ARTICLE V. DOCUMENTARY
TRANSACTION TAX

 DIVISION 1. GENERALLY

Sec. 150-366. Levy, when due, collection.

(a) A tax is hereby levied on the execution by the parties to any instrument, act, writing or document creating, transferring, alienating, leasing, or otherwise affecting any right in or to immoveable property located in the parish.

(b) The tax shall not be due and collectible unless and until the instrument, act, writing, or document shall have been recorded in the public records of the recorder of conveyances and/or the recorder of mortgages. The tax shall be paid by the seller or transferor of immovable property or the use thereof in the case of an act of cash sale, donation or other transfer of immovable property which transfer contains no vendors lien or mortgage; by the mortgagor in a credit transaction affecting immovable property which transaction does not involve the transfer of title to immovable property; by the seller or transferor in a sale or resale through a savings and loan association or sale and concurrent mortgage; and by the person recording the instrument, act, writing or document in the case of a lease affecting immovable property; and shall be collected and remitted to the department of finance by each such person or his designee. Such seller, transferor, mortgagor or person recording a lease instrument, act, writing or document shall be designated the taxpayer. (Code 1956, § 17A-1(1))

Sec. 150-367. Penalties for delinquency, filing false returns.

If any tax due under this article is not remitted within the time prescribed herein, it shall be delinquent; and the taxpayer, in addition to being liable for the tax due plus interest, shall be subject to a penalty of 20 percent of the amount of the tax plus interest at the rate of ten percent per annum or $500.00, whichever is greater, and ten percent of the attorney’s fee on the tax, interest, and penalty due in all cases wherein an attorney is required to assist in the collection. As a further penalty, any taxpayer signing and filing a return subsequently found to be grossly incorrect, false or fraudulent or violating any of the other provisions of this article shall be guilty of a misdemeanor. (Code 1956, § 17A-6)

Sec. 150-368. Limitations.

The levy, payment or failure to pay the tax required by this article shall not affect, nor be construed as impairing or affecting any rights or obligations created or governed by the civil laws of persons, property and obligations, and in no instance shall any immovable property involved in any transaction be construed to be subject to any lien or encumbrance by virtue of the failure to pay the tax, nor shall this article affect or alter or be construed by any person as affecting or altering the duties and powers of any constitutional parochial official.  (Code 1956, § 17A-2)

Sec. 150-369. Exemptions.

The following instruments, acts, writings or documents shall be exempt from the provisions of this article and the tax imposed thereby:

     (1) Leases of an immovable property for single residential purposes;

(2) Acts of correction;

(3) Declarations of homestead;

(4) Declarations of paraphernality;

(5) Tax liens;

(6) Minor’s mortgages;

(7) Materialmen’s and laborers’ liens;

(8) Transfer of cemetery plots;

(9) Sheriff’s process verbal in foreclosures;

(10) Sheriff’s deed in foreclosures;

(11) Dation en payments;

(12)  Judgments of possession;

(13) Money judgments;

(14) Notices of lis pendens;

(15) Assignments of mortgages notes;

(16) All sales and/or mortgages by nonprofit housing corporations domiciled in the city which are exempt from income tax pursuant to Internal Revenue Service rules provided that the purchaser or mortgagor is certified as being of low or moderate income;

(17) Cancellations of all inscriptions;

(18) Quitclaims;

(19) Exchange of property for public purposes to which the city is a party;

(20) Partition or settlement of community property between spouses or former spouses;

(21) All documents recorded in foreclosure proceedings;

(22) Tax sales and redemptions;

(23) Amendment to a mortgage wherein the interest rate and/or term of payment is readjusted;

(24) Assignment of a lease;

(25) Judgments nullifying sales of property;

(26) Judgments confirming tax titles;

(27) Transactions involving the parish school board;

(28) Acts of donation of vacant and abandoned immovable property to an organization which is exempt from income tax pursuant to Internal Revenue Service rules, or to a church which has been established in the community for a minimum period of five years, provided that the director of health has certified that the donation meets requirements established by the city;

(29) Acts of donation or sale of immovable residential property by an organization which is exempt from income tax pursuant to Internal Revenue Service rules or by a church to a person or family who will live in the property for a minimum period of five years, provided that the property being transferred was received by the organization under the terms of M.C.S., Ordinance Number 15,286 and that the director of health has certified that the requirements of that section have been satisfied;

(30) Sales or donations of residential properties which meet the following criteria:

a.   The seller/donor has caused the property to be renovated in compliance with requirements of this Code; and

b.   Prior to renovation by the seller/donor, the property had been designated by an agency of the city as vacant, abandoned, uninhabitable, or blighted;

(31)  Acts of mortgage in favor of the state entered into for the purpose of posting a property bond, in connection with criminal proceedings, by persons over 65 years of age who fit within the federal definitions of low and/or moderate income;

(32)  Transfer between spouses to declare formerly separate property as community property, pursuant to LSA-C.C. art. 2343.1, but does not exempt immovable property which is not the family home or primary residence of the spousal community.  (Code  1956, § 17A-7; M.C.S., Ord. No. 16,714, 10-20-94; M.C.S., Ord. No. 16, 792, 12-8-94)

Sec. 150-370. Administration and enforcement.

(a) The department of finance shall from time to time inspect the registry of public records to ensure compliance with this article. The department of finance shall promulgate rules and regulations for the enforcement and administration of this article within 30 days from the effective date of the ordinance from which this article was derived and may require persons to appear and testify and to produce documents for its inspection under oath.

(b) The director of the department of finance is hereby authorized to engage the services of another public official to effect the collection of the tax levied by this article in whole or in part, provided that the commission or other compensation to be paid to such other public official does not exceed one percent of the total collections effected by such other public official.  (Code 1956, § 17A-4)

Secs. 150-371—150-390. Reserved.

DIVISION 2. IMPOSITION AND COLLECTION - (click here to view)

For more Documentary Tax Information, please e-mail AlisonKiefer@webdsi.com