A tax to provide revenue for general Township
purposes be and the same is hereby levied, assessed and imposed on
the transfer of titles of real estate and the taking of possession
thereof situate in the Township of Halfmoon, Centre County, Pennsylvania,
at the rate of 1/2 of 1% of the amount of the consideration or sale
price involved in the transaction, said tax to be paid by the grantee
or purchaser of said interest in land.
The tax levied under the above section shall
become payable upon each transfer of title without regard to the place
where the making, execution, delivering or acceptance of the instrument
of transfer shall have been done.
The following words and phrases, when used in
this article, shall have the meanings ascribed to them in this section,
except when the context indicates a different meaning:
The amount paid for the interest or title transferred or
conveyed, which shall include the value of property or anything of
value paid for the interest or title transferred and shall include
purchase money obligations assumed and the actual amount of all liens,
mortgages or other encumbrances subject to which the sale or transfer
is made.
Any natural person, corporation, partnership, association
or unincorporated enterprise. As applied to any association or partnership,
the term "person" shall include the partners or members thereof and,
as applied to a corporation, the officers thereof. The singular shall
include the plural, and the masculine shall include the feminine and
neuter.
Any exercise of domination or ownership done on the land
by the grantee or purchaser.
A transaction whereby all or part of the interest of any
person in lands, tenements, hereditaments or any real property situate
in the Township of Halfmoon, Centre County, Pennsylvania, passes to
another person by deed or other instrument of conveyance, except:
By lease, agreement of sale, mortgage or testamentary
writing;
By the transfer of the straw transaction whereby
title passes to a third person temporarily and for not valuable consideration;
Where the interest passes to or from a corporation,
association or organization limited to religious, charitable or educational
purposes only;
Where the passing of the interest is a transfer
taxed by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania under the Transfer Inheritance
Law; or
Where transfers are gifts from one person to
another.
In case of any lands, tenements, hereditaments
or interest therein partly within and partly without the Township
boundaries of Halfmoon Township, such tax shall be computed only on
the consideration paid for that portion lying within the boundaries
of said Township of Halfmoon.
A.
The Secretary of the Halfmoon Township Supervisors
is authorized and directed to enter into a contract with the Recorder
of Deeds of Centre County to act as collection agent for said tax
and to pay not more than 1% of the amount collected to said Recorder
of Deeds as consideration for his services.
B.
Said Secretary is also authorized and directed to
have necessary transfer stamps manufactured and placed in the hands
of the collection agent from whom stamps may be purchased by the person
required to pay the tax.
All taxes imposed by this article which are
not paid when due shall bear interest thereon at the rate of 1/2 of
1% per month until paid. Said tax, when due and unpaid, shall become
a lien on the lands, tenements, hereditaments or any interest therein
which is described in a deed, transfer or conveyance upon which this
tax is due and shall be collected as other taxes are collected.
Any person who shall fail, neglect or refuse
to comply with any of the terms or provisions of this article or any
of the regulations or requirements pursuant thereto and authorized
thereby shall, in addition to other penalties provided by law, upon
conviction, be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $300 and costs
of prosecution and, in default of payment of such fine and costs,
to imprisonment for not more than 30 days. The fine imposed by this
section shall be in addition to any other penalty imposed by any other
section of this chapter.
