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The following opinion is presented on-line for informational use only and does not replace the official version. (Mich Dept of Attorney General Web Site - www.ag.state.mi.us) STATE OF MICHIGAN FRANK J. KELLEY, ATTORNEY GENERAL Opinion No. 6449 June 30, 1987 SCHOOLS AND SCHOOL DISTRICTS: Computation of nonresident student tuition and property tax credit In computing nonresident student tuition, a school district is not authorized to reduce or lower the credit due for property taxes paid to the school district by the amount of property tax reimbursement received by the taxpayer from the buyer upon sale of the property. Honorable Judith Miller State Representative The Capitol Lansing, Michigan You have requested my opinion whether, in the application of MCL 380.1416; MSA 15.41416, a school district may take into account any reimbursement of school property taxes by a buyer to a seller of real property who previously paid such property taxes in computing the property tax credit to be applied against the tuition bill for a nonresident student. In MCL 380.1416; MSA 15.41416, the Legislature has provided: "If nonresident pupils, their parents, or guardians pay school taxes in a school district and the pupils are admitted to schools in the district, the amount of the total current school taxes shall be credited on the pupils' tuition and transportation in a sum not to exceed the amount of the tuition and transportation. The pupils, their parents, or guardians shall be required to pay tuition and transportation only for the difference therein." (Emphasis added.) The materials accompanying your opinion request set forth a hypothetical situation in which a resident parent and property owner pays the school district property taxes for calendar year 1986 by making two payments on July 1, 1986 and December 1, 1986. Thereafter, in December, 1986, the person sells his home and moves to another school district. By agreement, the buyer reimburses the seller for a portion of the 1986 calendar year school property taxes. See, MCL 211.2; MSA 7.2 and OAG, 1979-1980, No 5749, p 901 (July 31, 1980). Further, a child of the seller continues to attend school in the same school district for the second semester of the 1986-1987 school year as a nonresident tuition pupil. Your inquiry relates to the amount of the property tax credit to be applied to the nonresident tuition bill under these circumstances, i.e., whether the school district may reduce the property tax credit by the amount of school property tax reimbursement the seller received from the buyer. Here, the seller, now also the parent of a nonresident pupil, has paid the 1986 school property taxes and those property tax revenues are available to the school district for the 1986-1987 fiscal school year. See, MCL 380.1133; MSA 15.41133. The reimbursement of a portion of those taxes by the buyer to the seller is essentially a private contractual matter between the buyer and the seller. MCL 211.2; MSA 7.2, OAG, 1979-1980, No 5749, at p 903. The above-quoted statutory provision contains no language authorizing the school district to reduce or lower the property tax credit against nonresident tuition by taking into account the property tax reimbursement of the seller by the buyer. Further, under the above-quoted statutory provision, payment of such taxes prior to the beginning of the second semester in 1987 does not lower the amount of the property tax credit for the second semester of the 1986-1987 fiscal school year. It is my opinion, therefore, that under MCL 380.1416; MSA 15.41416, a school district may not take into account any reimbursement of school property taxes by a buyer to a seller of real property who previously paid such property taxes in computing the property tax credit to be applied against the tuition bill for a nonresident student. Frank J. Kelley Attorney General
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