§ 44-34-4. Vehicle and trailer tax situs - Apportionment for interstate fleets. (a) Tax situs of each vehicle or trailer shall be in the town or city of permanent abode of the owner at the end of the calendar year of proration if an individual, or at the principal place of business in this state, if a partnership, corporation, joint stock company, or association, except that if a vehicle or trailer is customarily kept in some other town or city, then tax situs will be in that municipality.

(b) Rented or leased vehicles shall have tax situs in the town or city where they are customarily kept by the renter or lessee if the rental or leasing contracts shall be long term. For the purpose of this chapter, long-term contracts are for six (6) months or more. If vehicles are rented or leased for less than six (6) months or on a transient basis, then tax situs for the vehicles shall be the town or city where the leasing company or agency stores the vehicles when they are not being rented or leased.

(c) In the case of fleets of vehicles and trailers engaged in interstate commerce the following rules of just apportionment shall apply:

(1) If the fleet owner has a terminal where a number of its vehicles are parked, then the average number of vehicles so parked in proportion to its total fleet value shall determine the excise;

(2) If the fleet owner does not have vehicles parked in this state but has a pickup and drop-off station, then the number of miles traveled by its fleet in this state in proportion to the total number of miles traveled by its fleet shall be the percentage of the total value of its fleet used to determine the excise.

(d) Tax situs for a fleet shall be the town or city where the terminal or station is located.

(e) In the case of more than one pickup and drop-off station of a fleet owner located in the state, the communities in which the stations are situated shall share equally the excise levied against the fleet owner.

(f) The tax assessor may require an owner to disclose any or all information necessary to determine tax situs and value of the vehicles and trailers that are subject to excise.

(g) If the owner fails to supply the requested information, then the tax assessor shall assess the vehicles and trailers at what he or she deems to be their value, and the owner, if overtaxed, shall have no remedy for this assessment.

History of Section. (P.L. 1978, ch. 341, § 3; P.L. 2005, ch. 117, art. 17, § 1.)