Senate Bill No. 467
(By Senators McCabe and Rowe)
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[Introduced February 5, 2004; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
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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 these
transactions; imposing a fee of twenty dollars on the issuance
of a certificate of title by the commissioner of motor
vehicles for the transfer of mobile homes; dedication of the
revenues from these transfer fees to the West Virginia
affordable housing trust fund; and authorizing expenditure of
up to ten percent of the funds generated 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 of the
transaction, 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 of that amount
as represented by
such the document as defined in section one
hereof of this article, which state tax shall be payable at the
time of delivery, acceptance or presenting for recording of
such
the document.
In addition to the state excise tax described in
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 also pay a
transfer fee of twenty dollars for the privilege of transferring
title to real estate. This 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 by the
provisions of article eighteen-d, chapter thirty-one of this code.
An amount not to exceed ten percent of the transfer fees received
by the West Virginia affordable housing trust fund under the
provisions of this section and section four-a, article three,
chapter seventeen-a of this code, may be expended 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.
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 other 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 the provisions of sections eleven or twelve, article five, chapter
eleven of this code. The transfer fee shall be payable by either
the purchaser or seller of a mobile home, as the parties may agree,
to the commissioner at the time of the issuance of a certificate of
title at the time of purchase, sale or transfer of ownership of a
mobile home and the collected fee shall be deposited by the
commissioner into an account for the benefit and use of the West
Virginia affordable housing trust fund established by the
provisions of article eighteen-d, chapter thirty-one of this code.
The transfer fee provided by this section is in addition to any
taxes imposed on the purchase, sale or transfer of a mobile home
under the provisions of articles fifteen and fifteen-a, chapter
eleven of this code.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to impose a fee of twenty
dollars on the transfer of real property in addition to the excise
tax presently imposed on these transactions and to impose a fee of
twenty dollars on the issuance of a certificate of title by the
commissioner of motor vehicles for the transfer of mobile homes.
It provides for the dedication of the revenues from these transfer
fees to the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund and
authorizes expenditure of up to ten percent of the funds generated
to be expended by the West Virginia Affordable Housing Trust Fund
for administrative and operating 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.