By Steven Allen Adams, The Journal
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A compromise was reached between the West Virginia Senate and the House of Delegates on a bill creating a better property tax valuation system for oil and natural gas wells and effect tax revenue for counties.
House Bill 2581, providing for the valuation of natural resources property and an alternate method of appeal of proposed valuation of natural resources property, unanimously passed the Senate Saturday on the final day of the 2021 legislative session.
HB 2581 would provide a revised methodology to value oil and natural gas properties by the State Tax Commissioner in response to a West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals decision in 2019 that struck down part of the methodology the department uses to value active oil and natural gas well sites.
The Senate version of the bill stripped from the version passed by the House a formula to value oil and natural gas property by using a weighted average price from regional markets, less the actual expenses as reported by the taxpayer. Instead, the Senate version directed the State Tax Department to promulgate regulations the Legislature can review and approve…