H. B. 3251
(By Delegate Lane)
[Introduced February 23, 2007; referred to the
Committee on Finance.]
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-22-2 of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, and to amend and reenact §59-1-10 of such
code, all relating to providing for an excise tax on the
recordation of mortgages and deeds of trust for implementing
the provisions of the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act.
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 §59-1-10 be amended and
reenacted, 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.
(a) 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, 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 as represented by such
document as defined in section one hereof, which state tax shall be
payable at the time of delivery, acceptance or presenting for
recording of such document.
(b) 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.
(c) 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.
(d) Effective the first day of July, two thousand seven, and
notwithstanding any ordinance of the county commission to the
contrary, ten percent of the value of the county excise tax
described in subsection (c) of this section, shall be returned to
each clerk of the county commission from which the county excise
tax is derived, to be deposited into a separate, dedicated account,
for the sole and exclusive purpose of acquiring and implementing
the equipment and technology to accept, maintain, and preserve the
public records in electronic and/or digital format, as contemplated
and authorized by sections one through seventeen, article one,
chapter thirty-nine-a of this code.
CHAPTER 59. FEES, ALLOWANCES AND COSTS;
NEWSPAPERS; LEGAL ADVERTISEMENTS.
ARTICLE 1. FEES AND ALLOWANCES.
§59-1-10. Fees to be charged by clerk of county commission.
For the purpose of this section, the word "page" is defined as
being a paper or electronic writing of not more than legal size, 8
½" x 14."
The clerk of the county commission shall charge and collect
the following fees:
(a) When a writing is admitted to record, for receiving proof
of acknowledgment thereof, entering an order in connection
therewith, endorsing clerk's certificate of recordation thereon and
indexing in a proper index, where the writing is a:
(1) Deed of conveyance (with or without a plat), trust deed,
fixture filing or security
agreement concerning real estate lease
$10.00
(A) Effective the first day of July, two thousand seven, and
notwithstanding any ordinance of the county commission to the
contrary, one dollar from each recording fee received pursuant to
subdivision one, subsection (a) of this section, shall be returned
to the clerk of the county commission from which the recoding fee
is derived, to be deposited into a separate, dedicated account, for
the sole and exclusive purpose of acquiring and implementing the
equipment and technology to accept, maintain, and preserve the
public records in electronic and/or digital format, as contemplated
and authorized by sections one through seventeen, article one,
chapter thirty-nine-a of this code.
(2) Financing, continuation, termination or other statement or writing
permitted to be filed under chapter forty-six of this code
$10.00
(3) Plat or map (with no deed of conveyance)$10.00
(4) Service discharge recordNo Charge
(5) Any document or writing other than those referenced in
subdivisions (1), (2), (3) and (4)
of this subsection$5.00
(6) If any document or writing contains more
than five pages,
for each additional page$1.00
For any of the documents admitted to record pursuant to this
subsection, if the clerk of the county commission has the
technology available to receive these documents in electronic form
or other media, the clerk shall set a reasonable fee to record
these writings not to exceed the cost for filing paper documents.
(b) For administering any oath other than oaths by officers
and employees of the state, political subdivisions of the state, or
a public or quasi-public entity of the state or a political
subdivision of the state, taken in his or her
official capacity
$5.00
(c) For issuance of marriage license and
other duties
pertaining to the marriage license (including preparation of the
application, administrating the oath, registering and recording the
license, mailing acknowledgment of minister's return to one of the
licensees and notification to a licensee after sixty days of the
nonreceipt of
the minister's return)$35.00
(1) One dollar of the marriage license fee received pursuant
to this subsection shall be paid by the county clerk into the State
Treasury as a state registration fee in the same manner that license taxes are paid into the Treasury under article twelve,
chapter eleven of this code;
(2) Fifteen dollars of the marriage license fee received
pursuant to this subsection shall be paid by the county clerk into
the State Treasury for the family protection shelter support act in
the same manner that license taxes are paid into the Treasury under
article twelve, chapter eleven of this code;
(3) Ten dollars of the marriage license fee received pursuant
to this subsection shall be deposited in the courthouse facilities
improvement fund created by section six, article twenty-six,
chapter twenty-nine of this code.
(d) (1) For a copy of any writing or document, if it is not
otherwise provided for$1.50
(2) If the copy of the writing or document contains more than
two pages, for each additional page$1.00
(3) For annexing the seal of the commission or clerk to any
paper$1.00
(4) For a certified copy of a birth certificate, death
certificate or marriage license $5.00
(e) For copies of any record in electronic form or a medium
other than paper, a reasonable fee set by the clerk of the county
commission not to exceed the costs associated with document search
and duplication.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide funding for
county courts to obtain and implement the technology required to
implement the Uniform Electronic Transactions Act on a state-wide basis.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.
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