SB537 SUB1
COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE
FOR
Senate Bill No. 537
(By Senators Snyder, Edgell, Laird, Unger, White and Palumbo)
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[Originating in the Committee on Government Organization;
reported February 18, 2010.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §11-22-2 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to authorizing the real property
transfer tax collected by the state to be paid to the
counties; and providing this be accomplished incrementally
over a five-year period.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-22-2 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 22. EXCISE TAX ON PRIVILEGE OF TRANSFERRING REAL
PROPERTY.
§11-22-2. Rate of tax; when and by whom payable.
(a) Every person who delivers, accepts or presents for
recording any document, or in whose behalf any document is
delivered, accepted or presented for recording, is subject to pay for, and in respect to the transaction or any part thereof,
a state
an excise tax upon the privilege of transferring title to real
estate at the rate of $1.10 for each $500 value or fraction thereof
as represented by the document as defined in section one of this
article. The
state tax is payable at the time of delivery,
acceptance or presenting for recording of the document.
(b) In addition to the
state excise tax described in
this
subsection
(a) of this section, there is assessed a fee of $20 upon
the privilege of transferring real estate for consideration. The
clerk of the county commission shall collect the additional $20 fee
before recording a transfer of title to real estate and shall
deposit the moneys from the additional fees into the West Virginia
Affordable Housing Trust Fund as provided in article eighteen-d,
chapter thirty-one of this code. The moneys collected from this
additional fee shall be segregated from other funds in the West
Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund and shall be accounted for
separately. Not more than ten percent of these additional moneys
may be expended by the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund
to defray administrative and operating costs and expenses actually
incurred by the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund. The
Housing Development Fund, as fiscal agent of the West Virginia
Affordable Housing Trust Fund, shall publish monthly on the
Internet site an accounting of all revenue deposited into the fund
during the month and a full disclosure of all expenditures from the
fund including the group receiving funds, their location and any
contractor awarded the construction contract. Additionally, the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund is to provide an annual
report to the Joint Committee on Government and Finance before
December 1, 2007, and each year thereafter.
(c) Commencing July 1, 2010, the excise tax collected in
subsection (a) of this section shall be distributed in the
following manner:
(1) For the first year, eighty percent to the state and twenty
percent to the county;
(2) For the second year, sixty percent to the state and forty
percent to the county;
(3) For the third year, forty percent to the state and sixty
percent to the county;
(4) For the fourth year, twenty percent to the state and
eighty percent to the county; and
(5) For the fifth and each succeeding year, one hundred
percent to the county.
(b) (d) Effective January 1, 1968, and thereafter, there is
imposed an additional county excise tax for the privilege of
transferring title to real estate at the rate of $0.55 for each
$500 value or fraction thereof as represented by such document as
defined in section one of this article, which county tax shall be
payable at the time of delivery, acceptance or presenting for
recording of such document.
Provided, That after July 1, 1989, the
county may increase said excise tax to an amount equal to the
state
excise tax
set forth in subsection (a) of this section. The
additional tax hereby imposed is declared to be a county tax and to be used for county purposes.
Provided, however, That only one such
state tax and one such county tax shall be paid on any one document
and
(e) The taxes established by this section shall be collected
in the county where the document is first admitted to record and
the tax shall be paid by the grantor therein unless the grantee
accepts the document without such tax having been paid, in which
event such tax shall be paid by the grantee:
Provided further,
That on any transfer of real property from a trustee or a county
clerk transferring real estate sold for taxes, such tax shall be
paid by the grantee. The county excise tax imposed under
subsection (d) of this section may not be increased in any county
unless the increase is approved by a majority vote of the members
of the county commission of such county. Any county commission
intending to increase the excise tax imposed in its county shall
publish a notice of its intention to increase such tax not less
than thirty days nor more than sixty days prior to the meeting at
which such increase will be considered, such notice to be published
as a Class I legal advertisement in compliance with the provisions
of article three, chapter fifty-nine of this code and the
publication area shall be the county in which such county
commission is located.