80-11-515. Annual commodity assessment -- collection. (1) The department, in consultation with each commodity advisory committee, shall, for each commodity associated with a research and marketing program, adopt by rule an annual assessment on program commodities grown, delivered, or stored in Montana and sold through commercial channels.

(2) The assessments are levied and imposed:

(a) at the time of first sale of any commodity by a seller and must be collected by the first purchaser of the commodity from the seller at the time of each settlement for the commodity purchased;

(b) in the case of a mortgage or pledge of a commodity as security for a loan under any federal price support program, other than the commodity credit corporation, at the time that the loan is made and must be collected by the agency or person making the loan by deducting the amount of the assessment from the proceeds of the loan;

(c) in the case of a commodity pledged under the federal commodity credit corporation, at the time of purchase and must be collected at the time of purchase, not at the time that a lease or loan is made under the program; or

(d) as otherwise provided by department rule for the specific research or market development program.

(3) The assessments levied under the provisions of this section must be deducted and collected as provided by this part, whether the commodity is stored in Montana or any other state. The assessment attaches to each transaction, but a seller is not subject to assessment more than once regardless of the number of times that the commodity is the subject of a sale, mortgage, pledge, or other transaction. The assessment is imposed and attaches on the initial sale, mortgage, pledge, or other transaction in which the commodity seller parts with title to the commodity or creates some interest in the commodity in a mortgagee, pledgee, or other person.

(4) If the first purchaser is a foreign entity, the producer shall make a good faith effort to ensure that the assessment is collected as provided in this section and paid to the department as provided in 80-11-516.

History: En. Sec. 9, Ch. 83, L. 1999.