H. B. 2584
(By Delegates Shaver, Beach and Williams )
[Introduced January 9, 2008; 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 consumers' sales and service
tax generally; and dedicating a portion of the receipts to the
Commissioner of Highways to be distributed equally to each
district of the Division of Highways for the maintenance of
secondary roads.
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; reductions of tax beginning
January 1, 2006, July 1, 2007 and July 1, 2008.
(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 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.
(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.
(d) Effective the first day of July, 2007, and at the end of
each month thereafter, the Tax Commissioner shall remit to the
Division of Highways, a portion of all the proceeds of the tax
imposed by this section which represents an amount equal to one
cent of each one dollar of each sale. The Commissioner of Highways
shall establish a fund within the division for deposit of the
proceeds received from the Tax Commissioner and shall dedicate
these funds for maintaining secondary roads only, including but not
limited to, road repair, tar and chipping, gravel replacement,
ditch cleaning and brush removal. The commissioner shall annually
distribute the monies from these funds equally to each of the
Division of Highways districts for the purposes set forth in this
subdivision only.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to dedicate a portion of the
receipts from the tax on food products to be distributed equally to
each district of the Division of Highways for the maintenance of
secondary roads.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken from
the present law, and underscoring indicates new language that would
be added.