Current through Register Vol. XLI, No. 38, September 20, 2024
3.1. West
Virginia Constitution Article X, '1 mandates that ad valorem property taxation
shall be equal and uniform throughout this State. It then empowers the
Legislature to, by general law, exempt the following property:
3.1.1. Property used for educational,
literary, scientific, religious or charitable purposes;
3.1.2. All cemeteries;
3.1.3. Public property;
3.1.4. Personal property, including
livestock, employed exclusively in agriculture, including horticulture and
grazing; and
3.1.5. Products of
agriculture, including horticulture, and grazing, while owned by the producers
thereof.
3.2. West
Virginia Constitution Article X, '1 exempts household goods to the value of two
hundred dollars ($200.00) from ad valorem property taxes.
3.3. West Virginia Constitution Article X,
'1a provides the following exemptions from ad valorem property taxation:
3.3.1. Household goods, if not held or used
for profit:
3.3.2. Personal
effects, if not held or used for profit;
3.3.3. Bank deposits and money; and
3.3.4. Upon implementation of the first
statewide reappraisal accomplished in accordance with W. Va. Const. Art. X,
'1b, all intangible personal property shall be exempt from ad valorem property
taxation unless and until the Legislature subjects by class, group or type such
intangible personal property to such taxation.
3.3.4.a. If intangibles are once again
subjected to ad valorem property taxation, the applicable levy rate is the
Class I levy rate for the county and levying body within whose jurisdiction the
intangible has its situs.
3.3.4.b.
If after the reappraisal is implemented, the Legislature decides to tax
intangible personal property, the intangible personal property subject to ad
valorem property taxation shall not include money, bank deposits or other
investments determined by the Legislature to be in the nature of deposits in a
bank or other financial institution, or upon pensions, monies or investments
determined by the Legislature to be in lieu of or otherwise in the nature of
pensions.
3.3.5. The
value of all tangible and intangible property subject to ad valorem property
taxation and which was acquired or created subsequent to any statewide
reappraisal shall be allocated and phased-in over a period of years in the same
manner as property valued during the statewide reappraisal.
3.4. West Virginia Constitution
Article X, '1b provides the following:
3.4.1.
Until such time as the statewide reappraisal is implemented, current statutory
law governing assessments remain in effect. As a result, the assessed value of
utility property is whatever the Board of Public works determines, and the
assessed value of all other property cannot be less than sixty percent (60%)
nor more than one hundred percent (100%), by class, of the Tax Commissioner's
appraised value of property in each county. Upon implementation of the
statewide reappraisal, all property subject to ad valorem property taxation
shall be assessed at sixty percent (60%) of its appraised value. The
Legislature may, by general law agreed to by two-thirds of the members elected
to each house, establish a higher percentage but such percentage shall not be
more than one hundred percent (100%) of appraised value. Therefore, a maximum
of forty percent (40%) of all such property is exempt from ad valorem property
taxation.
3.4.2. The first twenty
thousand dollars ($20,000.00) of assessed valuation of any real property, or of
personal property in the form of a mobile home, used exclusively for
residential purposes and occupied by the owner or one of the owners thereof as
his residence who is a citizen of this state and who is sixty-five (65) years
of age or older or is permanently and totally disabled as that term may be
defined by the Legislature, shall be exempt from ad valorem property taxation,
subject to such requirements, limitations and conditions as shall be prescribed
by general law.
3.5.
West Virginia Constitution Article X, '1b permits the Legislature to provide by
general law as follows:
3.5.1. "An amount not
to exceed twenty thousand dollars ($20,000.00) of value of any real property,
or of personal property in the form of a mobile home, used exclusively for
residential purposes and occupied by the owner or one of the owners thereof as
his residence who is a citizen of this state, and who is under sixty-five (65)
years of age and not totally and permanently disabled may by general law be
exempted from ad valorem property taxes.
3.5.2. In no event shall any one person and
his spouse, or one homestead be entitled to more than one exemption.
3.6. West Virginia Constitution
Article X, '1c provides the following:
3.6.1.
Tangible personal property which is moving in interstate commerce through or
over West Virginia, or which was consigned from a point of origin outside of
West Virginia to a public or private warehouse in this State for storage in
transit to a final destination outside this State shall be exempt from ad
valorem property taxation; Provided, That such out-of-state
destination is specified in time to allow for a determination of exempt status
in accordance with W. Va. Code '11-3-1
et seq.
3.6.2. The exemption shall
be allowed if the property, while in the warehouse, is assembled, bound,
joined, processed, disassembled, divided, cut, broken in bulk, relabeled, or
repackaged for out-of-state delivery so long as the activity does not result in
a new or different article, product, substance or commodity, or one of
different utility.
3.6.3. Personal
property of inventories of natural resources shall not be exempt from ad
valorem property taxation unless such exemption is required by paramount
federal law.