Senate Bill No. 547

(By Senator Craigo)

____________

[Introduced March 22, 1993; referred to the Committee
on Finance.]

____________




A BILL to amend article five, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section eight-a, relating to assessment of ad valorem taxes generally and assessment of certain tangible personal property temporarily located within a county specifically; payment of such taxes; duties of county assessor and sheriff with respect thereto; bonding requirements in certain cases; and providing criminal offenses and penalties.

Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:

That article five, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section eight-a, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 5. ASSESSMENT OF PERSONAL PROPERTY.
§11-5-8a. Assessment of tangible personal property temporarily located within a county; payment of tax; duty of sheriff andassessor; bond securing payment of tax required; penalties.
(a) Any association, corporation, firm, individual, partnership, or other person, who owns tangible personal property in the nature of equipment used for building, oil and gas drilling, mineral extracting, manufacturing or construction, and who moves such tangible personal property into any county for a temporary period of time, which tangible personal property will be or is reasonably expected by the owner to be situate within such county on the next first day of July, shall, within thirty days of the moving of such tangible personal property into such county, file a report with the assessor of the county into which such tangible personal property was moved, which report shall contain (i) an itemized list of the tangible personal property thus moved into such county and the value of each item included in such list, (ii) a statement of the estimated length of time such tangible personal property is to be within the county, and (iii) the county, if any, within the state upon whose personal property tax books any or all of such items of tangible personal property are included or listed and, if so listed, the identification of the association, corporation, firm, individual, partnership or other person in whose name such items of tangible personal property are taxed. The report shall be in affidavit form and shall be signed by the person or his or her designated agent.
(b) The assessor shall, upon receipt of the report required by subsection (a) of this section if such property is not taxedin any other county of this state, ascertain the true and actual value of the properties listed in such report and assess such property and compute the tax thereon. The assessor shall notify the person in writing of the amount of personal property tax attributable to such tangible personal property within thirty days of the receipt of the report. A copy of the notice shall simultaneously be given to the sheriff of the county.
(c) Upon receipt of the notice required by subsection (b), the person, association, corporation, firm, individual, partnership, or other person responsible for the payment of the personal property tax on the tangible personal property shall post bond, with surety approved by the sheriff, in the office of the sheriff for an amount equal to the amount of tax found to be due on such tangible personal property by the assessor. The bond shall be conditioned upon the payment of the tax. If the tax is not paid prior to the date upon which the tax would otherwise become delinquent, the bond shall be deemed forfeited and the sheriff shall take such steps as may be necessary to enforce the collection and forfeiture of the bond.
(d) Any person who knowingly fails to file the report required by subsection (a) of this section, or who knowingly fails to post bond required by subsection (c) of this section is guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof, shall be imprisoned in the county or regional jail for not more than thirty days or fined not more than one thousand dollars, or both fined and imprisoned.


NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to require the assessor to be notified of tangible personal property brought into the county on a temporary basis. Bond must be posted with the sheriff to guarantee payment of taxes that would be due on the property.

This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and underscoring have been omitted.