Tax Exemption for Pollution Control Devices in Pennsylvania

Authors

Kirk W. Junker

Abstract

Since 1971, Pennsylvania law has permitted the exemption of corporate assets from capital stock valuation for the purpose of paying capital stock taxes, if the assets are devoted to pollution control or abatement. This article reviews the Tax Reform Code's statutory language, details the problem created because of changing pollution control and abatement technology but unchanging statutes, and reviews the appropriate interpretative methods in an attempt to apply the current statute to today's technology. Further, the article reviews the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board's solution- apportionment-and discusses the federal government's and other states' use of apportionment in their statutes. The article concludes that technology in the 1990's used to abate or control pollution is not as easily identifiable, separate or discrete, as the current statutory exemption suggests.

First Page

503

Recommended Citation

Kirk W. Junker, Tax Exemption for Pollution Control Devices in Pennsylvania, 34 Duq. L. Rev. 503 (1996).
Available at: https://dsc.duq.edu/dlr/vol34/iss3/4