Garfield County commissioners on Monday signed the second of two property tax abatement agreements with oil and gas companies in recent weeks over misreported production revenues.
The county agreed to a $1.1 million refund for Caerus Piceance, LLC, related to errors identified by the company in the volumes and revenues of natural gas the company reported to Garfield County for properties acquired in 2014.
Due to the error, Caerus overpaid $1.1 million dollars in property taxes to the county and other local governments and school districts. Those entities must now refund the money.
Caerus did agree to waive $155,000 in interest that would have been legally owed to the company by Colorado law.
That was not the case in a $5.7 million settlement announced by Garfield County earlier this month involving a similar reporting error by Encana. In that instance, taxing entities in the county were also on the hook for $858,000 in interest, which Encana refused to relinquish. Garfield County commissioners agreed to cover the interest amount out of the county’s special Oil and Gas Mitigation Fund, so that the other entities would not have to pay it.
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