H. B. 4078
(By Delegates Pino, Johnson, Whitman, Faircloth and Smirl)
(Originating in the House Committee on the Judiciary)
[January 16, 1996]
A BILL to amend and reenact sections one and five, article
six-c, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to
the special method for appraising dealer inventory; making
technical revisions to clarify appropriate code reference;
and extending date by which the tax commissioner reports
to the joint committee on government and finance.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections one and five, article six-c, chapter eleven
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-
one, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follow:
§11-6C-1. Inventory included within scope of article.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of law, inventory of
vehicles, as that term is defined in section one, article one,
chapter seventeen-b of this code, that is held for sale or
lease by new or used vehicle dealers licensed under the
provisions of article
six-c six, chapter seventeen-a of this
code, provided that house trailers and factory-built homes
shall be included within the scope of this article, consisting of individual units of personal new or used property, each unit
of which, upon its sale to a retail purchaser, must, as a
matter of law, be titled in the name of the retail purchaser
and registered with the division of motor vehicles, shall be
appraised for assessment purposes, as set forth in this
article.
This article does not apply to units of inventory which
are included in fleet sales, transactions between dealers or
classified as heavy duty trucks of sixteen thousand pounds or
more gross vehicular weight. For purposes of this article,
inventory subject to the provisions of this article shall be
denoted "dealer vehicle inventory".
§11-6C-5. Intent of this article; tax commissioner to
promulgate regulations rules.
(a) This article is adopted to address the lack of
uniformity, audit difficulties and business management issues
arising in this state with respect to the assessment of the
personal property held as new and used dealer vehicle
inventory. Accordingly, the Legislature finds and declares
that the adoption of this article will provide a more reliable
and uniform method of determining market value of dealer
vehicle inventory; minimize audit problems associated with such property; provide a predictable revenue stream for levying
bodies; maximize the owner's ability to manage inventory; and
provide clear guidance to local authorities by superseding the
wide variety of otherwise lawful appraisal methods now in use
in this state.
(b) The tax commissioner shall have the power to
promulgate such rules
and regulations as may be necessary to
implement the provisions of this article:
Provided, That the
tax commissioner shall provide to the joint committee on
government and finance by the first day of
January March for
the next two fiscal years a report detailing the results of the
administration of this article.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to make a technical
modification to the reporting requirements of the tax
department and correct an incorrect code cite, both relating to
dealers reporting vehicle inventory.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.