Senate Bill No. 743
(By Senators Jenkins, Unger and Hunter)
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[Introduced February 20, 2006; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact §11-15-3a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the gradual elimination of the
consumers sales and service tax on food and food ingredients
intended for human consumption.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That §11-15-3a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended,
be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. CONSUMERS SALES AND SERVICE TAX.
§11-15-3a. Rate of tax on food and food ingredients intended for
human consumption; reduction of tax beginning
January 1, 2006; exceptions; legislative, emergency
and other rules.
(a)
Rate of tax on food and food ingredients. --
Notwithstanding any provision of this article or article fifteen-a
of this chapter to the contrary, the rate of tax on sales, purchases and uses of food and food ingredients intended for human
consumption after the thirty-first day of December, two thousand
five, shall be five percent of its sales price, as defined in
section two, article fifteen-b of this chapter:
Provided, That
beginning the first day of July, two thousand six, there shall be
a three percent tax on the sale, purchase and use of food and food
ingredients intended for human consumption: Provided, however,
That beginning the first day of July, two thousand seven, there
shall be no tax on the sale, purchase and use of food and food
ingredients intended for human consumption.
(b)
Calculation of tax on fractional parts of a dollar. -- The
tax computation under this section shall be carried to the third
decimal place, and the tax rounded up to the next whole cent
whenever the third decimal place is greater than four and rounded
down to the lower whole cent whenever the third decimal place is
four or less. The seller may elect to compute the tax due on a
transaction on a per item basis or on an invoice basis provided the
method used is consistently used during the reporting period.
(c)
Exceptions. -- The reduced rate of tax provided in this
section shall not apply to sales, purchases and uses by consumers
of "Prepared food," as defined in article fifteen-b of this
chapter, which shall remain taxable at the general rate of tax
specified in section three of this article and section two, article
fifteen-a of this chapter.
(d)
Federal food stamp and women, infants and children
programs, other exemptions. -- Nothing in this section shall affect
application of the exemption from tax provided in section nine of
this article for food purchased by an eligible person using food
stamps, electronic benefits transfer cards or vouchers issued by or
pursuant to authorization of the United States Department of
Agriculture to individuals participating in the federal food stamp
program, by whatever name called, or the women, infants and
children (WIC) program, or application of any other exemption from
tax set forth in this article or article fifteen-a of this chapter.
(e)
Legislative rules; emergency rules. -- The Tax
Commissioner may promulgate legislative rules and emergency rules
explaining and implementing this section, which rules shall be
promulgated in accordance with the provisions of article three,
chapter twenty-nine-a of this code. The authority to promulgate
rules includes authority to amend or repeal those rules. If
proposed legislative rules for this section are filed in the State
Register before the fifteenth day of December, two thousand five,
those rules may be promulgated as emergency legislative rules, as
provided in article three of said chapter twenty-nine-a.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to gradually eliminate the
sales and service tax on food and food ingredients intended for
human consumption.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.