H. B. 2197
(By Delegate Walters)
[Introduced February 11, 2005; referred to the
Committee on Education then Finance.]
A BILL to amend the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new section, designated §11-21-12g, relating
to exempting students attending state colleges or universities
in undergraduate programs and graduates of undergraduate
programs of state institutions of higher learning for the
first two tax years postgraduation from the payment of state
income tax; providing that students attending state
institutions and enrolled in undergraduate programs and
undergraduate graduates of state institutions for the first
two years after graduating shall pay seventy-five percent of
any state income tax that they otherwise would owe to the
particular institution or other corporate creditor from which
the student or graduate obtained student loans to attend the
state institution of higher learning.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended
by adding thereto a new section, designated §11-21-12g, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 21. PERSONAL INCOME TAX.
§11-21-12g. Exemption for students attending or graduated from
state institutions of higher learning.
Any student attending full-time a state public institution of
higher learning in an accredited undergraduate program and for the
first two tax years following successful completion of an
undergraduate program, is exempt from the tax imposed by this
article:
Provided, That in order to qualify for this exemption,
the taxpayer must present proof to the State Tax Department that in
the year of exemption provided under this section, he or she paid
a minimum sum equal to or greater than seventy-five percent of the
tax liability that would have otherwise existed under this article
in the subject tax year to the institution or other qualified
lending entity to which the taxpayer has incurred a debt in the
form of a student loan or student loans. The Tax Commissioner
shall propose legislative rules in accordance with article three,
chapter twenty-nine-a of this code designed to effectuate the
provisions of this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt undergraduate
students attending state colleges or universities as well as
graduates of undergraduate programs of such state institutions for the first two tax years postgraduation, from the payment of state
income tax. The bill also provides that the undergraduate students
and undergraduate graduates for the first two years after
graduating shall pay seventy-five percent of any state income tax
that they otherwise would owe to the particular institution or
other qualified lending creditor they owe for student loans. The
Tax Commissioner is directed to propose legislative rules to
effectuate the purposes of the bill.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.