Constitutional Authority

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.