VA residents, tell me about the car tax.

[Triumph]

Ok, I'm about to move to Woodbridge, VA from Pennsylvania. I'm debating whether or not to buy my car off of my dad, a 2000 VW Passat. Blue book value is roughly 17-18K. Now I'm concerned about this Virginia "Car Tax," and I can't seem to find much information about it on the Internet. The only thing I was able to find was a website for Fairfax County. It said that when purchasing/registering a car for the first time, you have to pay almost $4.50 per $100 of the value of the car! :Q :Q I'll be in Prince William County, not Fairfax, but I assume that the tax would be roughly the same. That comes out to about 700 DOLLARS! :|

I thought Gilmore was supposed to repeal the car tax or something. If someone could post me some links to something on the web that explains this, I'd appreciate it. 4-5% tax on a car is outrageous. Maybe I should just not register my car, and move across the water to Maryland when my lease ends in 6 months.

 

[Linflas]

For Prince William this year it was 3.7% of the assessed value. Once you calculate that then subtract 70% of that amount and that would be the actual tax.

Edit: On your 17K car the tax would be roughly $190.00. Also there is a wide variation in the rate from county to county.

 

[Triumph]

thanks linflas. where did you get the info? and what is the 70% thing? is that part of Gilmore's reduction plan? I know they wanted to phase it out over a span of 5 years or something.

 

[T2T III]

and what is the 70% thing? is that part of Gilmore's reduction plan?

Yes, it's part of former Governor Gilmore's personal property tax elimination. Just a couple of small hurdles left and the tax will be history.

 

[notfred]

In california you have to pay sales tax on used cars :|

However, ther are a LOT of used cars sold by private parties for $100.

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: Triumph
thanks linflas. where did you get the info? and what is the 70% thing? is that part of Gilmore's reduction plan? I know they wanted to phase it out over a span of 5 years or something.

I got it off my latest personal property tax bill. Yes it was supposed to be totally phased out but in typical government fashion they could not stop themselves from continuing to waste and spend and coupled with the economic downturn Virginia is in the same position as a lot of other states with the current state budget. Had the state not continued to spend like drunken sailors on a port call the 90% should have kicked in this year and total elimination next year. The phase out is frozen for now in its current state which I believe is as follows(Using Prince William as an example):
Under 20k assessed value is as I outlined in my original post. Over 20k then it gets complicated because the 70% rebate ends at 20k so the excess is 3.7% of that amount period.

As an aside they now want us to vote ourselves a small sales tax increase supposedly to finance new road construction. As it stands now I will not vote for this until they tell me why all the current taxes we are paying for new roads have not produced any significant changes in the roads of Northern Virginia. In the 70's there was an additional tax placed on cigarrettes sold in Northern Virginia called the Northern Virginia Commuter Tobacco Tax, in 1986 an increase in the sales tax also slated for transit improvements, and a gas tax increase supposedly to finance transit improvements. In each case taxes to the state increased with no measurable improvement to the transit situation in Northern Virginia. Why should I now believe this one will be any more likely than the previous ones be used to actually address the severe transit problems of Northern Virginia?

 

[Linflas]

Originally posted by: notfred
In california you have to pay sales tax on used cars :|

However, ther are a LOT of used cars sold by private parties for $100.

That is another thing you will need to plan on as well. When you register the vehicle here for the first time there will be a Sales and Use tax charged when you title the car. Titling a Vehicle in Virginia

 

[Ultima]

Originally posted by: notfred
In california you have to pay sales tax on used cars :|

However, ther are a LOT of used cars sold by private parties for $100.

I think it's like that here too. Although there's no cars selling for $150CDN and those that are are probably rustbuckets that don't run.

 

[Slacker]

Your dad can give the car to you, there is no sales tax when a car is a gift from a parent.

 

[PsychoAndy]

Originally posted by: notfred
In california you have to pay sales tax on used cars :|

However, ther are a LOT of used cars sold by private parties for $100.

They do in FL as well. Every time something is sold, it is taxed. I think its the case in most states with a sales tax.

-PAB

 

[Triumph]

Originally posted by: Slacker
Your dad can give the car to you, there is no sales tax when a car is a gift from a parent.

Is that legal? And isn't there something about a federal tax for gifts over 10,000 dollars?

Thanks for the info again, Linflas.