West Virginia Code of State Rules
Agency 110 - Tax
Title 110 - LEGISLATIVE RULE STATE TAX DEPARTMENT
Series 110-03 - Exemption Of property from ad valorem property taxation
Section 110-3-2 - Definitions
Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 38, September 20, 2024
As used in this rule and unless the context requires a different meaning, the following terms shall have the meanings ascribed herein, and shall apply in the singular or in the plural.
2.1. The term "academy" means a private secondary or college preparatory school, a school for special instruction or a specified society of scholars or artists.
2.2. The term "aged" means over the age of sixty-five (65) years.
2.3. The term "bank deposits" as used in these regulations shall mean a deposit of money with any person engaged in the business of banking. It includes money on deposit in a checking, time, interest or savings account, and certificates of deposit (including money market certificates and All Savers Certificates). The term "person engaged in the business of banking" means and includes banks, building and loan associations, industrial banks, industrial loan companies, supervised lenders, credit unions and all other similar institutions, whether persons, firms or corporations, which are by law under the jurisdiction and supervision of the West Virginia Commissioner of Banking, the Federal Reserve Board or the United States Comptroller of the Currency.
2.4. The term "benevolent association or society" means a society or association having a philanthropic or charitable purpose and intended to confer benefits to the general public or a specific section of the public at large rather than to produce profit or gain.
2.5. The term "blind" means a person whose central visual acuity does not exceed twenty-two hundred in the better eye with correcting lenses, or if his visual acuity is greater than twenty-two hundred but is occasioned by a limitation in the fields of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than twenty degrees.
2.6. The term "bond" means a certificate or evidence of debt on which the issuing church or religious society promises to pay to the bond holders a specified amount of interest for a specified length of time, and to repay the loan on the expiration date. In every case a bond represents a debt. Commonly, bonds are secured by a mortgage or lien on specific property. The term "bonds" includes annuity bonds, bearer bonds, callable bonds, chattel mortgage bonds, collateral trust bonds, convertible bonds, corporate bonds, coupon bonds, debenture bonds, general mortgage bonds, general obligation bonds, guaranteed bonds, improvement bonds, income bonds and supportment bonds.
2.7. The term "cash" as used in these regulations shall mean and include all United States and foreign currency.
2.8. The term "cemetery" as used in these regulations, shall mean a place where the dead bodies of human being are buried; it is a place or area of ground set apart for the burial of the dead, and includes not only lots for depositing the bodies of the dead, but also such avenues, walks, and grounds as may be necessary for its use or for ornamental purposes. In Re Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, Inc., 146 W. Va. 337, 119 S.E.2d 753 (1961).
2.9. The term "charitable" means of, or for, charity.
2.10. The term "charity" means a gift to be applied consistently with the existing laws, for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons, either by bringing their hearts under the influence of education or religion, by relieving their bodies from disease, suffering or constraint, by assisting them to establish themselves for life, or by erecting or maintaining public buildings or works, or otherwise lessening the burdens of government. It is immaterial whether the purpose is called charitable in the gift itself if it is so described as to show that it is charitable. Any gift not inconsistent with existing laws which is promotive of science or tends to the education, enlightenment, benefit or amelioration of the condition of mankind or the diffusion of useful knowledge, or is for the public convenience is a charity.
2.11. The term "child" means any person under eighteen years of age.
2.12. The term "church," as used in the regulations, shall refer to an individual parish, congregation or like subgroup of an organized religion, denomination, sect or religious society which is exempt from federal income taxes under 26 U.S.C. ''501(c)(3) or (c)(4).
2.13. The term "club room" means a place used by a voluntary, incorporated or unincorporated club or association of person which is officially approved by the college or university and which has a membership consisting primarily of students or faculty members or both, and which meets for social, literary, educational, or scientific purposes, or other purposes of like nature.
2.14. The term "college" means and includes any "State college of university" or "community college" as defined in W. Va. Code '18-26-2; and any other institution of higher education which has approval from the West Virginia Board of Regents to award degrees of higher educational status pursuant to W. Va. Code '18-26-13a. The term "higher educational institution" means any institution as defined by section 401(g) or (h) of the Federal Higher Education Facilities Act of 1963, as amended, and includes the private proprietary educational institution operated for profit which offers one or more programs leading to a degree. See W. Va. Code '18-26-3(g).
2.15. The term "dead victuals" means all non-living edible foodstuffs, beverages containing no alcohol and other non-living items commonly thought of as food intended entirely for human consumption, including, by way of illustration and not limitation, cereals and cereal products, meat and meat products, fish and fish products, poultry and poultry products, fresh and salt water animal products, egg and egg products, vegetables and vegetable products, fruit and fruit products, flour and flour products, sugar and sugar products, milk and milk products, cocoa and cocoa products, coffee and coffee substitutes, tea, herbs, spices, salt and salt substitutes, condiments, candy and confections, soft drinks, soft drink mixes and syrups, tenderizers, food coloring, bottled drinking water, sugar substitutes, oleo margarine, shortening, gelatins, baking and cooking ingredients, mushrooms, spreads, relishes, desserts, flavorings, chewing gum, edible seeds, nuts and berries. This term does not include medicines, vitamins and dietary supplements whether in liquid, powered, granular, tablet, capsule, lozenge, or pill form spirituous, malt or venous liquors or beer, or tobacco or tobacco products.
2.16. The term "deaf" means having a hearing impairment of such severity as to substantially interfere with the capacity to learn in a normal traditional classroom setting,or the capacity to obtain gainful employment.
2.17. The term "debenture" means a bond or promissory note backed by the general credit of the issuer usually not secured by a mortgage or lien on any specific property, subject to the following variations:
2.18. The term "dormitory" means a place used by students as sleeping quarters or living quarters.
2.19. The term "dumb" means lacking the power of speech or having such impairment of the power of speech as to substantially interfere with the capacity to learn in a normal traditional classroom setting, or the capacity to obtain gainful employment.
2.20. The term "education" means the process of teaching or developing the knowledge, skill or character of persons, especially by formal schooling. "Education" does not include programs designed to train animals.
2.21. The term "evidence of debt" means a written instrument entered into by two or more parties whereby one party acknowledges in writing a debt of money as owing or payable to another party.
2.22. The term "fraternal association or society" means an association or society of persons, often sharing a similar or the same calling, avocation, or profession, formed for mutual aid and benefit, or a common cause and operated on a not-for-profit basis.
2.23. The term "free school" means a school included in the system of public schools required by W. Va. Const. Art. XII, '1, but does not include higher education.
2.24. The term "friendless" means those persons without workable family or other human support such as to be in need of housing, care or feeding, and unable to obtain or provide such housing, care or feeding for themselves.
2.25. The term "health care corporation" as use in these regulations shall refer to any corporation organized and licensed under the provisions of W. Va. Code '33-25-1 et seq.
2.26. The term "home for children" means an orphan asylum as defined under section 2.42 of these regulations.
2.27. The term "house of refuge" means a place operated for the purpose of providing shelter, protection, safety or escape from danger, distress or persecution.
2.28. The term "household goods," as used in these regulations, shall refer only to tangible personal property commonly found within the house and items used to care for the house and its surrounding property.
2.29. The term "hospital" means an institution which is primarily engaged in providing to in-patients, by or under the supervision of physicians, diagnostic and therapeutic services for medical diagnosis, treatment, and care of injured, disabled or sick persons, or rehabilitation services for the rehabilitation of injured, disabled or sick persons and which is either licensed by the West Virginia Department of Health as a hospital, or operated by the federal government or the state government as a hospital. This term also includes psychiatric and tuberculosis hospitals. See W. Va. Code '16-2D-2(t).
2.30. The terms "hospital service corporation," "medical service corporation," "dental service corporation" and "health service corporation" as used in these regulations shall be defined as they are defined in W. Va. Code '33-24-2.
2.31. The term "immediate use" is use which is direct and not separated in time, relationship or connection.
2.32. The term "infirm" means persons who are so weak, frail, ill, feeble or unstable as to be unable to house, care for or feed themselves or obtain such housing, care or feeding for themselves.
2.33. The term "lease" means to rent out or contractually give the use of a property in return for a monetary or other remuneration.
2.34. The term "library" means a place where books, manuscripts, films, tapes, records, musical scores, or other literary, scientific or artistic writings or materials are kept for use but not for sale.
2.35. The term "literary" means of, relating to, or having the characteristics of letters, humane learning or literature.
2.36. The term "literary hall" means a place regularly used as a library or for reading, writing or instruction in literature or literary subject matter.
2.37. The term "livestock" means farm animals or farm fowl raised for profit. Livestock shall not include cats, rabbits, dogs, rats, mice, raccoons, groundhogs, deer, squirrels, crows, bears, exotic animals, parrots, parakeets, swans, peafowl, tropical or wild or exotic birds or fish or any animal commonly kept as, or thought of as a pet, or any game animal or wild animal, so long as such animal or fowl is not kept or raised for profit.
2.38. The term "lunatic asylum" means an institution for the housing, care, feeding and treatment of the insane on a long-term residential basis.
2.39. The term "money" as used in these regulations shall mean and include cash, personal and business checks, cashiers' checks and express checks, bank credit cards (MasterCard, VISA, etc.) sales drafts or sales slips held by a merchant or other party for deposit with a bank, and other items commonly though of and understood to be money. It does not include notes, bonds, bills and accounts receivable, stock and any other similar intangible personal property. See 48 Op. Att'y Gen. 63 (1959).
2.40. The term "non-profit" and the term "not-for-profit" mean used with a view to producing no profit on total aggregate operations other than that which is used or held for current or planned future use in furtherance of the charitable purposes of the organization. Charities and others operating property not used for profit are not precluded from exacting charges upon beneficiaries for services rendered, nor are they precluded from deriving profits from total aggregate operations or from individual beneficiaries on a case by case basis so long as total aggregate annual operations produce no significant economic benefit or inurement to private individuals or entities apart from those which are necessarily incorporated into the operation of the charitable activity.
2.41. The term "notes" means and includes any writing signed on behalf of a church or religious society, containing an unconditional promise to pay a sum certain in money, on demand or at a definite time. The term "note" does not include money, documents of title or investment securities.
2.42. The term "orphan asylum" means an institution for the housing, care, and feeding of children whose parents are dead, or who are unwanted, rejected, judicially removed from family, abused or otherwise unable to obtain housing, care or feeding in a workable family or adoptive relationship.
2.43. The term "parsonage" means the house, houses or living quarters which are provided by a church for its pastor, or pastors.
2.44. The term "pastor" means a minister, priest, rabbi, clergyman, or other recognized religious leader who has charge of a congregation, parish or like following.
2.45. The term "person" means the State and its political subdivisions, and any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, joint stock company, the United States and its agencies, public or private corporation, municipal corporation, cooperative, estate, trust, business trust, receiver, executor, administrator, any other fiduciary, any representative appointed by order of any court or otherwise acting on behalf of others, or any other group or combination acting as a unit, and the plural as well as the singular number.
2.46. The term "personal effects" means articles and items of personal property commonly worn on or about the human body, or carried by a person and normally thought to be associated with the person. "Personal effects" includes firearms and ammunition held for personal use and not for profit.
2.47. The term "place of divine worship," as used in these regulations shall refer to a church, synagogue, temple or other meeting place in which any religion, denomination, sect or religious society congregates to engage in the worship of that religion's, denomination's, sect's or religious society's deity or deities.
2.48. The term "primary use" is use which is chief, main or principal.
2.49. The term "property belonging exclusively to" shall refer to property in which the stated owner is the person who is possessed of the freehold, whether in fee or for life. A person seized or entitled in fee subject to a mortgage or deed of trust securing a debt or liability shall be deemed the owner until the mortgagee or trustee takes possession, after which such mortgagee or trustee shall be deemed the owner. A person who has an equitable estate of freehold, or is a purchaser of a freehold estate who is in possession before transfer of legal title shall also be deemed to be property belonging exclusively to the beneficial owner.
2.50. The term "property belonging to" shall refer to real property in which the person, association, corporation, or other legal entity entitled to the exemption has the fee interest, or any type of reversionary interest when the present possessory interest is in another, or the current possessor of the property is a lessee of the exempt person, association, corporation or entity. This term shall refer to personal property in which the person, association, corporation or other legal entity entitled to the exemption holds legal title to the property or who is a lessee of the property, or if it has been mortgaged or pledged, the personal property shall be deemed to be the property of the person who has possession.
2.51. The term "property on hand to be used in the subsistence of livestock" means all personal property primarily, actually and directly used for, and reasonably necessary for the care or feeding of livestock. Only personal property is subject to this exemption. Real property is not subject to the exemption authorized by W. Va. Const. Art. X, '1.
2.52. The term "public" means for the use or benefit of the people in general.
2.53. The term "real property" includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, all rights thereto and interest therein except chattel interest, and includes the buildings or structures erected thereon unless such buildings or structures are owned by another. See W. Va. Code '11-4-10 and '2-2-10(p).
2.54. The term "relief society or association" means a society or association of persons typically sharing the same or similar calling or employed in a single industry or by a single employer and formed for the purpose of establishing a worker's relief fund serviced by periodic contributions from members or jointly from members and employers for the purpose of providing relief to members and their families in the event of work related injury or death.
2.55. The term "scientific" means of, relating to, or exhibiting the methods or principles of natural science, or knowledge covering the operation of natural laws, especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method: for example, physics, chemistry, or biology.
2.56. The term "seminary" means an institution of secondary or higher education ordinarily for the training of candidates for the priesthood, ministry, or rabbinate.
2.57. The term "Tax Commissioner" or "Commissioner" shall mean the Tax Commissioner of the State of West Virginia or his delegate.
2.58. The term "tenant" means the one who has the temporary use and occupation of real property owned by another person (called the landlord) the duration and terms of such temporary use or occupation being fixed by an instrument called a lease.
