Senate Bill No. 294
(By Senators Sharpe, Dugan, Schoonover, Prezioso,
Mckenzie, White, Love, Helmick, Chafin and Fanning)
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[Introduced March 12, 1997; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section nine, article three, chapter
eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to further amend said
article by adding thereto a new section, designated section
nine-a, all relating to exempting one personal vehicle of
each voluntary fire department member from personal property
tax in proportion to the amount of use for voluntary fire
department purposes; and providing for the chief to furnish
the assessor with a list of members and mileage records.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section nine, article three, chapter eleven of the code
of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted; and that said article be
further amended by adding thereto a new section, designated
section nine-a, all to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. ASSESSMENTS GENERALLY.
§11-3-9. Property exempt from taxation.
All property, real and personal, described in this section,
and to the extent herein limited, shall be exempt from taxation,
that is to say: Property belonging to the United States, other
than property permitted by the United States to be taxed under
state law; property belonging exclusively to the state; property
belonging exclusively to any county, district, city, village or
town in this state, and used for public purposes; property
located in this state, belonging to any city, town, village,
county or any other political subdivision of another state, and
used for public purposes; property used exclusively for divine
worship; parsonages, and the household goods and furniture
pertaining thereto; mortgages, bonds and other evidence of
indebtedness in the hands of bona fide owners and holders
hereafter issued and sold by churches and religious societies for
the purposes of securing money to be used in the erection of
church buildings used exclusively for divine worship, or for the
purpose of paying indebtedness thereon; cemeteries; property
belonging to, or held in trust for, colleges, seminaries,
academies and free schools, if used for educational, literary or
scientific purposes, including books, apparatus, annuities and
furniture; property belonging to, or held in trust for, colleges
or universities located in West Virginia, or any public or
private nonprofit foundation or corporation which receives contributions exclusively for such college or university, if the
property or dividends, interest, rents or royalties derived
therefrom are used or devoted to educational purposes of such
college or university; public and family libraries; property used
for charitable purposes, and not held or leased out for profit;
property used for the public purposes of distributing water or
natural gas, or providing sewer service by a duly chartered
nonprofit corporation when
such the property is not held, leased
out or used for profit; property used for area economic
development purposes by nonprofit corporations when
such the
property is not leased out for profit; all real estate not
exceeding one-half acre in extent, and the buildings thereon, and
used exclusively by any college or university society as a
literary hall, or as a dormitory or clubrooms, if not leased or
otherwise used with a view to profit; all property belonging to
benevolent associations, not conducted for private profit;
property belonging to any public institution for the education of
the deaf, dumb or blind, or any hospital not held or leased out
for profit; house of refuge, lunatic or orphan asylum; homes for
children or for the aged, friendless or infirm, not conducted for
private profit; fire engines and implements for extinguishing
fires, and property used exclusively for the safekeeping thereof,
and for the meeting of fire companies;
one personal vehicle owned
by each voluntary fire department member to the extent of use for voluntary fire department purposes as provided in section nine-a
of this article; all property on hand to be used in the
subsistence of livestock on hand at the commencement of the
assessment year; household goods to the value of two hundred
dollars, whether or not held or used for profit; bank deposits
and money; household goods (which term is deemed for purposes of
this section to mean only personal property and household goods
commonly found within the house and items used to care for the
house and its surrounding property) when not held or used for
profit, and personal effects (which term is deemed for purposes
of this section to mean only articles and items of personal
property commonly worn on or about the human body, or carried by
a person and normally thought to be associated with the person)
when not held or used for profit; dead victuals laid away for
family use and any other property or security exempted by any
other provision of law; but no property shall be exempt from
taxation which shall have been purchased or procured for the
purpose of evading taxation, whether temporarily holding the same
over the first day of the assessment year or otherwise:
Provided, That real property which is exempt from taxation by
this section shall be entered upon the assessor's books, together
with the true and actual value thereof, but no taxes shall be
levied upon the same or extended upon the assessor's books.
Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section, however, no language herein shall be construed to exempt from
taxation any property owned by, or held in trust for,
educational, literary, scientific, religious or other charitable
corporations or organizations, including any public or private
nonprofit foundation or corporation existing for the support of
any college or university located in West Virginia, unless
such
the property, or the dividends, interest, rents or royalties
derived therefrom, is used primarily and immediately for the
purposes of such corporations or organizations.
The tax commissioner shall, by issuance of regulations,
provide each assessor with guidelines to ensure uniform
assessment practices statewide to effect the intent of this
section.
§11-3-9a-9a. Voluntary fire department member's tax exemption for
vehicle.
(a) Each member of a voluntary fire department in this state
who regularly responds to emergency calls, may exempt from
personal property tax one personal vehicle that is regularly used
to further the purposes of the fire department. Up to ten
percent of any increase in revenue that a county derives from
property reappraisal may be used to fund the exemption. If the
county incurs a decrease in revenue as a result of the
reappraisal, the exemption is optional. This exemption is not
available to members of a paid fire department.
(b) The chief of every volunteer fire department within this
state shall provide the assessor of each county with a list of
all members of the chief's volunteer fire department. The list
shall be updated within thirty days of any change in the
membership of a voluntary fire department.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide that each
volunteer fire department member shall be exempt from personal
property tax on one personal vehicle in proportion to the amount
of mileage traveled to further the purposes of the voluntary fire
department; to provide that each chief shall furnish the
assessor's office with a list of members and mileage records.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that
would be added.
§11-3-9-9aa is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring
have been omitted.
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