Bill Text: MS SB2814 | 2025 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Mineral documentary tax; repeal.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-01-20 - Referred To Finance [SB2814 Detail]
Download: Mississippi-2025-SB2814-Introduced.html
MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE
2025 Regular Session
To: Finance
By: Senator(s) McCaughn
Senate Bill 2814
AN ACT TO REPEAL SECTIONS 27-31-77, 27-31-79, 27-31-81, 27-31-83 AND 27-31-85, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDE FOR THE MINERAL DOCUMENTARY TAX; TO AMEND SECTIONS 27-31-71, 27-31-73, 27-31-75 AND 9-1-43, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO CONFORM; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:
SECTION 1. Sections 27-31-77, 27-31-79, 27-31-81, 27-31-83 and 27-31-85, Mississippi Code of 1972, which provide for the mineral documentary tax, are repealed.
SECTION 2. Section 27-31-71, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
27-31-71. Whenever the term
"oil, gas and other minerals" is used in Sections 27-31-71 through * * * 27-31-75, the same
shall include oil, gas petroleum, hydro-carbons, distillate, condensate,
casinghead gas, other petroleum derivatives, sulphur and all other similar
minerals of commercial value which are usually produced or mined by the
drilling, boring or sinking of wells.
The terms "mineral acre" and "royalty acre" are each defined as the number of acres obtained by multiplying the aggregate acreage described in the instrument involved by the fractional interest leased or conveyed thereby.
The term "primary term"
when used herein in connection with any instrument affected by Sections 27-31-71
through * * *
27-31-75 shall mean the period of time that the estate created by such
instrument shall endure under the terms thereof in the absence of production of
oil, gas or other minerals in paying quantities, the carrying on of drilling or
reworking operations for the production of such oil, gas or other minerals, force
majeure or laws, rules or regulations (federal or state) preventing such
drilling operations.
SECTION 3. Section 27-31-73, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
27-31-73. To encourage the
purchase of leases upon and interests in oil, gas and other minerals in the
State of Mississippi, to encourage drilling for and production of such minerals,
and to relieve the taxing officials of the counties of the state of the onerous
duties of assessment for, collection of and sale for ad valorem taxes for such
interests (which the Legislature finds are generally assessed at nominal values
resulting in taxes not commensurate with the services required of such officers),
all nonproducing leasehold interests upon all oil, gas and other minerals in,
on or under lands lying within the State of Mississippi, created or assigned
after the effective date of Sections 27-31-71 through * * * 27-31-75, and also
all nonproducing interests in such oil, gas and other minerals (including
royalty interests therein) hereafter conveyed to a grantee or purchaser or
excepted or reserved to a grantor separately and apart from the surface, shall
be exempt from all ad valorem taxes levied on or after January 1, 1947, by the
State of Mississippi, or any county, municipality, levee district, road
district, school district, drainage district or other taxing district within
the state or becoming a lien on or after said date. Any sale for taxes of the
surface or of the remainder of the fee shall not in any manner whatsoever
affect the interest or interests hereby exempted.
For the same purpose and
with like effect there is hereby likewise exempted from such ad valorem
taxation all such interests created prior to the passage of Sections 27-31-71
through * * *
27-31-75 which are owned separately and apart from the surface * * *.
SECTION 4. Section 27-31-75, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
27-31-75. Application for such exemption upon existing interests shall be made to the chancery clerk of the county wherein the land lies in which such interest is owned, by filing application in duplicate with the said clerk, which shall contain the following information:
(a) Name of applicant;
(b) Address of applicant;
(c) Description of land affected (including aggregate acreage);
(d) Fractional interest for which exemption is applied and nature of such interest;
(e) Recording data concerning the instrument creating the interest including grantor or lessor, grantee or lessee, date of instrument, book and page of record and date of filing;
(f) Length of primary term;
(g) Recording data on instruments divesting original party of any interest in a portion of original interest therein conveyed; and
(h) Number of net
mineral, royalty or lease acres on which exemption is sought * * *.
* * *
Upon receipt of such
application, * * * the chancery clerk shall give
it a serial number * * *
and mark it filed, showing the date received * * *. The clerk shall make a notation on the
face of the record of the instrument described in the application showing * * * the serial number of the application. After
such notation is made, the original application, with the required * * * notation, shall be returned
to the applicant by mailing to the address shown on the application (or
delivered otherwise to the applicant) and the duplicate application shall be
retained by the clerk as his permanent record.
* * *
SECTION 5. Section 9-1-43, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:
9-1-43. (1) After making deductions for employer contributions paid by the chancery or circuit clerk to the Public Employees' Retirement System under Sections 25-11-106.1 and 25-11-123(f)(4), employee salaries and related salary expenses, and expenses allowed as deductions by Schedule C of the Internal Revenue Code, no office of the chancery clerk or circuit clerk of any county in the state shall receive fees as compensation for the chancery clerk's or circuit clerk's services in excess of Ninety-nine Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($99,500.00). All such fees received by the office of chancery or circuit clerks that are in excess of the salary limitation shall be deposited by such clerk into the county general fund on or before April 15 for the preceding calendar year. If the chancery clerk or circuit clerk serves less than one (1) year, then he shall not receive as compensation any fees in excess of that portion of the salary limitation that can be attributed to his time in office on a pro rata basis. Upon leaving office, income earned by any clerk in his last full year of office but not received until after his last full year of office shall not be included in determining the salary limitation of the successor clerk. There shall be exempted from the provisions of this subsection any monies or commissions from private or governmental sources which: (a) are to be held by the chancery or circuit clerk in a trust or custodial capacity as prescribed in subsections (4) and (5); or (b) are received as compensation for services performed upon order of a court or board of supervisors which are not required of the chancery clerk or circuit clerk by statute.
(2) It shall be unlawful for any chancery clerk or circuit clerk to use fees in excess of Ninety-nine Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($99,500.00), to pay the salaries or actual or necessary expenses of employees who are related to such clerk by blood or marriage within the first degree of kinship according to the civil law method of computing kinship as provided in Sections 1-3-71 and 1-3-73. However, the prohibition of this subsection shall not apply to any individual who was an employee of the clerk's office prior to the date his or her relative was elected as chancery or circuit clerk. The spouse and/or any children of the chancery clerk or circuit clerk employed in the office of the chancery clerk may be paid a salary; however, the combined annual salaries of the clerk, spouse and any child of the clerk may not exceed an amount equal to the salary limitation.
(3) The chancery clerk and the circuit clerk shall be liable on their official bond for the proper deposit and accounting of all monies received by his office. The State Auditor shall promulgate uniform accounting methods for the accounting of all sources of income by the offices of the chancery and circuit clerk.
(4) There is created in the county depository of each county a clearing account to be designated as the "chancery court clerk clearing account," into which shall be deposited: (a) all such monies as the clerk of the chancery court shall receive from any person complying with any writ of garnishment, attachment, execution or other like process authorized by law for the enforcement of child support, spousal support or any other judgment; (b) any portion of any fees required by law to be collected in civil cases which are to pay for the service of process or writs in another county; and (c) any other money as shall be deposited with the court which by its nature is not, at the time of its deposit, public monies, but which is to be held by the court in a trust or custodial capacity in a case or proceeding before the court. The clerk of the chancery court shall account for all monies deposited in and disbursed from such account and shall be authorized and empowered to draw and issue checks on such account at such times, in such amounts and to such persons as shall be proper and in accordance with law.
The following monies paid to
the chancery clerk shall be subject to the salary limitation prescribed under subsection
(1): (a) all fees required by law to be collected for the filing, recording or
abstracting of any bill, petition, pleading or decree in any civil case in chancery;
(b) all fees collected for land recordings, charters, notary bonds, certification
of decrees and copies of any documents; (c) all land redemption * * * commissions; and
(d) any other monies or commissions from private or governmental sources for statutory
functions which are not to be held by the court in a trust capacity. Such fees
as shall exceed the salary limitations shall be maintained in a bank account in
the county depository and accounted for separately from those monies paid into the
chancery court clerk clearing account.
(5) There is created in the county depository in each county a clearing account to be designated as the "circuit court clerk civil clearing account," into which shall be deposited: (a) all such monies and fees as the clerk of the circuit court shall receive from any person complying with any writ of garnishment, attachment, execution or any other like process authorized by law for the enforcement of a judgment; (b) any portion of any fees required by law or court order to be collected in civil cases; (c) all fees collected for the issuance of marriage licenses; and (d) any other money as shall be deposited with the court which by its nature is not, at the time of its deposit, public monies but which is to be held by the court in a trust or custodial capacity in a case or proceeding before the court.
There is created in the county depository in each county a clearing account to be designated as the "circuit court clerk criminal clearing account," into which shall be deposited: (a) all such monies as are received in criminal cases in the circuit court pursuant to any order requiring payment as restitution to the victims of criminal offenses; (b) any portion of any fees and fines required by law or court order to be collected in criminal cases; and (c) all cash bonds as shall be deposited with the court. The clerk of the circuit court shall account for all monies deposited in and disbursed from such account and shall be authorized and empowered to draw and issue checks on such account, at such times, in such amounts and to such persons as shall be proper and in accordance with law; however, such monies as are forfeited in criminal cases shall be paid by the clerk of the circuit court to the clerk of the board of supervisors for deposit in the general fund of the county.
The following monies paid to the circuit clerk shall be subject to the salary limitation prescribed under subsection (1): (a) all fees required by law to be collected for the filing, recording or abstracting of any bill, petition, pleading or decree in any civil action in circuit court; (b) copies of any documents; and (c) any other monies or commissions from private or governmental sources for statutory functions which are not to be held by the court in a trust capacity.
(6) The chancery clerk and the circuit clerk shall establish and maintain a cash journal for recording cash receipts from private or government sources for furnishing copies of any papers of record or on file, or for rendering services as a notary public, or other fees wherein the total fee for the transaction is Ten Dollars ($10.00) or less. The cash journal entry shall include the date, amount and type of transaction, and the clerk shall not be required to issue a receipt to the person receiving such services. The State Auditor shall not take exception to the furnishing of copies or the rendering of services as a notary by any clerk free of charge.
In any county having two (2) judicial districts, whenever the chancery clerk serves as deputy to the circuit clerk in one (1) judicial district and the circuit clerk serves as deputy to the chancery clerk in the other judicial district, the chancery clerk may maintain a cash journal, separate from the cash journal maintained for chancery clerk receipts, for recording the cash receipts paid to him as deputy circuit clerk, and the circuit clerk may maintain a cash journal, separate from the cash journal maintained for circuit clerk receipts, for recording the cash receipts paid to him as deputy chancery clerk. The cash receipts collected by the chancery clerk in his capacity as deputy circuit clerk and the cash receipts collected by the circuit clerk in his capacity as deputy chancery clerk shall be subject to the salary limitation prescribed under subsection (1).
(7) Any clerk who knowingly shall fail to deposit funds or otherwise violate the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a misdemeanor in office and, upon conviction thereof, shall be fined in an amount not to exceed double the amount that he failed to deposit, or imprisoned for not to exceed six (6) months in the county jail, or be punished by both such fine and imprisonment.
SECTION 6. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after October 1, 2025.
