Gas Well Valued Separately From Reserves in Virginia Tax Case

The value of gas wells and related infrastructure for Wise County, Va.’s property tax purposes doesn’t have to include the underlying gas reserves because they were already subject to a separate minerals tax, a state appeals court held Tuesday.

It would be “illogical” to double tax the same resource and “defeat the legislature’s clear intent,” Judge Kimberley Slayton White said in the Court of Appeals of Virginia.

The Code of Virginia Section 58.1-3286, otherwise known as the Mineral Statute, requires taxation of either the reserves directly, or the land the reserves reside in, but not both simultaneously, she said.

Natural ...