Anyone live in Virginia (Fairfax) and own a car

[marketsons1985]

I've just been offered a position down in Fairfax County, and I'm reading over tax information for down there, and I came across the vehicle tax. I'm hoping I can get some clarification from anyone that lives down there!

Fairfax's website doesn't mention that personal use vehicles are exempt from the tax, but the DMV of Virginia says that

A vehicle must meet all three of the requirements below to qualify for tax relief. The vehicle must:

• Be a passenger car, pickup or panel truck weighing less than 7,501 pounds, or motorcycle; and

• Be (i) owned by a natural person or (ii) leased by a natural person under a contract requiring such person to pay the tangible personal property tax or (iii) held in a private trust for an individual beneficiary; and

• Be used for nonbusiness purposes.

I'm coming from Michigan, where we don't have this tax, am I exempt as a private citizen or do I have to pay this tax? It's huge...4.57%, so I'm hoping I'm exempt.

Help! Thanks

 

[sjwaste]

You pay it. It's subsidized, depending on your county. In Arlington, the first $3000 in value is 100% subsidized. Up to 20k is 70%, and you pay the full tax on anything above. They use NADA value. Fairfax probably has a similar scheme.

Since my car is worth less than $3000, I only pay $26 a year for the sticker.

EDIT: See http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dta/cartax_pptaxrelief.htm

That will tell you that Fairfax does have some subsidy.

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/d...ptra_qualification.htm

More numbers. Looks like it's a state subsidy, not local, so it's going to be similar to what I described. The difference I can see is that Fairfax only fully subsidizes 1k, Arlington does 3k.

You might consider living in Arlington and commuting out anyway, especially if you're younger/single and looking for more to do. It'd be a reverse commute in most cases, so traffic shouldn't be too bad.

 

[lupi]

VA is big on taxing everything you own, any one of the individual tax rates aren't that bad, but they have a gnat effect that is draining. You won't be exempt totally, but unless the vehicle is part of some business you're pretty much going to get the reduced personally owned vehicle discounted rate.