Senate Bill No. 342
(By Senators Manchin, Claypole, Bailey, Anderson, Jones,
Ross, Helmick, Dalton, Wagner, Plymale, Miller and Schoonover)
____________
[Introduced February 14, 1994; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact section four, article three, chapter
seventeen-a of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine
hundred thirty-one, as amended, relating to titling leased
vehicles.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section four, article three, chapter seventeen-a of the
code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 3. ORIGINAL AND RENEWAL OF REGISTRATION; ISSUANCE OF
CERTIFICATES OF TITLE.
§17A-3-4. Application for certificate of title; tax for
privilege of certification of title; penalty for false
swearing.
(a) Certificates of registration of any vehicle or
registration plates therefor, whether original issues or
duplicates, shall not be issued or furnished by the division of
motor vehicles or any other officer charged with the duty, unless
the applicant therefor already has received, or at the same timemakes application for and is granted, an official certificate of
title of the vehicle. The application shall be upon a blank form
to be furnished by the division of motor vehicles and shall
contain a full description of the vehicle, which description
shall contain a manufacturer's serial or identification number or
other number as determined by the commissioner and any
distinguishing marks, together with a statement of the
applicant's title and of any liens or encumbrances upon the
vehicle, the names and addresses of the holders of the liens and
any other information as the division of motor vehicles may
require. The application shall be signed and sworn to by the
applicant.
(b) A tax is hereby imposed upon the privilege of effecting
the certification of title of each vehicle in the amount equal to
five percent of the value of the motor vehicle at the time of the
certification. If the vehicle is new, the actual purchase price
or consideration to the purchaser thereof is the value of the
vehicle; if the vehicle is a used or secondhand vehicle, the
present market value at time of transfer or purchase is the value
thereof for the purposes of this section:
Provided,
That so much
of the purchase price or consideration as is represented by the
exchange of other vehicles on which the tax imposed by this
section has been paid by the purchaser shall be deducted from the
total actual price or consideration paid for the vehicle, whether
the same be new or secondhand; if the vehicle is acquired through
gift, or by any manner whatsoever, unless specifically exemptedin this section, the present market value of the vehicle at the
time of the gift or transfer is the value thereof for the
purposes of this section. No certificate of title for any
vehicle shall be issued to any applicant unless the applicant has
paid to the division of motor vehicles the tax imposed by this
section which is five percent of the true and actual value of the
vehicle whether the vehicle is acquired through purchase, by gift
or by any other manner whatsoever except gifts between husband
and wife or between parents and children:
Provided, however,
That the husband or wife, or the parents or children previously
have paid the tax on the vehicles transferred to the state of
West Virginia:
Provided further,
That the division of motor
vehicles may issue a certificate of registration and title to an
applicant if the applicant provides sufficient proof to the
division of motor vehicles that the applicant has paid the taxes
and fees required by this section to a motor vehicle dealership
that has gone out of business or has filed bankruptcy proceedings
in the United States bankruptcy court and the taxes and fees so
required to be paid by the applicant have not been sent to the
division by the motor vehicle dealership or have been impounded
due to the bankruptcy proceedings:
And provided further,
That
the applicant makes an affidavit of the same and assigns all
rights to claims for money the applicant may have against the
motor vehicle dealership to the division of motor vehicles:
And
provided further,
That the division of motor vehicles shall issue
a certificate of registration and title to an applicant withoutpayment of the tax imposed by this section if the applicant is a
corporation, partnership or limited liability company
transferring the vehicle to another corporation, partnership or
limited liability company when the entities involved in the
transfer are members of the same controlled group and the
transferring entity has previously paid the tax on the vehicle
transferred. For the purposes of this section, control means
ownership, directly or indirectly, of stock or equity interests
possessing fifty percent or more of the total combined voting
power of all classes of the stock of a corporation or equity
interests of a partnership or limited liability company entitled
to vote or ownership, directly or indirectly, of stock or equity
interests possessing fifty percent or more of the value of the
corporation, partnership or limited liability company.
The tax imposed by this section does not apply to vehicles
to be registered as Class H vehicles, or Class S vehicles, as
defined in section one, article ten of this chapter, which are
used or to be used in interstate commerce. Nor does the tax
imposed by this section apply to the titling of Class B, Class K
or Class E vehicles registered at a gross weight of fifty-five
thousand pounds or more, or to the titling of Class C or Class L
semitrailers, full trailers, pole trailers, and converter gear:
Provided,
That if an owner of a vehicle has previously titled the
vehicle at a declared gross weight of fifty-five thousand pounds
or more and the title was issued without the payment of the tax
imposed by this section, then before the owner may obtainregistration for the vehicle at a gross weight less than fifty-
five thousand pounds, the owner must surrender to the
commissioner the exempted registration, the exempted certificate
of title, and pay the tax imposed by this section based upon the
current market value of the vehicle:
Provided, however,
That
notwithstanding the provisions of section nine, article fifteen,
chapter eleven of this code, the exemption from tax under this
section for Class B, Class K or Class E vehicles in excess of
fifty-five thousand pounds and Class C or Class L semitrailers,
full trailers, pole trailers and converter gear shall not subject
the sale or purchase of the vehicles to the consumers sales tax.
The tax imposed by this section does not apply to titling of
vehicles leased by residents of West Virginia but shall be
imposed upon the monthly payment of said leased vehicle. This
tax shall be remitted to the division of motor vehicles monthly.
The tax imposed by this section does not apply to titling of
vehicles by a registered dealer of this state for resale only,
nor does the tax imposed by this section apply to titling of
vehicles by this state or any political subdivision thereof, or
by any volunteer fire department or duly chartered rescue or
ambulance squad organized and incorporated under the laws of the
state of West Virginia as a nonprofit corporation for protection
of life or property. The total amount of revenue collected by
reason of this tax shall be paid into the state road fund and
expended by the commissioner of highways for matching federal
funds allocated for West Virginia. In addition to the tax, thereis a charge of five dollars for each original certificate of
title or duplicate certificate of title so issued:
Provided
further,
That this state or any political subdivision thereof, or
any volunteer fire department, or duly chartered rescue squad, is
exempt from payment of the charge.
The certificate is good for the life of the vehicle, so long
as the same is owned or held by the original holder of the
certificate, and need not be renewed annually, or any other time,
except as provided in this section.
If, by will or direct inheritance, a person becomes the
owner of a motor vehicle and the tax imposed by this section
previously has been paid, to the division of motor vehicles, on
that vehicle, he or she is not required to pay the tax.
A person who has paid the tax imposed by this section is not
required to pay the tax a second time for the same motor vehicle,
but is required to pay a charge of five dollars for the
certificate of retitle of that motor vehicle, except that the tax
shall be paid by the person when the title to the vehicle has
been transferred either in this or another state from such person
to another person and transferred back to such person.
(c) Notwithstanding any provisions of this code to the
contrary, the owners of trailers, semitrailers, recreational
vehicles and other vehicles not subject to the certificate of
title tax prior to the enactment of this chapter are subject to
the privilege tax imposed by this section:
Provided,
That the
certification of title of any recreational vehicle owned by theapplicant on the thirtieth day of June, one thousand nine hundred
eighty-nine, is not subject to the tax imposed by this section:
Provided, however,
That mobile homes, house trailers, modular
homes and similar nonmotive propelled vehicles, except
recreational vehicles, susceptible of being moved upon the
highways but primarily designed for habitation and occupancy,
rather than for transporting persons or property, or any vehicle
operated on a nonprofit basis and used exclusively for the
transportation of mentally retarded or physically handicapped
children when the application for certificate of registration
for the vehicle is accompanied by an affidavit stating that the
vehicle will be operated on a nonprofit basis and used
exclusively for the transportation of mentally retarded and
physically handicapped children, are not subject to the tax
imposed by this section, but are taxable under the provisions of
articles fifteen and fifteen-a, chapter eleven of this code.
(d) Any person making any affidavit required under any
provision of this section, who knowingly swears falsely, or any
person who counsels, advises, aids or abets another in the
commission of false swearing, is on the first offense guilty of
a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not
more than five hundred dollars or be imprisoned in the county
jail for a period not to exceed six months, or, in the discretion
of the court, both fined and imprisoned. For a second or any
subsequent conviction within five years, that person is guilty of
a felony, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined not morethan five thousand dollars or be imprisoned in the penitentiary
for not less than one year nor more than five years or, in the
discretion of the court, fined and imprisoned.
(e) Notwithstanding any other provisions of this section,
any person in the military stationed outside West Virginia, or
his or her dependents who possess a motor vehicle with valid
registration, are exempt from the provisions of this article for
a period of nine months from the date that that person returns to
this state or the date his or her dependent returns to this
state, whichever is later.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to title leased vehicles
and to require the leaseholder to collect the tax by imposing it
on the monthly payment of said leased vehicles and to remit the
tax to the division of motor vehicles on a monthly basis.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.