H. B. 4722
(By Delegates Fleischauer, Caputo,
Webster, Susman, DeLong and Talbott)
[Introduced
February 27, 2004
; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-22-2 of the code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended; and to amend said code by adding thereto a
new section, designated §17A-3-4a, all relating to imposing a
fee of twenty dollars on the transfer of real property in
addition to the excise tax presently imposed on such
transactions; imposing a fee of twenty dollars on the issuance
of a certificate of title by the commissioner of the division
of motor vehicles for the transfer of mobile homes subject to
property tax under sections eleven or twelve, article five,
chapter eleven of this code; and dedicating the revenues
resulting from the transfer fees to the West Virginia
affordable housing trust fund created in article eighteen-d,
chapter thirty-one of this code; and authorizing up to ten
percent of the moneys generated by the transfer fee to be
expended by the West Virginia affordable housing trust fund
for administrative and operating expenses.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-22-2 of the code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted; and that said code be amended by adding
thereto a new section, designated §17A-3-4a, all to read as
follows:
CHAPTER 11. TAXATION.
ARTICLE 22. EXCISE TAX ON PRIVILEGE OF TRANSFERRING REAL PROPERTY.
§11-22-2. Rate of tax; when and by whom payable; additional
county tax.
Every person who delivers, accepts or presents for recording
any document, or in whose behalf any document is delivered,
accepted or presented for recording, shall be subject to pay for
and in respect to the transaction or any part thereof, a state
excise tax upon the privilege of transferring title to real estate
at the rate of one dollar and ten cents for each five hundred
dollars' value or fraction thereof as represented by such document
as defined in section one hereof, which state tax shall be payable
at the time of delivery, acceptance or presenting for recording of
such document. In addition to the state excise tax described in
the preceding sentence of this section, every person who delivers,
accepts or presents for recording any document, or in whose behalf
any document is delivered, accepted or presented for recording,
shall be subject to pay for and in respect to the transaction a
transfer fee of twenty dollars for the privilege of transferring title to real estate, which transfer fee shall be payable to the
county clerk at the time of delivery, acceptance or presentment for
recordation of the document, and which transfer fee shall be
deposited by the county clerk into an account for the benefit and
use of the West Virginia affordable housing trust fund established
in article eighteen-d, chapter thirty-one of this code. An amount
not to exceed ten percent of any and all transfer fees received by
the West Virginia affordable housing trust fund under this section
and under section four-a, article three, chapter seventeen-a of
this code may be expended by the West Virginia affordable housing
trust fund to defray administrative and operating costs and
expenses incurred by the West Virginia affordable housing trust
fund.
Effective January first, one thousand nine hundred sixty-eight
and thereafter, there is hereby imposed an additional county excise
tax for the privilege of transferring title to real estate at the
rate of fifty-five cents for each five hundred dollars' value or
fraction thereof as represented by such document as defined in
section one hereof, which county tax shall be payable at the time
of delivery, acceptance or presenting for recording of such
document: Provided, That after the first day of July, one thousand
nine hundred eighty-nine, the county may increase said excise tax
to an amount equal to the state excise tax. The additional tax
hereby imposed is declared to be a county tax and to be used for county purposes: Provided, however, That only one such state tax
and one such county tax shall be paid on any one document and shall
be collected in the county where the document is first admitted to
record, and the same shall be paid by the grantor therein unless
the grantee accepts the same without such tax having been paid, in
which event such tax shall be paid by the grantee: Provided
further, That on any transfer of real property from a trustee or a
county clerk transferring real estate sold for taxes, such tax
shall be paid by the grantee.
The county excise tax imposed under this section may not be
increased in any county unless the increase is approved by a
majority vote of the members of the county commission of such
county. Any county commission intending to increase the excise tax
imposed in its county shall publish a notice of its intention to
increase such tax not less than thirty days nor more than sixty
days prior to the meeting at which such increase will be
considered, such notice to be published as a Class I legal
advertisement in compliance with the provisions of article three,
chapter fifty-nine of this code, and the publication area shall be
the county in which such county commission is located.
CHAPTER 17A. MOTOR VEHICLE ADMINISTRATION, REGISTRATION,
CERTIFICATE OF TITLE, AND ANTITHEFT PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 3. ORIGINAL AND RENEWAL OF REGISTRATION; ISSUANCE OF
CERTIFICATES OF TITLE.
§17A-3-4a. Fee for transfer of certificates of title for mobile
homes.
Notwithstanding any provisions of this code to the contrary,
a transfer fee of twenty dollars is hereby imposed for the issuance
of a certificate of title by the commissioner for every mobile home
subject to personal property tax under sections eleven or twelve,
article five, chapter eleven of this code, which transfer fee shall
be payable by either the purchaser or seller of any such mobile
home, as the parties may agree, to the commissioner at the time of
the issuance of the certificate of title upon the purchase, sale or
transfer of ownership of any such mobile home, and the collected
transfer fee shall be deposited by the commissioner into an account
for the benefit and use of the West Virginia affordable housing
trust fund established in article eighteen-d, chapter thirty-one of
this code, subject to the provisions of section two, article
twenty-two, chapter eleven of this code. The transfer fee provided
in this section shall be in addition to any taxes imposed on the
purchase, sale or transfer of a mobile home as provided in articles
fifteen and fifteen-a of chapter eleven of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to impose a transfer fee of
twenty dollars on the transfer of all real property and mobile
homes, in addition to any excise taxes or other fees which may be
currently collected in respect of those transfers, and to dedicate
those transfer fees to the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust
Fund, to be used by the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the statutory purposes of the fund. An amount up to ten
percent of any and all transfer fees received by the West Virginia
Affordable Housing Trust Fund to defray the cost of its
administrative and operational expenses.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
§17A-3-4a is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.