[Adopted 8-9-1977 by Ord. No. 5-77
as Part 3, Art. 377 of the 1977 Code]
Unless otherwise specifically stated, the following
terms shall have, for the purpose of this article, the meanings hereinafter
set forth:
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.
Any corporation or joint-stock association organized under
the laws of the United States, the commonwealth or any other state,
territory or foreign country or dependency.
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 the city shall be sold, transferred,
granted, bargained or conveyed to a purchaser or purchasers or grantee,
but shall not include wills or other testamentary writings, mortgages,
sales or transfers between husband and wife or 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]Includes a natural person, 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,
means the members or partners thereof and, as applied to corporations,
the officers thereof.
In the case of any document resulting from or being evidence
of the sale or transfer of real estate within the city, transferring,
granting or otherwise conveying any land, tenement or hereditament
or part thereof or interest therein, the amount of the actual consideration
paid therefor, 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 that where such document specifically sets
forth a small or nominal consideration, the value shall be the actual
consideration or sale price of the real estate, and 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 the 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 such 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 city tax at the rate of 1% of the value, as defined in § 199-39, of the property being transferred by such document, regardless of where the instrument making the transfer is made, executed or delivered or where the actual settlement on such transfer takes place. Such tax shall be payable to the city at the time of the making, execution, issuance, delivery or acceptance of such document.
The payment of the real estate transfer tax
shall be evidenced by affixing a documentary stamp or stamps in the
proper denomination to every document transferring real estate or
interest therein within the city by the person making, executing,
issuing or delivering the document. The stamps required to be affixed
in accordance herewith shall be provided by Council in such denominations
as it shall deem from time to time to be necessary and shall be available
for sale and purchase by persons requiring the same at the office
of the Tax Collector of the city or such other places as Council shall
from time to time designate.
All such stamps, when used or affixed to the
document transferring real estate in accordance with the provisions
of this article, shall be canceled by the person using or affixing
the stamps by causing to be written or stamped thereon the initials
of the person affixing the stamps and the date upon which the stamps
are affixed in order that such stamps may not be used at subsequent
times.
In lieu of the stamps provided for in the previous
sections of this article, the City Treasurer may evidence receipt
for the tax by stamping the document, noting the date of payment and
amount thereon.
No document which represents a sale or transfer involving the transfer of title to real estate situated in the city upon which the real estate transfer tax is hereby levied and assessed shall be recorded in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of this or any other county of the commonwealth unless the documentary stamp or stamps or receipt as provided in § 199-43 has been affixed thereto.
Every such document, when presented to the Recorder
of Deeds of this or any other county of this commonwealth for recording
therein, shall set forth in the document and as a part thereof the
true, full and complete consideration or value of the transfer or,
in lieu thereof, shall be accompanied by an affidavit to be executed
by the grantor, grantee or the agent of either, which affidavit shall
set forth the true, full and complete consideration or value for the
transfer or the specific reason why the document and the transfer
represented thereby are not subject to the tax imposed by this article
if the document, upon its face, does not disclose the reason.
No person shall:
A.
Make, execute, issue, deliver or accept or cause to
be made, executed, issued, delivered or accepted any document transferring
title to the real estate situate in the city in accordance with the
provisions of this article until the full amount of the tax imposed
hereby has been paid.
B.
Make or use any documentary stamps as provided herein
denoting the payment of the tax imposed hereby without canceling the
stamp or stamps as required in this article.
C.
Cut, tear or remove or in any way deface any documentary
stamp after it has been affixed to a document as provided herein.
D.
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 stamp of
insufficient value or any forged or counterfeited stamp or impression
thereof.
E.
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 or offer for sale any such altered or restored
stamp to any person for further use.
F.
Knowingly or willfully prepare, keep, sell or offer
for sale or have in his possession any forged or counterfeited documentary
stamps.
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 transfer
date shall be deemed to be the date set forth on the document.
A penalty of 5%, in addition to the other penalties
imposed by this article, is hereby imposed upon the amount of any
tax imposed under this article which remains unpaid for a period of
longer than one month from and after the date of the 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 cities of like character
are now recoverable by law.
The real estate transfer tax 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 the city
transferred or conveyed in accordance with the provisions hereof,
which lien 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 the city, and the city may
file a municipal or tax claim in the Court of Common Pleas of Westmoreland
County against the transferor or transferee, or both, on the lands,
tenements or hereditaments concerned in accordance with the provisions
of the laws of the commonwealth covering the filing of municipal or
tax claims.
[Amended 12-20-1994 by Ord. No. 2-94]
Any person, firm or corporation who or which
violates any of the provisions of this article shall be punished by
a fine not to exceed $600, plus costs of prosecution, and, in default
of payment of said fine and costs, shall be imprisoned for a period
not exceeding 90 days.
