Senate Bill No. 537
(By Senators Snyder, Edgell, Laird, Unger, White and Palumbo)
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[Introduced February 11, 2010; referred to the Committee on
Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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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. In
addition to the
state excise tax described in this subsection,
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.
(b) 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) (c) 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 However, 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
(d) The tax 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.
However, 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
this section subsection (c) 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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the real
property transfer tax collected by the state to be paid to the
counties incrementally over a five-year period.
This bill does not
increase taxes paid by a taxpayer.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.