Scope
MCA 15-6-162 classifies the land, improvements and personal property of a qualified data center that meets the section's size and investment thresholds as class seventeen property, taxed at 0.9 percent of market value. Dedicated communications infrastructure, and certain onsite generation and storage systems that began operating after 13 May 2025, are taxed at the class seventeen rate for 10 years from the start of construction and then as class thirteen property.
- Geographic scope
- Montana
- Jurisdiction
- State
- Authority type
- Legislature
- Issuing authority
- Montana Legislature
Dates
- Adopted
- No adoption day is recorded
- Effective
- Several dates apply; see the source
- Scheduled expiration
- See completion condition
- Ended
- Not recorded as ended
- Completion condition
- The opened section states no end date. The 1 July 2037 construction-start date for communications infrastructure is a qualification window, not an expiration.
- Source document
- The source page states no document date
- Last checked
- 22 September 2026 (earlier than tracker date 5 October 2026; not an automatic status change)
Summary
Montana taxes qualified data center property as class seventeen property at 0.9 percent of market value under MCA 15-6-162. The section was enacted in 2017 and amended in 2019 and 2025; the current text also covers certain onsite generation and storage systems that began operating after 13 May 2025. The classification is a property-tax rate and does not approve any specific facility.
What this does not establish
- The 2025 amending Act (House Bill 424, Laws 2025 chapter 678, approved 13 May 2025) was opened and is a separate linked record.
- The 2025 session-law volumes were searched for "data center"; only chapter 678 is data-center-specific. Failed or pending 2025 bills could not be searched because the Legislature's bill explorer is script-only.
Unresolved questions
None recorded.
Relationships
Supersession means a later instrument replaces the earlier legal effect. Repeal links identify the repeal instrument and the measure it ends. A later implementation or related letter is not treated as a replacement unless the record says so.
- Related, not a replacement 2025 amendments to data center property class and sale of data center power (In effect)
Sources
https://mca.legmt.gov/bills/mca/title_0150/chapter_0060/part_0010/section_0620/0150-0060-0010-0620.html
- Montana Department of Revenue, Qualified Data Center Application Agency application and description of class seventeen treatment, observed 23 September 2026