State adopts ACES regs for lease expenses

The Alaska Department of Revenue has announced that it is adopting new regulations for the state’s ACES oil production tax, under title 15 chapter 55 of the Alaska administrative code. The new regulations, part of a series associated with the introduction of ACES, apply specifically to the standards for allowable lease expenditures in calculating a company’s ACES tax liabilities.

“The regulations have been reviewed and approved by the Department of Law, signed and filed by the lieutenant governor on Jan. 28, 2010, and will go into effect on Feb. 28, 2010,” Revenue said in a Feb. 2 public notice.

The Department of Revenue has been working on the regulations for ACES, Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share, since the new tax passed into law in November 2007. And in January Revenue Commissioner Patrick Galvin explained that the lengthy time taken to develop the regulations has resulted from the state using a regulation development process that is highly interactive with industry, to ensure practical, understandable and usable regulations. Gov. Parnell has asked the state Legislature to pass a bill that would exempt companies from paying interest on any taxes paid in arrears, as a consequence of the retroactive application of the new regulations.

—Alan Bailey