Laws, Regulations & Annotations

C

220.0000 CHANGE IN OWNERSHIP

Annotation 220.0621

220.0621 Sale and Leaseback Transactions. It has been the Board's long-standing position that sales and leasebacks constitute changes in ownership requiring reappraisal of the entire properties sold. If a leaseback is for a term of 35 years or more, a second change in ownership occurs.

Revenue and Taxation Code section 62(e) excludes from change in ownership only transfers that involve a true retention by the transferor of a present interest in the property and a conveyance to the transferee of only a future interest. In the case of a sale and leaseback, the purchaser receives title to the property, and the right to a possession. The fact that the parties agree that the purchaser will lease the property to the former owner in no way diminishes the purchaser's ownership interest any more than would a lease not preceded by a sale. Rather, the leasing of the property to the former owner is merely the exercising of the right to possession, a present beneficial use, in exchange for the payment of rent. LTA 12/5/1985 (No. 85/128); LTA 8/8/1986 (No. 86/57); LTA 1/31/1992 (No. 92/11).