West Virginia Code 11-6K-4 – Review of returns; procuring information for tentative appraisals; tentative appraisals by Tax Commissioner; notification to taxpayers
(a) All returns delivered to the Tax Commissioner shall be examined by him or her, and if found insufficient in form, defective, imperfect or not in compliance with law, he or she shall compel the person delivering the return to make it in proper and sufficient form in all respects as required by law.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 11-6K-4
- Appraisal: A determination of property value.
- Commissioner: means the State Tax Commissioner. See West Virginia Code 11-22-1
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Industrial property: means the real and personal property integrated as a functioning unit intended for the assembling, processing and manufacturing of finished or partially finished products. See West Virginia Code 11-6K-2
- Managed timberland: means surface real property, except farm woodlots, of not less than ten contiguous acres which is devoted primarily to forest use and which, in consideration of its size, has sufficient numbers of commercially valuable species of trees to constitute at least forty percent normal stocking of forest trees which are well distributed over the growing site, and that is certified as managed timberland by the Division of Forestry. See West Virginia Code 11-6K-2
- Natural resources property: means any of the following: Active coal mining property, reserve coal property, natural gas-producing property, oil-producing property, managed timberland or other natural resources property. See West Virginia Code 11-6K-2
- Operator: means an individual, limited liability company, partnership, corporation, joint venture or other enterprise which proposes to or does locate, drill, produce, manage or abandon any oil and/or natural gas well or which is engaged in actively obtaining or preparing to obtain coal and/or its by-products from the earth'. See West Virginia Code 11-6K-2
- Person: means every natural person, association or corporation. See West Virginia Code 11-22-1
- Producer: means the person who is actually engaged in the agriculture, horticulture and grazing which gives existence and fruition to products of agriculture as distinguished from the broker or middleman. See West Virginia Code 11-5-3
- Value: means in the case of any document not a gift, the amount of the full actual consideration for the document, paid or to be paid, including the amount of any lien or liens assumed. See West Virginia Code 11-22-1
(b) If any owner, operator or producer fails to make a required return, the Tax Commissioner shall proceed to obtain the facts and information required to be furnished by the returns.
(c) For the purposes of ascertaining the correctness of any return filed pursuant to this article or of valuing the property of any industrial taxpayer or natural resources property owner or operator, the Tax Commissioner may exercise all of the powers and authority granted to him or her by sections five-a, five-b and five-c, article ten of this chapter.
(d) Using information provided on the returns and all other pertinent evidence, information and data the Tax Commissioner has been able to procure, the Tax Commissioner shall annually value and make tentative appraisals of all industrial property and natural resources property as provided in section ten, article one-c of this chapter.
(e) (1) On or before October 15 of the assessment year, the Tax Commissioner shall complete the preparation of tentative appraisals of all industrial property and natural resources property and shall notify the affected owner or operator of the amount of the tentative appraisals: Provided, That in the case of oil property, natural gas property and managed timberland, the Tax Commissioner shall complete the preparation of tentative appraisals and notify the affected owner or operator by December 1 of the assessment year, and: Provided, however, That no notification shall be required where the total increase in the aggregate amount of the tentative appraisals to the affected owner or operator does not exceed $1,000 and the total tentative appraisals did not increase by more than ten percent from the prior year's appraisals. Notification may, at the reasonable discretion of the Tax Commissioner, be:
(A) By written notice deposited in the United States mail, addressed to the owner or operator at the principal office or place of business of the owner or operator;
(B) By electronic notification; or
(C) By any other means designed to communicate the tentative appraisal information to the owner or operator in a timely and efficient manner and in a convenient useable form.
(2) Any notice required to be provided under this section to an owner or operator shall also be provided by the Tax Commissioner to the assessor of the county in which the property is located. The Tax Commissioner shall retain in his or her office true copies of tentative appraisals and of the underlying work sheets used to compute the tentative appraisals, all of which shall be available for inspection by any owner or operator or his or her duly authorized representative.