H. B. 3073
(By Delegate Shott)
[Introduced March 11, 2009; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary then Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-22-1 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to exempting the transfer of
property from an individual to a wholly-owned corporation or
wholly-owned limited liability company from the excise tax on
property transfers.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-22-1 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.
§11-22-1. Definitions.
As used in this chapter:
(1) "Association" means a partnership, limited partnership or
any other form of unincorporated enterprise, owned or conducted by
two or more persons.
(2) "Corporation" means a corporation or joint-stock
association, organized under the laws of this state, the United
States or any other state, territory or foreign country or
dependency including, but not limited to, banking institutions.
(3) "Commissioner" means the State Tax Commissioner.
(4) "Document" means any deed, or instrument or writing by
which any real property within this state or any interest in real
property is granted, conveyed or otherwise transferred to the
grantee, purchaser or any other person; but does not include wills,
transfer of real property where the value of the property
transferred is $100 or less, testamentary or inter vivos trusts,
deeds of partition, deeds made pursuant to mergers of corporations,
limited liability companies, partnerships, limited partnerships,
testamentary or inter vivos trusts, deeds made pursuant to
conversions to limited liability companies from corporations,
partnerships, limited partnerships or trusts, deeds made by a
subsidiary corporation to its parent corporation for no
consideration other than the cancellation or surrender of the
subsidiary's stock, deeds made pursuant to transfers from an
individual to his or her wholly-owned corporation for no
consideration other than the issuance of stock, deeds made pursuant
to transfers from an individual to his or her wholly-owned limited
liability company for no consideration other than the issuance of
a unit interest, leases, transfers between husband and wife, transfers between parent and child or transfers between parent and
child and his or her spouse, without consideration, transfers
between grandparent and grandchild or transfers between grandparent
and grandchild and his or her spouse, without consideration,
transfers without consideration between a principal and straw party
for any purpose, gifts to or transfers from or between voluntary
charitable or educational associations or trustees of voluntary
charitable or educational associations and like nonprofit
corporations having the same or similar purposes, quitclaim or
corrective deeds without consideration, transfers to or from the
United States, the State of West Virginia, or to or from any of
their instrumentalities, agencies or political subdivisions, by
gift, dedication, deed or condemnation proceedings, or mortgages or
deeds of trust given as security for a debt.
(5) "Limited liability company" means a limited liability
company organized under the laws of this state, the United States
or by any other state, territory or the District of Columbia.
(6) "Person" means every natural person, association or
corporation. Whenever used in any clause prescribing and imposing
a fine or imprisonment, or both, the term "person" as applied to
associations, means the partners or members of the association,
and, as applied to corporations, the officers of the corporation.
(7) "Transaction" means the delivering, accepting or
presenting for recording of a document.
(8) "Value" means in the case of any document not a gift, the
amount of the full actual consideration for the document, paid or
to be paid, including the amount of any lien or liens assumed; in
the case of a gift, or any other document without consideration,
the actual monetary value of the property conveyed or transferred.
In the event any document includes real property or any interest in
real property lying outside the State of West Virginia or includes
personal property, value is the proportion of the consideration
paid in case of the transfer for consideration, or the proportion
of the true and actual value in case of a gift, which the actual
value of the real property located in West Virginia bears to the
total actual value of all the property, real or personal,
transferred by the document. The value as defined in this
subdivision shall be stated in the declaration of consideration or
value provided for in section six of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to exempt from the excise
tax on property transfers property that is transferred from an
individual to a wholly-owned corporation or a wholly-owned limited
liability company.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.