[Adopted 7-13-1981 by Ord. No. 1981-2 as Ch. XXIV, Part 1, of the 1981 Code]
Unless otherwise specifically stated herein, the following terms shall have, for the purpose of this article, the meanings hereinafter set forth:
ASSOCIATION
A partnership, limited partnership, registered partnership, businesses operated under a fictitious name or any other form of unincorporated enterprise owned or conducted by two or more persons.
CORPORATION
Any corporation or joint-stock association organized under the laws of the United States, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania or any other state, territory or foreign country or dependency.
DOCUMENT
Any deed, instrument or writing by which any real estate, lands, tenements or hereditaments or any part thereof or interest therein within the limits of Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, shall be sold, transferred, granted, bargained or conveyed to purchaser or purchasers or grantee, but shall not include wills or other testamentary writings, mortgages, sales or transfers between husband and wife, parent and child or sales or transfers from one municipal political subdivision to another municipal political subdivision or to a municipal authority created under the Authorities Act of 1945.[1]
PERSON
Includes natural persons, copartnership, association, corporation, firm or fiduciary. Whenever used in any clause prescribing or imposing a penalty, the term "person" as applied to an association or copartnership shall mean the members or partners thereof, and as applied to corporations, the officers thereof.
VALUE
In the case of any document resulting from or being evidence of the sale or transfer of real estate within Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, transferring, granting or otherwise conveying any land, tenement or hereditament or part thereof or interest therein, the amount of the actual consideration paid thereof or, including liens or other encumbrances thereon or a portion of the liens or encumbrances thereon, where such liens or encumbrances are also liens and encumbrances on other lands, tenements or hereditaments; provided, however, that where such document specifically sets forth a small or nominal consideration, the value shall be the actual consideration or sale price of said real estate; provided, further, however, that if such transfer is in a nature of a gift without valuable consideration, the value of the real estate or interest therein being transferred shall be considered as the highest assessed valuation for tax purposes.
[1]
Editor's Note: See 53 P.S. § 301 et seq.
Every person who makes, executes, issues, delivers or accepts any document or on whose behalf any document is made, executed, issued, delivered or accepted, being the transferor in said document and transaction, shall be subject to pay for and in respect thereof or for or in respect of the instrument or paper upon which such document is written or printed a tax at the rate on one-half of one per centum (1/2 of 1%) of the value, as herein defined, of the property being transferred by such document, which said tax shall be payable to Latrobe at the time of the making, execution, issuance, delivery or acceptance of such document.
The payment of the tax imposed by this article shall be evidenced by affixing documentary stamp or stamps (see § 51-14) in the proper denominations to every document transferring real estate or interest therein within Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, by the person making, executing, issuing or delivering said document. The stamps required to be affixed in accordance herewith shall be provided by the Council of Latrobe in such denominations as it shall deem from time to time to be necessary and shall be available for sale and purchase by person requiring the same at the office of the Tax Collector of Latrobe or such other places as said Council of Latrobe shall from time to time designate.
All such stamps when used or affixed to the document transferring real estate in accordance with the provisions hereof shall be canceled by the person using or affixing said stamps by causing to be written or stamped thereon the initials of the person affixing said stamps and the date upon which said stamps are affixed in order that such stamps may not be used at subsequent times.
No document which represents a sale or transfer involving the transfer of title to real estate situate in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, upon which the tax is hereby levied and assessed shall be recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, or any other county of the commonwealth unless and until the said documentary stamp or stamps as provided herein shall have been affixed thereto.
Any such document when presented to the Recorder of Deeds of Westmoreland County or of any county of the commonwealth for recording therein shall set forth in said document and as a part thereof the true, full and complete consideration or value of said transfer or, in lieu thereof, shall be accompanied by an affidavit to be executed by the grantor, grantee or the agent of either, which said affidavit shall set forth the true, full and complete consideration or value for the said transfer or the specific reason why said document and the transfer represented thereby is not subject to the tax imposed by this article if the document, upon its face, does not disclose said reason.
A. 
It shall be unlawful for any person to:
(1) 
Make, execute, issue, deliver or accept or cause to be made, executed, issued, delivered or accepted any document transferring title to the real estate in Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in accordance with the provisions of this article unless and until the full amount of the tax imposed hereby shall have been paid.
(2) 
Make or use any documentary stamps as provided herein denoting the payment of the tax imposed hereby without canceling said stamp or stamps as required herein.
(3) 
Cut, tear or remove or in any way deface any documentary stamp after being affixed to a document as provided herein.
(4) 
Affix to any document transferring real estate, upon which the tax is imposed by this article, any documentary stamp which has been cut, torn, removed or defaced or any documentary stamps of insufficient value or any forged or counterfeit stamp or impression thereof.
(5) 
Willfully remove or alter the cancellation marks of any documentary stamp or restore any such documentary stamp with intent to use or cause the same to be used after it has already been used, or to knowingly buy, sell, offer for sale any such altered or restored stamp to any person for further use.
(6) 
Knowingly or willfully prepare, keep, sell or offer for sale or have in his possession any forged or counterfeited documentary stamps.
B. 
Any person convicted of a violation of any provision of this section shall be sentenced to pay a fine of not more than $600 and costs of prosecution or, upon nonpayment of such fine and costs, to undergo imprisonment for not more than 30 days.
[Amended 4-23-1996 by Ord. No. 1996-5]
In addition to all other fines and other penalties imposed by this article, all taxes imposed in accordance with the provisions hereof, if not paid when due, shall bear interest at the rate of 1/2 of 1% per month until paid, beginning 10 days after the transfer coming within the provisions of this article, which said transfer date shall be deemed to be the date set forth on said document.
A penalty of 5% in addition to the other penalties imposed hereby is imposed upon the amount of any tax imposed under the provisions of this article which shall remain unpaid for a period of longer than one month from and after the date of said transfer.
All taxes imposed by this article, together with the interest and penalties as provided herein, shall be recovered as other taxes or debts due and owing to Latrobe of like character are now recoverable by law.
The taxes levied and assessed by this article, together with the interest and penalties imposed herein, shall become a lien upon the lands, tenements, hereditaments or any part thereof or interest therein within the limits of Latrobe, Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, transferred or conveyed in accordance with the provisions hereof, which such liens shall be effective at the time when the taxes are due and payable in accordance with the provisions of this article and shall continue until discharged by payment to Latrobe, and Latrobe may file a municipal or tax claim in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, against the transferor or transferee, or both, on said lands, tenements or hereditaments concerned in accordance with the provisions of the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania covering the filing of municipal or tax claims.
From and after the passage of this article, said Tax Collector is hereby authorized to record the payment of the tax on instruments requiring the payment of the tax, by using a hand stamp in lieu of actual stamps.