How to Fill Out and Submit the West Virginia Sales Listing Form (STC 12:39)

West Virginia’s sales listing form STC 12:39 is a one-page document you file with the county clerk at the same moment you record a deed. Fill in the sale price, the property’s tax map and parcel number, the chain-of-title details, and any financing terms that affected the price, then hand it to the clerk along with the deed and the excise tax. The clerk cannot record your deed without it, so complete it before you arrive at the window.

When You Need to File the Form

Under West Virginia Code § 11-22-6, the county clerk “may not record any document with or without stamps affixed unless there is tendered with the document a completed and verified sales listing form.”¹ Any deed or instrument that grants, conveys, or transfers real property or an interest in real property in the state triggers the requirement.² Residential homes, farmland, commercial buildings, vacant lots — the form covers them all.

Transfers That Don’t Require the Form

Several categories of transfer fall outside the excise tax chapter entirely and, because they are not taxable “documents,” do not require the form. These include:

Deeds between spouses, between parent and child (or child and spouse), and between grandparent and grandchild (or grandchild and spouse) where no money changes hands.
Transfers through a will or through a testamentary or inter vivos trust.
Transfers where the property value is $100 or less.
Corrective and quitclaim deeds filed without consideration.
Deeds to or from the United States, West Virginia, or any of their agencies and political subdivisions, whether by gift, dedication, or condemnation.
Deeds made pursuant to mergers of corporations, LLCs, partnerships, or trusts, and deeds from a subsidiary to its parent corporation in exchange for cancellation of the subsidiary’s stock.
Gifts or transfers to, from, or between nonprofits with charitable or educational purposes.
Leases and deeds of trust given as security for a debt.
Transfers without consideration between a principal and a straw party.
Deeds of partition dividing jointly held property among co-owners.
Transfers under a divorce, annulment, or separate maintenance decree.²

Confirm with your county clerk before you arrive if your transaction sits close to one of these lines. Clerks vary in how strictly they apply the form requirement to borderline transfers.

Information to Gather Before You Fill It Out

The statute spells out what the form must capture, and every field maps to something in your closing packet or the deed itself. Pull these documents together first: the deed you are about to record, your settlement statement, the prior deed in the chain of title, and last year’s property tax ticket.

Property Identifiers

The form needs the tax map and parcel number for the property. You can find it on the prior year’s tax ticket, in the county assessor’s records, or through the state’s online property viewer.³ Also list the district or municipality where the property (or its greater portion) sits, plus the street address. Your county assessor can help you track down the map and parcel number if you cannot locate it.

Chain of Title

If the last transfer was by deed, list the prior grantor and grantee along with the deed book and page number where that deed was recorded. If the last transfer was not by deed, give the source of the grantor’s title if you know it. When that source is unknown, describe the property and list the name of the person to whom real property taxes are currently assessed in the county landbook.¹

Sale Price and Financing Details

Report the full consideration or value in money the buyer and seller agreed on, including any other valuable goods or services exchanged. If personal property such as equipment or business inventory was bundled into the transaction, note it separately so the Tax Commissioner can distinguish the real estate value from the personal property value. Disclose any financing arrangements affecting value: seller-financed deals, below-market interest rates, or other terms that could push the reported price above or below what a conventional market sale would produce.¹

Buyer’s Mailing and Tax Billing Addresses

The form asks for the new owner’s mailing address and the address where tax statements should be sent. These can be different when the buyer uses a separate billing address or a management company.

The Declaration of Consideration on the Deed

Alongside the sales listing form, the deed itself must carry a signed declaration of consideration or value, appended on the face of the deed or at its end. The grantor, grantee, or another responsible party familiar with the transaction signs it, stating the total consideration paid or the true value of the property conveyed.¹ The clerk uses this declaration to compute the excise tax due.

The Tax Commissioner has authority to design a combined form that merges the declaration and the sales listing form into a single document. If your county uses the combined version, filing it satisfies both requirements. Ask the clerk which version they accept.

Submitting the Form at Recording

You do not mail the STC 12:39 to Charleston. Bring it to the county clerk’s office when you present the deed for recording. The clerk will not accept the deed without it.

Copy counts vary by county. Ohio County, for example, requires four copies of the sales listing form — the original and three duplicates — submitted with the deed.⁴ Call your county clerk ahead of time to confirm how many copies they need for your recording.

Once the clerk has your form, the statute directs the clerk to give a copy to the county assessor and the county sheriff by the end of that business day. On or before the tenth of each month, the clerk forwards all sales listing forms from the prior month’s recordings to the State Tax Commissioner.¹ Nothing further is required from you after you hand it in.

There is no electronic filing option. The form must be submitted in hard copy at the clerk’s office, so print your copies before your recording appointment.

Excise Tax Owed at the Same Time

Recording the deed also triggers West Virginia’s real estate transfer excise tax. The rate is $1.10 for every $500 of value or fraction of $500.⁵ On a $200,000 sale, the tax comes to $440. The clerk calculates the amount from your declaration of consideration and confirms that the correct documentary stamps are affixed to the deed before recording it. Budget for the tax along with recording fees.

Transfers that fall within the § 11-22-1 exemptions listed above owe no excise tax and need no stamps.

Where to Get a Blank Form

A blank STC 12:39 is available as a downloadable PDF from the West Virginia Tax Division’s property tax forms page.⁶ Print the number of copies your county clerk requires, complete each one from your closing documents, and bring them to the recording appointment with the deed.

1
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-22-6 – Duties of Clerk; Declaration of Consideration or Value; Filing of Sales Listing Form for Tax Commissioner; Disposition and Use of Proceeds
2
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-22-1 – Definitions
3
West Virginia Property Assessment. WV Property Assessment
4
Ohio County Clerk. WV Tax Sales Listing Form
5
West Virginia Legislature. West Virginia Code 11-22-2
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West Virginia Tax Division. Property Tax Forms and Publications