2018 signed off to a lease modification originally entered into from a guy I still can’t find in my ancestry.com tree (cousin of cousin’s cousin maybe? lol), got a $250.00 signing bonus, and made a whooping $2.70 in royalties over the last three years. Just got a new lease sent to us from Ritchie county, but prior to signing this new one I want to understand why I have a new Real Estate Tax Bill from Tyler county. Ya it’s only $5.00, but can I ask the new company to add that to their lease?
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Welcome to the forum.
Your tax bill is for the revenue from the current well(s) based upon what the state thinks the value is. Completely separate from a new lease. The Ritchie lease is for a different property and unrelated.
Thank you M_Barnes! Do they simply only tax on the mineral revenue only if they are profitable then, explaining why this is the first year we have all been sent the tax bill? It just seems hilarious that aside from a “signing bonus” the taxes are more than the small percentage of profit that is shared with us 
Correct. Once the acreage starts producing, the state starts taxing! In general, they appraise on a schedule. If you happen to have high prices for oil and gas when the appraisal is done, then the tax bill is higher than if they appraise when the prices are lower. Gas prices plummeted in early 2024, so you are probably stuck in the off cycle where it doesn’t make sense. You can protest, but probably not worth the hassle for $5.00. Just pay and hope the appraisal is lower for next year.
To add on, there are minimum tax amounts on minerals. Now that you’ve been assessed, you will now owe these minimums (usually a few bucks) every year on your minerals WHETHER THEY PRODUCE OR NOT. We have quite a few properties we are stuck paying these token amounts. Not fair to pay taxes on minerals not generating revenues.
But WV loves to tax - only state I know of that has taxes on pet dogs…
To add on a little more, you’re paying taxes on production from two years ago. All property taxes in WV are on what you got/had two years ago. It’s weird, and the legislature was expected to fix the oil and gas tax issue this year, but they kicked the can down the road (again). Sigh.
What was the proposed fix ? I’ve only gotten one tax bill ( later than usual ) where in the past I receive 3 ?