Senate Bill No. 442

(By Senators Beach and Kessler (Mr. President))

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[Introduced January 27, 2012; referred to the Committee on Government Organization; and then to the Committee on Finance.]

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A BILL to amend and reenact §11A-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to phasing in, over a four-year period, an increased assessment of real property resulting from property assessments that exceed the previous year’s assessment by fifty percent or more.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

    That §11A-1-3 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:

ARTICLE 1. ACCRUAL AND COLLECTION OF TAXES.

§11A-1-3. Accrual; time for payment; interest on delinquent taxes.

    (a) All current taxes assessed on real and personal property, except for the taxes described in subsection (c) of this section, may be paid in two installments. The first installment shall be is payable on September 1 of the year for which the assessment is made and shall become becomes delinquent on October 1; the second installment shall be is payable on the first day of the following March and shall become becomes delinquent on April 1. Taxes paid on or before the date when they are payable, including both first and second installments, shall be are subject to a discount of two and one-half percent. If taxes are not paid on or before the date on which they become delinquent, including both first and second installments, interest at the rate of nine percent per annum shall be is added from the date they become delinquent until paid.

    (b) With regard to real and personal property taxes, when any return, claim, statement or other document is required to be filed, or any payment is required to be made within a prescribed period or before a prescribed date, and the applicable law requires delivery to the office of the sheriff of a county of this state, the methods prescribed in section five-f, article ten, chapter eleven of this code for timely filing and payment to the Tax Commissioner or Department of Tax and Revenue shall be are the same methods utilized for timely filing and payment with such sheriff. Nothing contained in this subsection (b) shall prohibit prohibits the sheriff from establishing additional methods of payment in accordance with the provisions of section eight-a of this article.

    (c) All assessments on real property which exceed the previous year’s assessment by fifty percent or more, and which are not attributable to improvements to the property, are to be phased in equal amounts over a four-year period.

    (d) The Tax Commissioner shall propose rules for legislative approval in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code to implement subsection (c) of this section.

    NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide for the phased in of an increase in assessment on real property over a four-year period when the current assessment of the property exceeds the value of the previous year’s assessment by fifty percent or more.

    Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be added.