ENROLLED
H. B. 3211
(By Delegates Amores, Browning, Staton, Craig and G. White)
[Passed April 9, 2005; in effect ninety days from passage.]
AN ACT to amend the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, by
adding thereto a new article, designated §47-17-1, relating to
providing that a purchaser of motor fuel may by contract delay
payment of reimbursement of federal taxes due on the motor
fuel purchase to the vendor until one day before the federal
taxes are due from the vendor.
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 article, designated §47-17-1
, to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 17. REGULATION OF MOTOR FUEL CONTRACTS.
§47-17-1. Contracts for the payment of manufactures' excise taxes.
(a) If a contract requires one party to reimburse another
party for taxes levied under Part III of Subchapter A of Chapter 32 of the federal Internal Revenue Code, the party making the
reimbursement, at its option, shall not be required to reimburse
the other party more than one business day before the other party
is required to remit the taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.
(b) If a party chooses to exercise its option under subsection
(a) of this section, and provision is not already provided in the
contract, the party shall notify the other party in writing of its
intention. The option may not be exercised until at least thirty
days after the written notification or the beginning of the next
federal tax quarter, whichever is later.
(c) The party to be reimbursed under subsection (a) of this
section may require security from the reimbursing party for the
payment of the taxes in proportion to the amount the taxes
represent compared to the security required on the contract as a
whole. The party to be reimbursed shall not change other payment
terms of the contract due to the timing of the tax reimbursement,
but may require the taxes to be reimbursed by electronic transfer
of funds.
(d) This section applies to all continuing contracts now in
effect that have no expiration date and all contracts entered into
or renewed after the effective date of this section as enacted in
two thousand five.
Note: The purpose of the bill is to permit purchasers of
motor fuels upon which federal tax is due to delay payment of
reimbursement of the taxes to the vendor until the day before the payment is due the Internal Revenue Service.
§47-17-1 is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.