Woodmen of the World &/Or Assured Life Ass'n v. Colorado Department of Revenue

In my view, under controlling precedent and properly applied rales of statutory construction, the statutory exemption from taxation for fraternal benefit societies does not extend to sales and use taxes. I therefore respectfully dissent.

The supreme court addressed a similar claim of exemption in Security Life & Accident Co. v. Heckers, 177 Colo. 455, 495 P.2d 225 (1972). The issue there was whether a statute enacted in 1907 that exempted insurance companies from taxation, except for a tax on insurance premiums, applied so as to exempt insurance companies from sales and use taxes first imposed…