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Any amount of tax due and unpaid under this subchapter shall be a debt due the city. Such debt shall be a personal obligation of the purchaser, which shall be enforceable as provided by W.Va. Code § 8-13-15, or in any other manner provided by law for compelling the payment of taxes due municipalities.
(1991 Code, § 15-7) (Ord. passed 5-3-1971) Penalty, see § 36.99
The tax hereby imposed and levied shall not be effective until the city gives 60 days’ written notice by certified mail of the effective date of this chapter to any public utility doing business within the city, which is required to collect the tax imposed and levied hereby.
(1991 Code, § 15-8) (Ord. passed 5-3-1971)
Statutory reference:
Authority of city to levy and collect an excise tax on the privilege of purchasing, using or consuming public utility services and tangible personal property from public utilities and the like, see W.Va. Code § 8-13-5a
HOTEL/MOTEL TAX
There is hereby imposed a tax upon the occupancy of hotel rooms located within the city including, but not limited to, hotels owned by the state or any political subdivision of the state.
(Ord. 097-01, passed 2-4-1997; Ord. 064, passed 10-18-2007; Ord. 180, passed 9-4-2014)
The tax imposed by this subchapter shall be a tax upon the consumer and shall be collected by the hotel operator as a part of the consideration paid for the occupancy of a hotel room; provided, that the tax shall not be imposed on any consumer occupying a hotel room for 30 or more consecutive days.
(Ord. 180, passed 9-4-2014; Ord. 247, passed 12-7-2017)
The rate of tax imposed by this subchapter shall be 6% of the consideration paid for the use or occupancy of the hotel room. The consideration paid for the use or occupancy of the hotel room shall not include the amount of tax imposed on the transaction under W.Va. Code §§ 11-15-1 et seq., or charges for meals, valet service, room service, telephone service or other charges or consideration not paid for the use or occupancy of a hotel room.
(Ord. 180, passed 9-4-2014)
For the purpose of this subchapter, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
CONSIDERATION PAID or CONSIDERATION. The amount received in money, credits, property or other consideration for or in exchange for the right to occupy a hotel room as herein defined.
CONSUMER. A person who pays the consideration for the use or occupancy of a hotel room. The term CONSUMER shall not be construed to mean the government of the United States of America, its agencies or instrumentalities, or the government of the state or political subdivisions thereof.
HOTEL. Any facility, building or buildings, publicly or privately owned (including a facility located in a state, county or municipal park), in which the public may, for a consideration, obtain sleeping accommodations. The term shall include, but not be limited to, boarding houses, hotels, motels, inns, courts, condominiums, lodges, cabins and tourist homes. The term HOTEL shall include state, county and city parks offering accommodations as herein set forth. The term HOTEL shall not be construed to mean any hospital, sanitarium, extended care facility, nursing home or university or college housing unit, or any facility providing fewer than three rooms in private homes, not exceeding a total of ten days in a calendar year, nor any tent, trailer or camper campsites; provided, that where a university or college housing unit provides sleeping accommodations for the general nonstudent public for a consideration, the term HOTEL shall, if otherwise applicable, apply to such accommodations for the purposes of this tax.
HOTEL OPERATOR. The person who is proprietor of a hotel, whether in the capacity of owner, lessee, mortgagee in possession, licensee, trustee in possession, trustee in bankruptcy, receiver, executor or in any other capacity. Where the HOTEL OPERATOR performs his or her functions through a managing agent of any type or character other than an employee, the managing agent shall also be deemed a HOTEL OPERATOR for the purposes of this subchapter and shall have the same duties and liabilities as his or her principal. Compliance with the provisions of this subchapter by either the principal or the managing agent shall, however, be considered to be compliance by both.
HOTEL ROOM.
(1) Any room or suite of rooms or other facility affording sleeping accommodations to the general public and situated within a hotel.
(2) The term HOTEL ROOM does not include:
(a) A banquet room, meeting room or any other room not primarily used for, or in conjunction with, sleeping accommodations; or
(b) Sleeping accommodations rented on a month-to-month basis or other rental arrangement for 30 days or longer at the inception at a boarding house, condominium, cabin, tourist home, apartment or home; and
(c) Sleeping accommodations rented by a hotel operator to those persons directly employed by the hotel operator for the purposes of performing duties in support of the operation of the hotel or related operations.
PERSON. Any individual, firm, partnership, joint venture, association, syndicate, social club, fraternal organization, joint stock company, receiver, corporation, guardian, trust, business trust, trustee, committee, estate, executor, administrator of any other group or combination acting as a unit.
STATE PARK. Any state-owned facility which is part of this state’s park and recreation system established pursuant to this code. For purposes of this subchapter, any recreational facility otherwise qualifying as a hotel and situated within a STATE PARK shall be deemed to be solely within the county in which the building or buildings comprising said facility are physically situated, notwithstanding the fact that the STATE PARK within which said facility is located may lie within the jurisdiction of more than one county.
TAX, TAXES or THIS TAX. The hotel occupancy tax authorized by this subchapter.
TAXPAYER. Any person liable for the tax authorized by this subchapter.
(Ord. 097-01, passed 2-4-1997; Ord. 064, passed 10-18-2007; Ord. 180, passed 9-4-2014; Ord. 247, passed 12-7-2017)
(A) The consumer shall pay to the hotel operator the amount of tax imposed by this subchapter, which tax shall be added to and shall constitute a part of the consideration paid for the use and occupancy of the hotel room, and which tax shall be collectible as such by the hotel operator who shall account for, and remit to the city, all taxes paid by consumers. The hotel operator shall separately state the tax authorized by this subchapter on all bills, invoices, accounts, books of account and records relating to consideration paid for occupancy or use of a hotel room. The hotel operator may commingle taxes collected hereunder with the proceeds of the rental of hotel accommodations. All taxes collected pursuant to the provisions of this subchapter shall be deemed to be held in trust by the hotel until the same shall have been remitted to the city as hereinafter provided.
(B) A hotel or hotel operator shall not represent to the public in any manner, directly or indirectly, that it will absorb all or any part of the tax or that the tax is not to be considered an element in the price to be collected from the consumer.
(Ord. 180, passed 9-4-2014)
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