ARTICLE 763
Public Service or Utility Business Tax
763.01   Definitions.
763.02   Imposition of tax.
763.03   Exemptions.
763.04   Computation of tax; payment.
763.05   Return and remittance by taxpayer.
763.06   Erroneous computation.
763.07   Payment.
763.08   Tax cumulative.
763.09   Liens.
763.10   Docketing of tax lien; release.
763.11   Collection by action or suit.
763.12   Administrations and enforcement.
763.99   Penalty.
 
CROSS REFERENCES
Public utilities tax - see W.Va. Code 8-13-5a
 
 
763.01 DEFINITIONS.
   As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:
   (a)   “Person” means and includes any individual, firm, co-partnership, joint venture, association, corporation, trust, or any other group or combination acting as a unit.
   (b)   “Taxpayer” means any person liable for the tax imposed by this article.
   (c)   “Tax year” or “taxable year” means either the calendar year or the taxpayer’s fiscal year when permission is obtained from Council to use the same as the tax year in lieu of the calendar year.
   (d)   “Sale” or “sales” includes any transfer of ownership of, or title to, property, whether for money or in exchanging for other property.
   (e)   “Gross income” means the gross receipts of the taxpayer from the supplying of public utility services within the Municipality, without any deductions on account of the costs or expenses of supplying such services. Gross income of the taxpayer from any other activity shall not be included in the measure of the tax imposed by this article. (Passed 6-6-83.)
763.02 IMPOSITION OF TAX.
   (a)   There is hereby levied and shall be collected an annual privilege tax upon any person engaging or continuing within this Municipality in any public service or utility business, except railroad, railroad car, express, pipeline, telephone and telegraph companies, water carriers by steamboat or steamship and motor carriers equal to gross income of the business multiplied by the respective rates as follows:
      (1)   Water companies, two percent (2%), except as to income received by Municipally owned water plants; (Passed 9-6-88)
      (2)   Electric light and power companies, four percent (4%) on sales demand charges for domestic purposes and commercial lighting and three percent (3%) on sales and demand charges for all other purposes, except as to income received by Municipally owned plants producing or purchasing electricity and distributing same. Electric light and power companies which engage in the supplying of public service but which do not generate or produce electric power shall be taxed on the gross income derived therefrom at the rate of four percent (4%) on sales and demand charges for domestic purposes and commercial lighting and three percent (3%) on sales and demand charges for all other purposes, except as to income received by Municipally owned plants provided, however, that the sale of electric power under this section shall be taxed at the rate of two percent (2%) on that portion of the gross proceeds derived from the sale of electric power to a plant location of a customer engaged in a manufacturing activity, if the contract demand at such plant location exceeds two hundred thousand kilowatts per hour in a year; provided further, that the sale of electric power under this section shall be exempt from the tax imposed by this section if separately metered and consumed in an electrolytic process for the manufacture of chlorine in this Municipality, and the rate reduction herein provided to the taxpayer shall be passed on to the manufacturer of the chlorine;
         (Ord. 1989-12B. Passed 12-4-89.)
      (3)   Natural gas companies, two and one-half percent (2.5)%);
      (4)   Toll bridge companies, two percent (2%);
      (5)   Upon all other public service or utility business, two percent (2%).
   (b)   The measure of this tax shall not include gross income derived from commerce between this Municipality and the State of West Virginia or other states of the United States or between this Municipality and foreign countries. The measure of the tax under this section shall include only gross income received from the supplying of public service.
(Passed 9-6-88.)
763.03 EXEMPTIONS.
   There shall be an exemption in every case of fifty dollars ($50.00) in amount of tax computed under the provisions of this article. A person exercising a privilege taxable hereunder for a fractional part of a year shall be entitled to an exemption of the sum bearing the proportion to fifty dollars ($50.00) that the period of time and privilege is exercised bears to the whole year. Only one exemption shall be allowed to any one person, whether he exercises one or more privileges taxable hereunder.
(Passed 6-6-83.)
763.04 COMPUTATION OF TAX; PAYMENT.
   The tax imposed by this article shall be paid in quarterly installments on or before the expiration of one month after the end of the quarter in which it accrues. The taxpayer shall, within one month after the expiration of each quarter, make out an estimate of the tax for which he is liable for such quarter, sign the same, and mail the same together with a remittance of the amount of the tax so estimated to the Recorder. In estimating the amount of the tax due for each quarter, the taxpayer may deduct one-fourth of the total exemption allowed for the year. When the total tax for which any person is liable under this article does not exceed the sum of one hundred dollars ($100.00) in any year, the taxpayer may pay the same quarterly as aforesaid or, with the consent in writing of the Recorder at the end of the month next following the close of the tax year. The Recorder shall prescribe and furnish the form or forms for the estimates required hereunder.
(Passed 6-6-83.)
763.05 RETURN AND REMITTANCE BY TAXPAYER.
   On or before the expiration of one month after the end of the tax year, each taxpayer shall make a return in the form prescribed by the Recorder for the entire tax year showing his gross income from the supplying of public utility services within this Municipality and compute the amount of tax chargeable against him in accordance with the provisions of this article and deduct the amount of quarterly payments, if any, made pursuant to Section 763.04, and transmit with his return a remittance covering the residue of the tax chargeable against him to the Recorder. Such return shall be signed by the taxpayer, if made by an individual, or by the president, vice president, secretary or treasurer of a corporation, if made on behalf of/ a corporation. If made on behalf of a firm, partnership, joint venture, association, trust, or by any other group or combination acting as a unit, any individual delegated by such firm, partnership, joint venture, association, trust or any other group or combination acting as a unit, any indivdual delegated by such firm, partnership, joint venture, association, trust or any other group or combination acting as a unit shall sign the return on behalf of the taxpayer.
(Passed 6-6-83.)
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