The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the adoption by this state for its corporation net income tax purposes of certain provisions of the laws of the United States relating to the determination of income for federal income tax purposes will: (1) Simplify preparation of state corporation net income tax returns by taxpayers; (2) improve enforcement of the state corporation net income tax through better use of information obtained from federal income tax audits; and (3) aid interpretation of the state corporation net income tax law through increased use of federal judicial and administrative determinations and precedents.

Terms Used In West Virginia Code 11-24-1

  • Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
  • corporation: includes a joint-stock company and any association or other organization which is taxable as a corporation under the federal income tax law. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a
  • doing business: means any activity of a corporation which enjoys the benefits and protection of government and laws in this state. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a
  • state: means any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or possession of the United States and any foreign country or political subdivision thereof. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a
  • tax: includes , within its meaning, interest and additions to tax, unless the intention to give it a more limited meaning is disclosed by the context. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a
  • this state: means the State of West Virginia. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a
  • United States: means the United States of America and includes all of the states of the United States, the District of Columbia and United States territories and possessions. See West Virginia Code 11-24-3a

The Legislature does, therefore, declare that this article be construed so as to accomplish the foregoing purposes.

In recognition of the fact that corporate business is increasingly conducted on a national and international basis, it is the intent of the Legislature to adopt a combined system of income tax reporting for corporations. A separate accounting system is sometimes not adequate to accurately measure the income of multistate and multinational corporations doing business in this state and sometimes creates tax disadvantages for West Virginia corporations in competition with those multistate and multinational corporations. Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature to capture lost revenue with adoption of a combined reporting tax base.