April 30 Deadline for Annual Report for Electric-Generating Facilities Approaching
By April 30th, owners of single electric-generating facilities or multiple electric-generating facilities located on the same New York site with a nameplate capacity of one megawatt or greater must file an Annual Report, formally known as Form RP-575, with the State Department of Taxation and Finance Office of Real Property Tax Services (“ORPTS”). This requirement, enacted in 2020 by Real Property Tax Law (“RPTL”) § 575-a, was designed to provide confidential information that ORPTS could use to inform the RPTL § 575-b tax assessment model.
Information to Report on Form RP-575
Form RP-575 consists of six topical parts covering plant production; plant revenue; plant expenses; capital expenditures and physical plant additions, retirements, and changes; excludable assets; and real property purchase and sale agreements. The reporting period is from January 1 through December 31 of the year preceding the April 30 due date.
The form also provides a Freedom of Information Law (“FOIL”) request for protection from disclosure. Given the information to be provided, it would be prudent to seek protection routinely with the filing of Form RP-575. Protection, however, is not guaranteed. In the event of a FOIL request for information, the owner would need to submit a statement in support justifying the grant of such protection.
Electric-generating facilities located in New York City filing Real Property Income and Expense Statements with the New York City Department of Finance are not required to file Form RP-575.1
Purpose of Form RP-575
While the Legislature created this reporting mandate to provide ORPTS information that will be used in the state assessment model under RPTL § 575-b, advisory appraisals, as well as the appraisals used in equalizing levies among taxing jurisdictions, there is no evidence that ORPTS is actually using the forms. An outside firm was hired to assist in determining expenditure levels, and the failure to use actual expenditures may explain the inexplicable decrease in expenditures built into the last two versions of the assessment model.
Penalties for Failing to Timely File
The failure to timely file Form RP-575 will result in a fine under Real Property Tax Law § 575-a of up to $10,000 for every failure to file and an additional sum of $1,000 for every day the failure to file continues.
Takeaways
Owners of covered electric-generating facilities required to file the form should familiarize themselves with what is required and marshal responsive information so to ensure that the report is filed by the deadline, avoiding the penalties for untimely submissions.
If you have any questions about completing Form RP-575, what the expected amendments mean for taxation of wind or solar projects, or about renewable energy projects generally, please contact Daniel Spitzer (716.848.1420), Henry Zomerfeld (716.848.1370), or a member of our Renewable Energy Practice.
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Disclaimer:
This client alert is a form of attorney advertising. Hodgson Russ LLP provides this information as a service to its clients and other readers for educational purposes only. Nothing in this client alert should be construed as, or relied upon, as legal advice or as creating a lawyer-client relationship.
1 New York State Department of Taxation and Finance, New annual reporting requirement for electric generating facilities, obtained from https://www.tax.ny.gov/research/property/valuation/utilities/egf.htm.