West Virginia Court of Appeals Upholds Pipeline Property Tax Valuation Reduction for Obsolescence

The West Virginia Intermediate Court of Appeals affirmed the Office of Tax Appeals (OTA) decision reducing the assessed value of taxpayer’s natural gas pipelines. The assessor appealed the OTA’s decision arguing it erred in a number of ways related to its reduced valuation of the pipelines, including OTA’s application of a 35 percent economic obsolescence reduction in the assessed value. In the evidentiary hearing before the OTA, the taxpayer showed that the pipelines were being utilized well under their design capacity resulting from changes in supply and demand brought about by the economic downturn from Covid -19. The taxpayer demonstrated ...