W. Va. Const. art. X, § 1a
Notwithstanding the provisions of sections one and one-b of this article, household goods and personal effects, if such household goods or personal effects are not held or used for profit, and all intangible personal property shall be exempt from ad valorem property taxation:
Provided, That intangible personal property may be made subject to such taxation only to the extent provided by the Legislature by general law not inconsistent with this section.
The Legislature shall not impose ad valorem property taxation upon money, bank deposits and other investments determined by such law to be in the nature of deposits in a bank or other financial institution, or upon pensions, moneys or investments determined by the Legislature in such law to be in lieu of or otherwise in the nature of pensions.
The Legislature by general law may exempt from such taxation any amount of the value of all or certain intangible personal property and any type, group or class of such intangibles but such exemptions shall be uniform throughout the State. No tax imposed upon such intangibles shall be at a rate or rates in excess of the maximum rate permitted to be imposed upon personal property employed exclusively in agriculture as provided in sections one, one-b or ten of this article, as the case may be, in the county wherein the intangible personal property has situs, as such situs is determined by the Legislature in such general law.
The valuations with respect to property acquired or created subsequent to any statewide reappraisal and the valuations with respect to any intangible personal property subjected to ad valorem property taxation pursuant to this section shall be allocated and phased-in over a period of years and be valued with respect to the same base year as other property subject to ad valorem property taxation in order to provide for equitable and similar treatment of such property subsequently acquired or created or such intangible personal property as compared to similarly situated previously existing property of similar value whose owner is receiving the benefit of any allocation and phase-in allowed pursuant to section one-b of this article.
Any intangible personal property which would be subject to ad valorem property taxation under prior provisions of this Constitution shall continue to be subjected to such taxation as provided by and in accordance with current statutory law for the assessment of such taxes upon such property, which laws are hereby validated for such purpose or purposes, until the first day of July in the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-five or until the first statewide reappraisal of property pursuant to section one-b of this article shall be first implemented and employed to fix values for ad valorem property taxation, whichever shall last occur, and thereafter no intangible personal property shall be subject to such taxation save for and except as provided by the Legislature by general law enacted after the ratification of the amendment of this section in the year one thousand nine hundred eighty-four.
[Editor’s note. – This section was proposed by Senate Joint Resolution No. 4, Acts, Regular Session, 1957, p. 839; submitted by Acts, Regular Session, 1957, c. 16; and ratified November 4, 1958. The first amendment of the section was proposed by Senate Joint Resolution No. 11, Acts, Regular Session, 1972, p. 737; and ratified November 7, 1972. It inserted the exemption of “household goods and personal effects if such household goods and personal effects are not held or used for profit” from ad valorem property taxation. The second amendment of this section was proposed by Committee Substitute for House Joint Resolution No. 21, Acts, Regular Session, 1984; p. 1113; and ratified November 6, 1984. This section, prior to its amendment, read: “Notwithstanding the provisions of the preceding section, bank deposits, money, and household goods and personal effects if such household goods and personal effects are not held or used for profit, shall be exempt from ad valorem property taxation.” This section was amended to read as set out above.]