90-1018, which, as relevant here, amended the statutory scheme governing oil and gas taxation in two ways that demonstrate the legislature's intent to treat the underreporting of the selling price of gas sold from a leasehold as a form of omitted property. First, the bill amended section 29-1-301 to provide that certain "revenues" would not count towards a taxing entity's levy limit
¶ 28 These amendments demonstrate the legislature's intent to treat the underreporting of the selling price of oil and gas as omitted property under the statutory scheme governing oil and gas taxation. That is, by providing special procedures for handling taxes that had been retroactively assessed based on underreported selling price or volume, the legislature necessarily intended for such taxes to be retroactively assessed. Indeed, by exempting these retroactive assessments from the taxing entity's levy limit, the 1990 amendments removed a potential obstacle that otherwise might have prevented taxing entities from collecting these taxes.
¶ 29 Our conclusion that underreporting of the selling price constitutes the type of error or omission that falls within the reach of the "omitted property" statutes comports with the overarching statutory scheme governing property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds. The value of an oil and gas leasehold is derived from the volume and selling price of the oil and gas. That is, if a leasehold produces no oil or gas that is then sold for value, then no property taxes are assessed.
¶ 30 Moreover, given the statutory timeline and framework for property tax assessments in this context, the assessor must be able to issue corrective assessments to avoid under-taxation. The operator's annual statement is due on April 15. § 39-7-101(1). Based on the information reported in that annual statement, the assessor has a limited period of time — until June 15 — to value the property and issue a notice of valuation. § 39-7-102.5, C.R.S. (2016); § 39-5-121(1.5)(a)(I), C.R.S. (2016). During this two-month period, the assessor relies on information that is self-reported by the operator, typically without the means to independently verify the volume and value of oil and gas produced at the leasehold.
¶ 31 Given that the assessor relies on taxpayer-reported information to initially value the property during this period, any error in valuation typically will result not from the assessor's mistake in calculating the taxable value, but rather, from the taxpayer's failure to accurately report information about the leasehold as required by statute.
¶ 33 Such an audit scheme would be incomplete if assessors lacked the authority to issue corrective assessments based on the results of their audits. Indeed, the statutory provision governing tax abatements in this context confirms that audits can lead to corrective assessments. That provision requires that, when calculating the amount of the abatement to which the taxpayer is entitled, any taxes due as a result of an audit must be offset against any overpayment of taxes. § 39-10-114(1)(a)(I)(E), C.R.S. (2016) ("[W]hen an audit of prior years' taxes ... discloses that taxes are due and owing ... on oil and gas leaseholds, such taxes shall be subtracted from any overpayment of such taxes determined to be due ...."). In other words, although the power to audit does not independently authorize retroactive tax assessments, the legislature's inclusion of an audit provision further bolsters our interpretation of the statutory scheme, in which an assessor may issue a corrective assessment if the assessor assigns an inaccurate value to a leasehold because of the assessor's reliance on incorrect, taxpayer-supplied information about the taxable property.
¶ 34 For these reasons, we conclude that the statutory scheme governing property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds and lands authorizes the retroactive assessment of property taxes when an operator underreports the volume or selling price of the oil and gas it produces.
¶ 35 Kinder Morgan's arguments in support of its alternative construction of the statutory scheme are unpersuasive. First, Kinder Morgan argues that the court of appeals' 1992 decision in
¶ 36 We reversed on other grounds, concluding that the retroactive assessment was authorized by a separate provision, section 39-7-105, which provides that an assessor may re-value and re-assess taxes on an oil and gas leasehold if any part of the leaseholder's annual statement is "willfully false or misleading."
¶ 37 Contrary to Kinder Morgan's argument,
¶ 38 Second, Kinder Morgan argues that the statutory language added by House Bill 90-1018 cannot authorize the retroactive assessments in this case because the relevant provisions of House Bill 90-1018 did not amend the omitted property statutes, but instead amended statutes relating to the treatment of revenues under the tax levy limit and revenue distribution laws. However, as described above, our task is to construe the statutory scheme as a whole,
¶ 39 Finally, Kinder Morgan's reading of the statutory scheme would produce inequitable results. Kinder Morgan contends that if a taxpayer fails to accurately report the value of the oil or gas it sells, thereby causing the assessor to undervalue the taxpayer's leasehold property, the assessor lacks authority to remedy this undervaluation by issuing a corrective assessment. In such a scenario, the taxpayer would never be taxed on the full value of its leasehold property. In short, Kinder Morgan's proposed interpretation would produce a tax windfall for the taxpayer — due to the taxpayer's own error — and would contravene the constitutional principle that a taxpayer's property tax liability shall be determined based on the "actual value" of the taxable property.
¶ 40 For these reasons, we conclude that the statutory scheme governing property taxation of oil and gas leaseholds and lands authorizes the retroactive assessment of taxes when an operator has underreported the selling price of oil or gas.
¶ 41 We conclude that the Montezuma County Assessor had the authority to issue the retroactive property tax assessments in this case. After the assessor initiated an audit of Kinder Morgan for the 2008 tax year, the auditor concluded that Kinder Morgan had claimed excess deductions in its annual statement, thereby underreporting the selling price of its CO
¶ 42 We review decisions of the Board of Assessment Appeals under the Administrative Procedure Act, sections 24-4-101 to 24-4-108, C.R.S. (2016). § 39-8-108(2), C.R.S. (2016). Under the standards of review set forth in the Administrative Procedure Act, we will uphold the factual determinations of the Board of Assessment Appeals unless they are "unsupported by substantial evidence when the record is considered as a whole." § 24-4-106(7). We review the Board of Assessment Appeals' interpretation and application of law de novo.
¶ 43 If an operator contracts with a "related party" to perform gathering, processing, or transportation services, then the operator is not entitled to deduct the full amount paid for those services in its netback calculation. 3 ARL 6.39-6.40. The Assessor's Reference Library defines "related parties" as:
3 ARL 6.41 (emphasis added).
¶ 44 The Board of Assessment Appeals determined that Kinder Morgan and Cortez Pipeline Company were "related parties" because they were in a partnership relationship with one another, given Kinder Morgan's 50% ownership interest in the Cortez Pipeline Company partnership. This finding is supported by substantial evidence because in reaching its conclusion, the Board of Assessment Appeals relied on the auditor's testimony about her examination of Kinder Morgan's financial records and Cortez Pipeline Company's governing documents. Moreover, Kinder Morgan does not dispute the Board of Assessment Appeals' finding that Kinder Morgan owned 50% of Cortez Pipeline Company. Accordingly, the Board of Assessment Appeals did not err in concluding that Kinder Morgan was not entitled to claim as a transportation deduction the full 22-cent tariff it paid to Cortez Pipeline Company.
¶ 45 We reject Kinder Morgan's argument that the Board of Assessment Appeals and court of appeals erroneously interpreted the term "related parties" because, according to Kinder Morgan, the term "partnerships" — without further elaboration — "is essentially meaningless." To the contrary, the Board of Assessment Appeals and the court of appeals appropriately interpreted the term "partnerships" according to its ordinary meaning in concluding that Kinder Morgan's 50% ownership interest in the Cortez Pipeline Company partnership made Kinder Morgan and Cortez Pipeline Company "related parties." We therefore conclude that the Board of Assessment Appeals and the court of appeals did not erroneously interpret the definition of "related parties" set forth in the Assessor's Reference Library.
¶ 46 For the foregoing reasons, we conclude that the statutory scheme authorized the Montezuma County Assessor's tax assessment. We further conclude that the Board of Assessment Appeals did not err in concluding that Kinder Morgan had underreported the selling price because it was not entitled to deduct certain transportation costs. We therefore affirm the judgment of the court of appeals.