This is a very complicated thing that might be best to explain in a meeting; however, knowing that you are very busy I will attempt to explain it in the email.
The first challenge is that the law is poorly written and can be interpreted multiple ways. Our challenge is that we do not know the intent of the law and have determined multiple possible interpretations. Therefore, to test with are we in compliance we took the initial interpretation that would make us most out of compliance. However, we are not certain what the interpretation is and are seeking a legal opinion on it. I have tried to keep the conversation on this limited until we had more certainty.
Our initial thought is that vehicles would be adjusted by depreciation …show more content…
Therefore, our initial though was the vehicle value is determined when first offered for sale as a new vehicle in Indiana then that value is depreciated. In this logic the base value is determined when the vehicle was first offered for sale; however, the deprecation is applied separately. Since IC 6-6-5-3 (c)(2) indicates we should reduce by "...the most recent annual reference to the Consumer Price Index for Private New Automobiles..." our logic was that this was to happen on an annual basis. With IC 6-6-5-3 (c) "...beginning with the 1990 model year..." our logic was that it was to apply to vehicles with a model year 1990 and greater.
However, with the information shared to Steve and myself I am not confident at all in that interpretation. If the original intention was to discount all future vehicles values to 1990's values (at that time the present value) I could see a different interpretation. The questions are:
Where in the code does it indicate that the deprecation applies only when the vehicle is originally purchased or transferred?
Do we have any documents to determine the original bill intent (anything in original