Senate Bill No. 52
(By Senators Jenkins, Unger and Sharpe)
____________
[Introduced January 10, 2007; referred to the Committee on
Finance.]
____________
A BILL to amend and reenact §11-15-3a of the Code of West Virginia,
1931, as amended, relating to the gradual elimination of
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; elimination of tax beginning July
1, 2007.
(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 the rate of tax on sales,
purchases and uses of food and food ingredients, as defined in said
section, that is intended for human consumption after the thirtieth
day of June, two thousand seven, shall be
four three percent of its
sales price, as defined in said section:
Provided, however, That
the rate of tax on sales, purchases and uses of food and food
ingredients as defined in said section that is intended for human
consumption after the thirtieth day of June, two thousand eight,
shall be three percent of its sales price, as defined in said
section after the thirtieth day of June, two thousand eight, 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)
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.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to gradually remove the
sales tax on food by June 30, 2008.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from the
present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would be
added.