Senate Bill No. 708
(By Senators Craigo and Prezioso)
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[Introduced February 23, 1998; referred to the
Committee on the Judiciary; and then to the Committee on
Finance.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact sections ten and eleven, article
three, chapter eleven of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended; and to amend
and reenact section seven, article one, chapter eleven-a of
said code, all relating to ad valorem property taxes;
allowing extensions of time to file required returns or
reports with the tax commissioner, county assessors or board
of public works; changing penalties for failure to file
statements, returns or reports required by law, or where
property owner fails or refuses to answer or answers falsely
questions asked; and prohibiting collection of current taxes
until delinquent taxes on real or personal property are
paid, including interest and penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That sections ten and eleven, article three, chapter eleven
of the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty- one, as amended, be amended and reenacted; and that section
seven, article one, chapter eleven-a of said code be amended and
reenacted, all to read as follows:
CHAPTER 11. TAXATION.
ARTICLE 3. ASSESSMENTS GENERALLY.
§11-3-10. Failure to list property, etc.; collection of
penalties and forfeitures.
(a) If any person, firm or corporation, including public
service corporations, whose duty it is by law to list any real
estate or personal property for taxation, shall fail or refuse to
furnish a proper list thereof or fail or refuse to list within
the time required by law, including any authorized extension of
time not to exceed sixty days, or if any person, firm or
corporation, including public service corporations, shall fail or
refuse to answer or shall answer falsely any question asked by
the assessor or by the tax commissioner, or shall fail or refuse
to deliver any statement, return or report required by law, he,
she or it shall, in the case of each failure or refusal, forfeit
not less than twenty-five nor more than one hundred dollars, and
shall be denied all remedy provided by law for the correction of
any assessment made by the assessor or by the board of public works.
(b) If any person, firm or corporation, including public
service corporations, required by law to make return or report of
property for taxation, whether such the return or report is to be
made to the tax commissioner, assessor, the board of public
works, or any other assessing officer or body, fails or refuses
to return a true list of all property which should be assessed in
this state, including notes, bonds, bills and accounts
receivable, stocks, and any other intangible personal property,
such that person, firm or corporation, in addition to all other
penalties provided by law, shall forfeit one percent of the
assessed value of the property not yet returned and not otherwise
taxed in this state: Provided, That within the discretion of the
officer to whom the return or report is to be made, the
forfeiture or penalty as to any property may be abated, in whole
or in part, upon written request of that person, firm or
corporation made within thirty days of receipt of written notice
of the forfeiture, and upon a finding by the officer that the
failure to return a true list of the property was due to
reasonable cause and not to negligence or intentional disregard
of applicable provisions of law. A forfeiture under this
subsection as to all property aforesaid may be enforced for any
such default occurring in any year not exceeding five years
immediately prior to the time the same default is discovered. but no liability to penalty or forfeiture as to notes, bonds,
bills and accounts receivable, stocks and other intangible
personal property arising prior to the first day of January, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-three, shall be enforceable on
behalf of the state or of any of its subdivisions Each failure
to make a true statement return or report as herein required
shall constitute under this section constitutes a separate
offense, and a forfeiture shall apply applies to each of them,
but all such forfeitures, to which the same person, firm or
corporation is liable, shall be enforced in one proceeding
against such that person, firm or corporation, or against the
estate of any deceased person and shall not exceed five percent
of the assessed value of the property not returned. Such The
forfeitures shall be collected as is hereinafter provided under
the provision of article two, chapter eleven-a of this code, the
same as any tax liability, against the defaulting taxpayer, or in
case of a decedent, against his or her personal representative.
The sheriff shall apportion such the fund among the state,
county, district, school district and municipalities which would
have been entitled to the taxes upon such the property if it had
been assessed, in proportion to the rates of taxation for each
such levying unit for the year in which the judgment was obtained
bears to the sum of rates for all. When the list of property
returned by the appraisers of the estate of any deceased person shows an amount greater than the last assessment list of such
the deceased person next preceding the appraisal of his or her
estate, it shall be is prima facie evidence that such the
deceased person returned an imperfect list of his or her
property: Provided, That any person liable for the tax or his or
her personal representative, may always be permitted to prove by
competent evidence that the discrepancy between such the
assessment list and the appraisal of the estate is caused by a
difference of valuation returned by the assessor and that made by
the appraisers of the same property or by property acquired after
assessment, or that any property enumerated in the appraisers'
list had been otherwise listed for taxation, or that it was not
liable for taxation. Any judgment recovered under this section
shall be is a lien, from the time of the service of the notice,
upon all real estate and personal property of such the defaulting
taxpayer, owned at the time or subsequently acquired, in
preference to any other lien.
(c) The assessor shall give notice of the applicability of
the denial of all remedy and of the imposition of the penalties
and forfeitures, described in this section, by the publication of
a notice as a retail display advertisement as opposed to, and
other than, a legal and classified advertisement, to be published
in every newspaper of general circulation within the county. The
advertisement shall be of a size and in the form prescribed by the tax commissioner and shall be placed in a location prescribed
by the tax commissioner. The advertisements required to be
published by the provisions of this section shall not include the
name of the tax commissioner or any other public official or
employee. The cost of the advertisements shall be shared, pro
rata, by the county, municipalities and boards of education.
(d) Effective Date. -- Amendments to this section enacted in
the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, apply to
assessment years beginning on or after the first day of July, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-eight. For prior assessment years,
the language of this section as then in effect is fully preserved
for those assessment years.
§11-3-11. Making or correction of list by assessor.
(a) If any person fail fails to furnish a proper list, or if
the list furnished be is, in the judgment of the assessor,
incomplete or erroneous in any respect, the assessor shall
proceed to list the property and assess its value, or to supply
the omission and correct the errors, upon the best information he
or she can obtain, and for that purpose the assessor may call
upon any officer of the state, county or district for such the
proper information as it may be in his or her power to give, and
may require any person having possession, charge or control of
any property in the county to permit him the assessor to examine
the same property in order that a fair valuation thereof of the property may be made, and if any person refuse to do so, he or
she shall forfeit not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars
twenty-five dollars and be denied all remedy provided by law for
correction of the assessment made by the assessor.
(b) Effective date. -- Amendments to this section, enacted
in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, apply to
assessment years beginning on or after the first day of July, one
thousand nine hundred ninety-eight. For prior assessment years,
the language of this section as then in effect is fully preserved
for those assessment years.
§11-3-11. Making or correction of list by assessor.
(a) If any person fails to furnish a proper list, or if the
list furnished is, in the judgment of the assessor, incomplete or
erroneous in any respect, the assessor shall proceed to list the
property and assess its value, or to supply the omission and
correct the errors, upon the best information he or she can
obtain, and for that purpose the assessor may call upon any
officer of the state, county or district for the proper
information as it may be in his or her power to give, and may
require any person having possession, charge or control of any
property in the county to permit him the assessor to examine the
property in order that a fair valuation of the property may be
made, and if any person refuse to do so, he or she shall forfeit
not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars twenty-five dollars and be denied all remedy provided by law for correction
of the assessment made by the assessor.
(b) Effective date. -- Amendments to this section, enacted
in the year one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight, shall apply
to assessment years beginning on or after the first day of July,
one thousand nine hundred ninety-eight. For prior assessment
years, the language of this section as then in effect is fully
preserved for those assessment years.
CHAPTER 11A. COLLECTION AND ENFORCEMENT OF PROPERTY TAXES.
ARTICLE 1. ACCRUAL AND COLLECTION OF TAXES.
§11A-1-7. No collection of current taxes until delinquent taxes
are paid.
The sheriff, in preparing his the tax receipts for any
current year shall examine and compare them with the delinquent
list for the preceding year in his or her hands, and if any tract
property is found to be delinquent for the preceding year, shall
note the fact on his the current receipts and shall decline to
receive current taxes on any land property where it appears to
his or her office that a prior year's taxes including any
interest, penalties or forfeitures are unpaid. Acceptance of
current taxes through oversight shall not relieve the owner of
any land property, of the liability to pay prior taxes and
interest, penalties and forfeitures imposed for nonpayment.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to provide more clear
penalties for failure to fully report property for ad valorem
taxation and allow opportunities to extend the deadline for
reporting.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.