ENROLLED
Senate Bill No. 505
(By Senator Miller)
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[Passed March 7, 1996; in effect ninety days from passage.]
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AN ACT to amend and reenact sections five and six, article
twenty-two, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, all relating
to the recordation of instruments transferring real property
with the county clerk; permitting documentary stamps
reflecting the payment of taxes upon the privilege of
transferring real property to be affixed by meter or similar
device; providing that such stamps need not be canceled; and
providing that those instruments to which documentary stamps
are not required to be affixed may not be recorded unless
there is tendered with the document a verified sales listing
form.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections five and six, article twenty-two, chapter
eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred
thirty-one, as amended, be amended and reenacted, all to read as
follows:
ARTICLE 22. EXCISE TAX ON PRIVILEGE OF TRANSFERRING REAL
PROPERTY.
§11-22-5. Commissioner to provide for sale of stamps; rules and
regulations.
(a) The commissioner shall prescribe, prepare and furnish
adhesive stamps of such denominations and quantities as may be
necessary for the payment of the tax imposed and assessed by this
article, to the clerks of the various county commissions whose
duty it shall be to offer said stamps for sale.
(b) The commissioner is hereby authorized and empowered to
prescribe, adopt, promulgate and enforce rules and regulations
relating to:
(1) The method and means to be used in affixing or
cancelling of stamps in substitution for or in addition to the
method and means provided in this article.
(2) The denominations and sale of stamps.
(3) Any other matter or thing pertaining to the administration and enforcement of the provisions of this article.
(c) In addition to the form of the stamps described in
subsection (a) of this section, and the method and means to be
used in affixing the stamps heretofore authorized by the
commissioner, the commissioner may authorize the clerks of the
county commissions to affix stamps by meter or other similar
device. Stamps that are affixed by the use of such devices shall
be uniform as to size and design and shall be in such form as
determined by the commissioner. Notwithstanding the provisions
of section four of this article, cancellation of the stamps
affixed by the use of such devices is not required.
§11-22-6. Duties of clerk; declaration of consideration or
value; filing of sales listing form for tax
commissioner; disposition and use of proceeds.
When any instrument on which the tax as herein provided is
imposed is offered for recordation, the clerk of the county
commission shall ascertain and compute the amount of the tax due
thereon and shall ascertain if stamps in the proper amount are
attached thereto as a prerequisite to acceptance of the
instrument for recordation.
When offered for recording, each instrument subject to the tax as herein provided shall have appended on the face or at the
end thereof a statement or declaration signed by the grantor,
grantee or other responsible party familiar with the transaction
therein involved declaring the consideration paid for or the
value of the property thereby conveyed. The declaration may be
in the following language:
"DECLARATION OF CONSIDERATION OR VALUE
I hereby declare:
(a) The total consideration paid for the property conveyed
by the document to which this declaration is appended is
$________; or
(b) The true and actual value of the property transferred by
the document to which this declaration is appended is, to the
best of my knowledge and belief $________; or
(c) The proportion of all the property included in the
document to which this declaration is appended which is real
property located in West Virginia is _______%; the value of all
the property $________; the value of real estate in West Virginia
is $________; or
(d) This deed conveys real estate located in more than one
county in West Virginia; the total consideration paid for, or actual cash value of, all the real estate located in West
Virginia conveyed by this document is $________; and documentary
stamps showing payment of all of the excise tax on all of said
real estate are attached to an executed counterpart of this deed
recorded in _______________ County.
Given under my hand this ___ day of _____________, 19__.
Signed _____________________________ (Indicate whether
grantor, grantee, or other interest in conveyance).
____________________________________ Address"
The declaration shall be considered by the clerk in
ascertaining the correct number of stamps required, and if
declaration (d) above is used, no stamps shall be required on the
duplicate deed to which it is attached and such duplicate deed
shall be admitted to record, and when recorded shall have the
same effect for all purposes as if stamps were attached thereto.
On or after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred
ninety-six, the clerk shall not record any document with or
without stamps affixed unless there is tendered with the document
a completed and verified sales listing form for the benefit and
use of the state tax commissioner. Preprinted forms for this
purpose shall be provided to each clerk by the tax commissioner.
The forms shall require the following information: (1) If
the last deed in the chain of title represents the last transfer
of the property, the names of the grantor and grantee and the
deedbook and page number; or (2) if the last transfer was not
made by deed, the source of the grantor's title, if known; or (3)
if the source of the grantor's title is unknown, a description of
the property and the name of the person to whom real property
taxes are assessed as set forth in the landbook prepared by the
assessor. In all cases the forms shall require the tax map and
parcel number of the property, the district or municipality in
which the real property or the greater portion thereof lies, the
address of the property, the consideration or value in money,
including any other valuable goods or services, upon which the
buyer and seller agree to consummate the sale, and any other
financing arrangements affecting value. The sales listing form
required by this paragraph is to be completed in addition to, and
not in lieu of, the declaration required by this section:
Provided, That the tax commissioner may design and provide a form
which combines into one form the contents of the declaration and
the sales listing form required herein and recordation and filing
of that form may be used as an alternative to filing the sales listing form required herein:
Provided, however, That the filing
with the clerk of a duplicate deed containing the sales listing
form information required by this section shall also satisfy the
requirements of this section regarding the sales listing form.
The clerk shall, at the end of the month, pay all of the proceeds
collected from the sale of stamps for the county excise tax into
the county general fund for use of the county.
On or before the tenth day of each month the clerk shall
deliver to the tax commissioner, or a person designated by the
tax commissioner, the sales listing forms or other alternative
forms as may be authorized by this section for documents recorded
during the preceding month.
The sales listing form required by this section shall also
include a portion thereof for the information required of a
person claiming a lien against the real property described in the
document who desires to file a statement pursuant to the
provisions of subsection (a), section three, article three,
chapter eleven-a of this code. Upon receipt of the form, the
clerk shall, no later than the end of the business day upon which
it was received, provide a copy of the statement to the assessor
and a copy thereof to the sheriff. The assessor shall note the lien and any new owner of the real property indicated on the
sales listing form upon his landbooks. The sheriff shall
promptly compare the information contained in the sales listing
form with his records and shall:
(1) Provide the lienholder such notice as the lienholder
would thereafter otherwise be entitled to receive pursuant to the
provisions of chapter eleven-a of this code had the lienholder
provided the information in the form of a statement as permitted
by the provisions of section three, article three of said
chapter;
(2) Provide any other person listed on the sales listing
form such notice as the person would thereafter otherwise be
entitled to receive pursuant to the provisions of chapter eleven-
a of this code as a result of the person's interest in the real
property;
(3) Deliver to any person listed on the sales listing form
as the new owner of the real property described in the document
a copy of any subsequently issued tax ticket required to be sent
by the provisions of section eight, article one, chapter eleven-a
of this code; and
(4) Promptly notify any person listed on the sales listing form as the lienholder or the new owner of the real property of
any due and unpaid taxes assessed against the property.