Can someone explain these to me? Are they yearly? Are they only on vehicles financed? Are they on things like tractors, horse trailers, stock trailers? Who decides the values of the items?
Thanks!
I live in Virginia.
It is commonly called the “car tax”, and it primarily applies to cars, trucks, etc.
My horse trailer specifically says that it is not subject to personal property tax, but I think some other people do have to pay PPT on trailers.
Not on tractors, etc. AFAIK
It does not matter if it is financed or not
It does not matter if you have it licensed for the road or not.
There MAY be an exemption for collector/investment cars, but I do not know the details.
When you fill in the form you just give the year, make and model and the state decides how much it is worth.
What you pay is a combination of fixed fee (maybe $33) and a percentage of the value minus a “tax relief amount”. (It works out about 2% of the assessed value per year)
After the car drops below $1000 value you just pay the fixed fee, not the percent of value.
You do the initial paperwork when you register the car, then each year they send you a bill sometime in late summer, which is due in early October.
Hope that helps.
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Please tell me how you did this. Because we pay PPT on my trailer, my husband’s trailer, and our Airstream.
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Not sure how it works, either, but I’m in VA and we pay PPT to our county on four vehicles, but not the horse trailer, flat bed trailer or tractor.
I think it’s based on your car registration with DMV; both trailers have permanent trailer plates and don’t have to be re-registered each year. Tractor is not registered at all.
Fun fact: In 1998, Jim Gilmore ran for governor in VA on a very simple platform: no car tax. That was it, that was his whole platform. He had no stated opinions about other issues, just…no car tax. He won handily. Unfortunately, he was only able to enact a plan that would phase out the tax over 5 years. In 2002, the next governer froze the phased approach.
So thanks to Jim Gilmore, we pay less car tax, but yeah, we still pay it.
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I have no idea.
All I know is I registered the trailer (two so far) with permanent plates (which I think are default for trailers, but not sure) , and they declared it not subject to PPT.
It MAY vary by county, I am in Price William.
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Since I’m planning the move to Roanoke, I went to the VA Sec of State page to see how things run there. I saw the permanent trailer plates, but also a yearly plate? Was trying to figure out whether my horse trailer would be permanent plates or not.
Wait a sec, doesn’t PPT depend on the county you’re in? Oh, Janet said that too!
Does anyone know if I’ll have to take a driving test (or any test?) to get my VA driver’s license?
I live in Fairfax county and pay tax on my now 22 year old Hawk trailer, the bill comes in just as it does for the cars and my elderly (30 year old) Suburban.
The trailer is arguably worth more than the truck at this point! The trailer is “garaged“ in Fauquier county, and it was suggested to me that I change its location so as to pay less on property tax - but not sure whether it’s worth the hassle. Since my Suburban is at the barn all the time now, I have switched it to being “garaged“ in Fauquier county, which means that I don’t have to get an emissions test – which it would surely fail!
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PPT definitely vary by county as far as payment schedule and rates, but I didn’t realize which items were subject to taxation also varied – we have permanent plates on our Hawk 2 horse, our Adam 3 horse, and our flatbed, and pay PPT on them all – not that it’s much. Again, the tax rate varies according to county/locality, as do real estate taxes.
In my county, your annual bill for PPT and RE taxes is split into 2 payments, due June 5 and Dec 5 each year. For decades, my county did NOT pro rate, and PPT was only assessed for what you owned Jan 1 of a given year. So if you bought a car after that date, you could avoid ppt taxes (but not sales taxes and titling fees, of course) for that first partial year. Alas, my county pro rates now, so one has to makes sure new purchases get reported to the county to pay the prorated bill for the year. Works the same for a new residents, I presume.
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We pay PPT on the vehicles and the trailers. That is why we, unless it is an emergency, buy trailers and vehicles right after the first of the year and get rid of them by the end of a year. That way you get one year free on taxes. The only vehicles and trailers you get taxed on are ones you own on Jan 1.
It does depend on which county you are in. But the variance is pretty minimal in my experience.
