Taxation

摘要

If you have a situation where you are unsure whether a charge being assessed against the federal government by a state or local municipality is a fee (and thus payable) or a tax (and thus not payable), turn to Forest Service-Surface Water Management Fees for a thorough discussion of the distinctions between the two. That opinion addressed the propriety of the Forest Service using appropriated funds to pay surface water management (SWM) fees assessed by King County, Washington, against federal lands located within its jurisdiction. Applying the three-part test of a classic tax, the GAO found that the King County SWM fee was a tax and not a "reasonable service charge" allowable under the Clean Water Act's sovereign immunity waiver. Conceding that King County's SWM fee also had some characteristics of a classic "regulatory fee," the GAO said that was not enough to convert it from a "tax" into a "fee." Furthermore, the GAO noted that even if it had found the SWM fee to be service charges rather than taxes, it would still have concluded that the fee was not payable by the Forest Service because of its discriminatory nature—King County gave a discount to the Washington State Department of Transportation, but no similar discount to federal agencies.