West Virginia Code 11-15A-2 – Imposition of tax; six percent tax rate; inclusion of services as taxable; transition rules; allocation of tax and transfers
(a) An excise tax is hereby levied and imposed on the use in this state of tangible personal property, custom software or taxable services, to be collected and paid as provided in this article or article fifteen-b of this chapter, at the rate of six percent of the purchase price of the property or taxable services, except as otherwise provided in this article.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 11-15A-2
- Business: means any activity engaged in by any person, or caused to be engaged in by any person, with the object of direct or indirect economic gain, benefit or advantage, and includes any purposeful revenue generating activity in this state. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- commissioner: means the State Tax Commissioner, or his or her delegate. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- Person: includes any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, joint stock company, association, public or private corporation, limited liability company, limited liability partnership, 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. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- personal property: includes goods, chattels, real and personal, money, credits, investments, and the evidences thereof. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Purchase: means any transfer, exchange or barter, conditional or otherwise, in any manner or by any means whatsoever, for a consideration. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- Purchaser: means any consumer who purchases or leases a product or service sourced to this state under §. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- Retailer: means and includes every person engaging in the business of selling, leasing or renting tangible personal property or custom software or furnishing a taxable service for use within the meaning of this article, or in the business of selling, at auction, tangible personal property or custom software owned by the person or others for use in this state: Provided, That when in the opinion of the Tax Commissioner it is necessary for the efficient administration of this article to regard any salespersons, representatives, truckers, peddlers or canvassers as the agents of the dealers, distributors, supervisors, employees or persons under whom they operate or from whom they obtain the tangible personal property sold by them, irrespective of whether they are making sales on their own behalf or on behalf of the dealers, distributors, supervisors, employers or persons, the Tax Commissioner may so regard them and may regard the dealers, distributors, supervisors, employers, or persons as retailers for purposes of this article. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- service: means and includes, but is not limited to, customer support services, help desk services, call center services, repair services, engineering services, installation service, assembly service, delivery service by means other than common carrier or the United States Postal Service, technical assistance services, the service of investigating, handling or otherwise assisting in resolving customer issues or complaints while in this state, the service of operating a mail order business or telephone, Internet or other remote order business from facilities located within this state, the service of operating a website or Internet-based business from a location within the state, or any other service. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Tangible personal property: includes , but is not limited to, electricity, water, gas, and prewritten computer software. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
- Transaction: means the delivering, accepting or presenting for recording of a document. See West Virginia Code 11-22-1
- Use: means and includes:
(A) The exercise by any person of any right or power over tangible personal property or custom software incident to the ownership, possession or enjoyment of the property, or by any transaction in which possession of or the exercise of any right or power over tangible personal property, custom software or the result of a taxable service is acquired for a consideration, including any lease, rental or conditional sale of tangible personal property or custom software. See West Virginia Code 11-15A-1
(b) Calculation of tax on fractional parts of a dollar. -– The tax computation under subsection (a) of this section shall be carried to the third decimal place and the tax rounded up to the next whole cent whenever the third decimal place is greater than four and rounded down to the lower whole cent whenever the third decimal place is four or less. The vendor may elect to compute the tax due on a transaction on a per item basis or on an invoice basis provided the method used is consistently used during the reporting period.
(c) "Taxable services," for the purposes of this article, means services of the nature that are subject to the tax imposed by article fifteen of this chapter. In this article, wherever the words "tangible personal property" or "property" appear, the same shall include the words "or taxable services," where the context so requires.
(d) Use tax is hereby imposed upon every person using tangible personal property, custom software or taxable service within this state. That person's liability is not extinguished until the tax has been paid. A receipt with the tax separately stated thereon issued by a retailer engaged in business in this state, or by a foreign retailer who is authorized by the Tax Commissioner to collect the tax imposed by this article, relieves the purchaser from further liability for the tax to which the receipt refers.
(e) Purchases of tangible personal property or taxable services made for the government of the United States or any of its agencies by ultimate consumers is subject to the tax imposed by this section. Industrial materials and equipment owned by the federal government within the State of West Virginia of a character not ordinarily readily obtainable within the state, is not subject to use tax when sold, if the industrial materials and equipment would not be subject to use taxes if sold outside of the state for use in West Virginia.
(f) This article does not apply to purchases made by counties or municipal corporations.