Virginia tax machine runs over car owners

[dorminWS]

They also overvalue the cars when they appraise them, and there are many other abuses. I once paid tax on a new car I'd bought in September based upon an appraisal by the COR as of the following Jan 1 at a value that was 20% more than I paid for the car. I once bought a new Mercedes up in NOVA as a co-owner because my daughter needed the benefit of my credit rating. When we bought the car, it was still on the boat from Germany. It wasn't delivered until about 1.5 months later, but the damned county pro-rated and collected taxes back to the day of the purchase. They really are overbearing and rapacious in their administration of the car tax. I said way back when Jim Gilmore was campaigning to abolish the car tax that it was as much the overbearing way Commissioners of the Revenue administered it as the fact that it must be paid that made it so hated. We Virginians need to pare back bloated LOCAL governments as a beginning point.

http://watchdog.org/209770/virginia-car ... 04b913f408

[Reverenddel]

Agreed! They assess for what they WANT it to be! If you ever read it against the KBB, they would LOSE money!

[Rualert]

This is one that really chaps my backside. Buy a car pay your sales tax, then here comes the city, or county, and hey you now owe more tax, and we will keep charging you until it becomes basically worthless. This one should be eliminated period.

Casey

[SHMIV]

I've always held the opinion that a vehicle reaches a certain age, and it's not worth taxing.

They also reach a condition that makes them unworthy of taxing.

I like to drive $500 vehicles (W2B hates this). I figure that a $500, driven to the ground, and replaced with another $500 car annually, puts you ahead of the game.

I wouldn't complain too much, but my $500 car usually gets taxed on a perceived $2000 value. By the time that you have your car appraised to dispute the tax, you've spent more than the tax would have been.

It's thievery. Maybe, as a community service, I'll get certified to appraise vehicles, and offer it for free.

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[OakRidgeStars]

This makes me want to hang on to my 15 year old pickup a little while longer. I think my taxes for last year was about $35.

[Rualert]

This is why I keep my 86 Mitsu mini truck, 20 bucks a year for the non existent sticker fee.

Casey

[grumpyMSG]

I hate to point this out to you, but it really doesn't matter how they appraise the vehicle. It is about revenue. If they gave an honest appraisal and said your car, your neighbor's car and everyone else in the city or county's vehicles was worth $40 million dollars versus $50 million dollars, they still need the same amount of revenue. Let's say the tax rate for personal property was $1 per $100 of value, that $50 million tax base would get the municipality half a million dollars. If they dropped the everybody's appraised values to $40 million, they could achieve the same revenue by upping the tax to $1.25 per 100. The sad part is Gilmore took what was essentially a local tax and bought votes with "State" money, it never achieved his goal of completely doing away with the tax, instead the Virginia still reimburses localities (I think it is at 60%). What chaps me about that is a $30,000 car in NoVa might be taxed at 2% and in the valley it might be taxed at 1%. In real numbers (assuming Virginia gives a 50% payment) the NoVa tax bill would be $600 on that car with the commonwealth giving $300 and the owner paying $300,In the valley the same vehicle's bill would be $300 and with VA chipping in $150 and the owner paying $150. Why should northern Virginia localities get more money from Virginia than others for the same vehicles?

[dorminWS]

In real numbers (assuming Virginia gives a 50% payment) the NoVa tax bill would be $600 on that car with the commonwealth giving $300 and the owner paying $300,In the valley the same vehicle's bill would be $300 and with VA chipping in $150 and the owner paying $150. Why should northern Virginia localities get more money from Virginia than others for the same vehicles?

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That's the thing about tax relief. People that are paying more tax get more relief. The part of that that smells bad to you is that State funds are going to NOVA localities in bigger lumps. While I agree that those carpetbaggers up in NOVA ought to be taxed for the privilege of being allowed to be in Old Virginia, I would also have to grudgingly concede that those localities generate relatively more revenue dollars for the Commonwealth, so it ain't quite as rotten as it smells at first sniff.

[trailrunner]

That's the thing about tax relief. People that are paying more tax get more relief. The part of that that smells bad to you is that State funds are going to NOVA localities in bigger lumps. While I agree that those carpetbaggers up in NOVA ought to be taxed for the privilege of being allowed to be in Old Virginia, I would also have to grudgingly concede that those localities generate relatively more revenue dollars for the Commonwealth, so it ain't quite as rotten as it smells at first sniff.

The NOVA politicians always complain that we (NOVA residents) don't get our fair share of taxes sent back to us. Their solution to this is not to fix this inequity, but instead they have always wanted to set up an independent taxing agency for only NOVA. So that means that I would have to pay twice.

BTW, I never had much sympathy for that inequity argument. I elected them to fix problems, not complain about them. If they can't go to Richmond and get our fair share of the tax money, then they are ineffective and need to find another job.

But back to the subject of the car tax - What annoyed the hell out of me was that in addition to the tax, I had to pay a fee for the stupid sticker. When my daughters lived with me, we had five cars, and at $25 per sticker, that was $125 per year just for the stupid stickers. I even had to pay that for for my 1986 clunker pickup truck that was valued at $500.

And while we're abolishing the car tax, let's abolish the annual car inspection, and the ABC, and the...

[scott9050]

I bought my car in 2013 and for 2 years straight they have taxed me above what I paid for the car. This year I plan to fight since their valuation was well above KBB and NADA high retail values. $1100 for car tax is ridiculous.

[Reverenddel]

FIght it! You've nothing to lose, and everything to gain!

[SHMIV]

In Scott's case, an appraisal may be worth it.

James City County will adjust the taxes according to the appraised value.

I forget what book they use (NADA, maybe?), but it would make more sense if they went by Kelly Blue Book, since that's the source that that car purchasers use. (car purchasers are the ones that set the practical value, anyway)

If they want to value your $500 car at $2000, drive it up there and make them look at it. Might not make a difference, but then you can at least tell them, legitimately, that they are truly corrupt.

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