Colorado Capitol Report

Over the last few months, the legislative Sales & Use Simplification Tax Task Force has been meeting to discuss ways to simplify Colorado’s current sales and use tax system. We wanted to bring to your attention an action by the Task Force during its last meeting.

CACI Tax Council members worked with the Colorado Municipal League (CML) over the last three (3) years on the standardization of 102 existing sales and use tax definitions.  At this time, some home rule cities, but not all cities have adopted the standardized definitions.  The Task Force recognizes the importance of this work by CACI members and CML, and the benefits that standardization provides for Colorado taxpayers.  On August 15th, the Task Force voted in support of issuing a letter to cities that have not yet adopted the definitions, encouraging them to do so as soon as possible.  Here is a copy of the letter from the Task Force.

Please contact Loren Furman at [email protected] or at 303-866-9642 if you should have any questions.

The Colorado Department of Revenue will be holding a stakeholder meeting on October 18, 2017, to discuss the taxation of digital goods.  Details regarding this meeting are provided below:

Meeting Details:
Date:  October 18th
Time:  9:00 a.m.
Location:  1313 Sherman Street, Room # 220

***Please note that the location is at a different address than previous DOR meetings.

Goal of Meeting:
The DOR is seeking input from stakeholders on how sales and use tax may apply to digital goods.  The input received through this group may be used for developing a regulation that will determine the application, if any, of sales and use taxes to digital goods sold or used in Colorado.

Participation Details:
Stakeholders can attend in person or participate by telephone.  Please contact either Loren Furman at [email protected] or Neil Tillquist at [email protected] if you would like to participate in this working group.  Additionally, you may sign up for this meeting and future meetings at https://www.colorado.gov/pacific/tax/tax-regulations.

Following the home explosion in Firestone last April, the State conducted a review of oil and gas operations in Colorado. On August 22nd, Governor Hickenlooper announced his seven policy initiatives that were developed from that review. The changes contemplated by two of these initiatives – strengthening Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC) flowline regulations and enhancing the 8-1-1 process – will be proposed through a COGCC rulemaking process that was recently announced (Flowline Rulemaking). The timeline of the Flowline Rulemaking is available here.

Stakeholder meetings are currently scheduled for 1:00 to 4:00 pm on Thursday, September 21st and Monday, September 25th at the COGCC offices on the 8th floor of 1120 Lincoln Street.

Potential topics for the Flowline Rulemaking include the following:

• Adding applicable installation or design standards for flowlines;
• Including integrity monitoring standards and testing regimes, in addition to pressure testing, for operators to ensure flowline integrity, which standards could include continuous pressure monitoring;
• Addressing integrity management for flowlines that operate at atmospheric pressure;
• Removing low pressure exemption from pressure testing and require integrity management;
• Improving flowline integrity management record keeping and reporting requirements in the event of an integrity failure;
• Improving regulatory oversight of flowlines that are designed to transport fluids from a well site to a remote production facility location;
• Incorporating requirements from the COGCC’s May 2, 2017 Notice to Operators, including lock-out/tag-out requirements for risers not in-use and providing GPS locations for risers associated with remote production facilities;
• Improving requirements for operators’ membership in the Utility Notification Center of Colorado (UNCC or 8-1-1), including addressing Tier 1 membership, information submitted to UNCC about transfers of assets, and minimum information submitted to UNCC about wells and flowlines;
• Improving flowline abandonment requirements;
• Adding registration requirements for water gathering systems and clarifying oversight of water gathering and gas gathering lines and facilities limited to addressing E&P waste and environmental issues;
• Incorporating additional tank gauging standard;
• Identifying requirements for valve locations and maintenance;
• Requiring check valves in specific situations; and
• Including financial assurance requirements apply to water gathering systems.

For more information, please see the Flowline Rulemaking Scoping here which includes the COGCC’s Flowline Guidance (updated May 17, 2017) and the Frequently Asked Questions for the COGCC’s May 2, 2017 Notice to Operators (updated June 22, 2017).

If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact Bill Skewes at [email protected]