Fairfax County - no more decals

[jay]

I wish Prince William would do the same.


Created:6/30/2006 7:08:22 AM
Last Updated:6/30/2006 2:39:44 PM

The days of scraping off last year's decal from car windshields are coming to an end in Fairfax County.

Starting tomorrow, the county will no longer require residents to pay 25 dollars each year for decals to prove they have paid personal property taxes.

County officials say technology has made the decals unnecessary.

They can monitor who has paid their taxes through electronic links to the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

The elimination of the fee will cost Fairfax County 20 million dollars per year. The county expects to fill the gap with increasing property tax revenue.

Fairfax was the first county in the state to repeal the decal tax.

Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[jay]

Prince William County was considering such a move, from the news I've seen from March of this year. If you're a Prince William County, VA, resident and support the elimination of the county decal, write your County Supervisor.

[krygny]

Originally posted by jay
...
Starting tomorrow, the county will no longer require residents to pay 25 dollars each year for decals to prove they have paid personal property taxes.
...

I don't get the original point of the sticker, other than to just charge $25, in which case I hope NY doesn't think of it as another "we're-the-Government-and-we-can-do-whatever-the-#$%K-we-want" taxes.

What is "personal property tax" and how do you prove you've paid it if you don't own a car?

[jay]

Originally posted by krygny

I don't get the original point of the sticker, other than to just charge $25, in which case I hope NY doesn't think of it as another "we're-the-Government-and-we-can-do-whatever-the-#$%K-we-want" taxes.

What is "personal property tax" and how do you prove you've paid it if you don't own a car?

In Virginia, you only pay it (at the rates set by each individual county) if you own a car, boat or motorcycle, and the intent of the sticker was to prove that you paid that tax. Now that Fairfax and other counties are linked in to Virginia DMV directly, they can hit you up for the tax from the DMV records, and not have to enforce payment of the tax by requiring that you display a sticker, freeing up the county Cops from pulling you over if you don't display that sticker.

We may gripe about the car tax here in Virginia, but it's still cheaper than the system they use in Maryland, which a while back ranked ahead of Taxachussetes in taxes paid.

With Fairfax leading the way, I suspect it won't be long before the surrounding counties follow suit. As it is now, each county in "Northern Virginia" has synchronized the timing of when the new sticker needs to be displayed, and ever county displays their county seal over the same color background ever year. This year, the background is green.

[krygny]

Originally posted by jay
In Virginia, you only pay it (at the rates set by each individual county) if you own a car, boat or motorcycle, and the intent of the sticker was to prove that you paid that tax.
...

But how often do you pay the tax? One time? Every year? Is it in addition to vehicle registration?

Come to think of it, about 12 years ago when I worked for Grumman, a number of colleagues transferred to a new facility in Norfolk. They told me they had to pay a tax on property they brought into the state - everything from vehicles to pieces of furniture (if I understood them correctly). The company relocation package paid for moving, but not the tax. Because of that, they elected to sell or leave behind some of their belongings and re-buy new once they moved. I guess every place has revenue schemes that are just maddening. Here, they charge you $4.50 just to drive across a bridge.

[jay]

Originally posted by krygny

But how often do you pay the tax? One time? Every year? Is it in addition to vehicle registration?

Come to think of it, about 12 years ago when I worked for Grumman, a number of colleagues transferred to a new facility in Norfolk. They told me they had to pay a tax on property they brought into the state - everything from vehicles to pieces of furniture (if I understood them correctly). The company relocation package paid for moving, but not the tax. Because of that, they elected to sell or leave behind some of their belongings and re-buy new once they moved. I guess every place has revenue schemes that are just maddening. Here, they charge you $4.50 just to drive across a bridge.

In Virginia, the "personal property" tax is on just boats, motorcycles or cars/trucks, and the scheme is like this:

-one time 3% on sale price, whether new, used , dealer or private party

-yearly tax, county by county, on the assessed value of the vehicle. In Prince William County, it's $4+ per hundred of assessed value, which is usually wholesale or trade-in blue book.

Then there's the whole Car Tax Act formula, which reduces the tax by a percentage.

I've never heard of any personal tax on furniture or other "belongings" in Virginia. Just cars/trucks, boats, motorcycles, and of course income and real estate.

As an example of taxes paid between Maryland and Virginia, the income, sales and real estate taxes are about equal. But in Virginia I pay the personal property tax, and in Maryland I'd pay a county tax equal to 50 or 60% of my state income tax.

Driving an xB with an assessed value of $10,000, I'll pay about $400 in taxes using the Prince William County values. Living across the Potomac in Montgomery County, making say $50,000 a year, I'd pay 60% of my state income tax, or about $1300 in a county tax. In Virginia, as the value of my vehicle drops, the tax drops. In Maryland, as my income increases, the tax increases. I like Virginia's approach relative to the nearby alternatives.

[PNW-Pilot]

Man I thought the car tab in California were horrible, personal property tax. The only thing nice is that you can deduct that from your taxes.

I think I was paying 2% in california on the KBB value. In washington, it's flat $35, then a tax on the wight. The pilot's like $50/year.

[mapzoid]

Originally posted by jay
freeing up the county Cops from pulling you over if you don't display that sticker.

Fairfax County's finest didn't give a hoot when my 85 Celica was stolen. Too hard to locate. But they were able to spot the outdated county decal on my new car across two lanes of traffic and a median strip on RT 29.

[UNCWDave]

That's good news. Thanks for the info, Jay.

[ramirami]

Originally posted by jay

The days of scraping off last year's decal from car windshields are coming to an end in Fairfax County.

or put the static cling stickers that my town has had for alooong time... no scraping needed

[Tupperware]

Originally posted by jay
I've never heard of any personal tax on furniture or other "belongings" in Virginia. Just cars/trucks, boats, motorcycles, and of course income and real estate.

Virginia has a "use" tax on furniture (and possibly other items) purchased out of state. It is the equivalent of the state sales tax. I got popped on about $10,000 worth of furniture form North Carolina. I believe the shipping company notified Richmond

[sharpaxe]

The elimination of the fee will cost Fairfax County 20 million dollars per year. The county expects to fill the gap with increasing property tax revenue

Since Fairfax county gains a lot of money from increasing asset values of the housing, it has enough money to afford getting rid of county sticker.

I noticed that when I received the tax bill for this year. However, they make me pay $745 for the property tax for 10 months since I bought my Honda Pilot . In the paper, they indicates my Pilot asset value is 33k while I bought it for only 27800 OTD.

I wonder if I can talk to them to correct the price and therefore reducing the tax amount.