ronarndt

I live in a county in northern VA that has a personal property tax on every car, truck, boat or any vehicle, running or not. My annual tax bill (in addition to my property tax bill) is over $5K for my five vehicles. I got my 68 Vette in July this year so I have been holding my breath to see how much the county would tax me, since I pay $800 for my 93 RX-7 and more for my newer vehicles. I got a Christmas present in the mail today in the form of the tax bill for the Vette. Apparently no one in the county tax bureau knows anything about old Corvettes. I do not think I will alert them of their mistake. Merry Christmas, Vette owners!
RA

Easy Mike

They'll reassess the car once they correct the VIN on the tax statement.

croaker

I'm outraged to

blue427

how would they know it's a corvette? I know the vin will tell them but why would they bother looking it up,to them it's a 2dr chevy sedan.

Rescue Rogers

I paid the state $1500.00 for taxes based on the vin and my town wanted $25.00 for every $1000.00 based on some blue book. I paid the town $5.00. I am happy the town didn't rape me like the state did. YAY

Too Slow '90

Yup...that's the assessment for old vehicles here. It helps average the beating you take on a new vehicle.

rrsperry

Just another reason you couldn't pay me to live in Virginia...

bj1k

Why would anyone live in an area that charges a personal property tax on things other than buildings ? Wars were started over lesser things and you people sit still for this ? And years ago they used to call Pennsylvania " The land of taxes " I will stay here forever !

ronarndt

bjik- I lived in PA for 50 years before moving south. Up there I got killed on the real estate tax, since that's what funded the schools. At least in VA, renters pay something toward the schools if they own a car through the personal property tax.


I'm looking for an island somewhere that I can buy and start my own country.

bj1k

You can still get killed on real estate taxes here if you live in the wrong areas but there are many counties in the suburbs that are great to raise a family and very fair taxes and you are not burdened with those nuisance taxes on personal items. When we buy a vehicle here we own it instead of continuing to make payments on it every year.

694speed350

that 5 should be a s

454Luvr

When I first lived in Texas, the city of Dallas sent a property tax bill for my car. I called them up, said I already paid tax on it, and told them to get effed. Then I moved to Austin.

Speaking of PA, how do you like that annual "Right to Work" tax being stolen from your paycheck every year? Damn, that used to pizz me off. I'd like to see any politician come to my front door and try to collect something like that.

And just to be sure we're entirely OT , did you know some states send a tax assessor into your home every year to assess personal property like furniture and appliances? Seriously, I'd be in jail.

ronarndt

694- Yeah, I'm aware of the error. When I bought the car from the dealer in TX, there were so many problems with the title (cross-outs, wrong owner name written in) that I did not want to press my luck and not be able to transfer the title in VA, so I did not alert them of the error. It took me over a month to get the title, since the dealer bought the car from a collector in TX who did not transfer the title from the last owner of record in TN, but had an owner's name on the title who lost financing and could not buy the car. The car went to my dealer with a title from a 1968 Camaro before they found the correct title with all of the cross-outs. I was ready to return the car when they finally found the title and sent it with an official form to explain the cross-outs on the title. VA has a procedure to correct the error. I'm in no hurry, since it has antique plates, which are good forever and my insurance company has the correct VIN. RA

69L46

Good Lord - 5 grand?? Must be quite a 'stable' of vehicles, hopefully you're getting a break on the insurance costs.

When I lived in Mass., they had a similar thing called an excise tax. Enacted after WWII, it was supposed to be a temporary source of revenue, which means it of course never went away.

I used to get a yearly bill for my '69 which was somewhere around $6.25, the rate for a '69 Chevy since the idiots in the tax collectors office apparently didn't pay attention to the difference among older vehicles and collector cars.

Naturally, I did not feel compelled to correct them...

Doughan

I like the one time license fee for cars over 25 years. No more yearly license fees.

AW IR C3

So $25 on a car valued at $225...or 11% vs their stated 4.65%.

This is the one reason I will never move to VA, despite my desire to do so.

rrsperry

Why is 25 years a significant time? I mean really, there is nothing HISTORIC about a 1990 Chevy Cavalier other than it lived 25 years.


In Maryland you see all kinds of POS cars with Historic plates.


The owners are using them as daily drivers, and getting a much lower registration fee. (they also avoid vehicle inspection upon sale, and escape emissions testing)


So what we did is say, if you have HISTORIC plates, you need collector car insurance, from a collector car insurance company. With mileage limits. Basically said we'll leave it up to the insurance companies to determine if it's a collector car.


I mean seriously, only Jay Leno uses a true collector car as daily transportation... They are supposed to be for occasional use, parades, shows...


What I would have done is say all cars pay the same fee, get inspected upon sale appropriate to the year of car, and emissions tested, (again appropriate to the year of the car). Problem solved.


Maybe make the break point 35-40 years?

bj1k

There is something wrong with the whole system anymore. Years ago a 25 year old or older car was a Ford Model T or A that wasn't practically used anymore for every day use and only came out occasionally on a Sunday or for parades but as you said many people are taking cars that are technically old enough but still road worthy enough to be used as a daily driver . It is illegal and they are hurting the hobby for the rest of us . Here in Pa. the state police will stop you and pull your plate if they see you abusing the system . It's not just there for people to save money and it will go away if people continue to abuse it.

454Luvr

Pennsylvania fosters a culture of petty lawlessness stemming from government intrusion and unreasonable taxation. It's not like that in every state. When I had my T-bucket, it was titled as a real '23 Ford, but I regularly drove it to work and paid for standard registration. My '82 Vette, on the other hand, has not been used for daily transportation and is tagged as an Antique. When/if the day comes that I decide to use it as a driver, I'll change the registration to comply with the law. Most people with older vehicles that I've met here in Texas have had a similar mindset.

AW IR C3

Here's why:
Now it's hard to get the exact vehicles in operation statistics to quote out to you as you have to pay for the figures, but I work in the automotive aftermarket industry and the numbers I get to see these numbers on a regular basis. The VIO mean age is at 11.4 years, and the standard deviation is ~3.5 years. This puts 99% of vehicles in operation with 22 years of age. If your vehicle is 25 years old that's 3 years outside of 3 standard deviations of the mean. (in actual terms it's about 2.5m vehicles 22 years or older still on the road.)


Getting uptight about what cars are "worthy" leads to more and more legislation. Leave it alone. Who cares if a 1990 chevy cavalier has a historic tag? What sweat is it off your back if they use it to save money? Is it because the historic tag is a status symbol to you? As far as resale I doubt that you'll get fooled by an unsafe or under performing chevy cavalier when you go to buy one with historic plates and will do your due diligence to make sure it is a good vehicle to suit your needs. I'm sure most vehicle buyers are adults and can make up their minds in a likewise manner or deal with the consiquences of their lack of understanding / lack of care in their purchase. As for emissions:reference the VIO statistics originally stated; the impact of the few vehicles running around with historic plates is of little impact to overall emissions statistics.

I'm sorry but I have never found a way to tolerate this perspective. You are right that the law clearly states this, however the lack of understanding of the hobbiests' needs by legislators leaves this as the only loop hole for a huge part of the hobby. Using historic tags allow all pro-street or pro-touring cars to drive on the street. Heck getting hard on historic plates it eliminates my 383 malibu from driving on the street (legaly ). If you start nit picking what is worthy and what is not it is inevitable that the law will eventually change to include only box stock historically accurate emissions legal vehicles to be eligible. If you're a concours restoration fanatic, then I can understand your perspective. Otherwise I reject your point of view on the law.

If you want to have your cake and eat it too, the laws surrounding "street rod" need to be relaxed which will encompass the aforementioned vehicles and then crack down on historic plates.

I put it to you that the impact on those with 1990 Chevy cavaliers with historic tags are probably not nearly as prevalent as those of us with a true hobby interest and therefore substantially less impacted. The phrase cutting off your nose to spite your face comes to mind.

'Merica!

If you want to comply with the law your 82 vette better be able to pass emissions requirements when you switch to regular registration, otherwise you won't get an inspection sticker and will be rolling illegally. Just sayin.