Oh my, yes, I remember when I first moved to Fairfax County and got that Personal Property Tax bill. LOL! No one had told me either. Also, it’s a county thing, not a state thing. I don’t think all counties in Va assess this tax. We used to have county windshield stickers so I would imagine it was tied to this, I can’t remember. Now, from Fairfax’s website: “Vehicles must be registered with the Fairfax County Department of Tax Administration (DTA) within 60 days of purchase or move-in to the county and are subject to the vehicle Tax. This is a separate and additional requirement from the Virginia DMV registration. A late filing penalty will be assessed on vehicles that are not registered within the 60-day deadline.” I do agree that someone from DMV should have mentioned this! As it was obvious he was new to the area.
I do hope OP gets some waivers on the penalties. Interesting as I never really thought about it, but yeah, a neighbor probably reported him. There’s a place right on the website “Report Tax Evaders”.
We did get 2016 waived as we had a copy of his lease showing it started 11/1/2016 - so right on the 60 day mark.
We are paying for 2017 and 2018 this month, and then working on getting the car registered in the next few weeks, after he gets a repair done so that it passes inspection. It appears to me that he will be living and working in VA for the forseeable furure, so might as well get this over and done with.
Each county is going to have different requirements - where I live we no longer get a tax sticker but we definitely get the bill! Some counties may still require the tax sticker but I believe the trend is toward eliminating them.
Maybe I missed something, but if the payment isn’t due until 10/1, then why did they assess a penalty for 2018 already?
Because the car was not registered on the county website and has out of state plates.
Ok just so I understand this correctly…we are OOS…if S19 goes to college at Virginia tech and brings a car, we don’t have to register it, correct? License plates can stay with our state?
There are exceptions to the law for college students.
@CAP, the emissions in MD isn’t random; it’s every two years_____
Hmm, my car has had three emissions tests in 5 years. We moved here in summer 2013 and I had the third notice this summer. The other car that we moved into the state has also had it three times - and not the same time period as the first even though they were registered at the same time.
@rockvillemom Did you get the car ownership transferred over to your son yet? I’ve been wanting to do this for our son, but from the website it sounded like it would entail a day at the DMV and I don’t want to do that! Just wondered what your experience was. Thanks.
@ACollegeFan Is your son still in college? If so, probably no need. If he is out of college and working in Virginia, you can probably just sign the title over to him and let him take care of what he needs to do to get the car appropriately titled and registered.
Transferring title is not a difficult process. Our OOS D recently transferred her vehicle to us. She signed the title, H took the title to the DMV, we received the new title by mail in a few weeks. You can check wait times for the DMV online. Important to get the vehicle inspected quickly once titled in VA as you will get ticketed.
The car did not pass inspection because of a taillight issue, having that repaired first. And I think he has to pass an emissions test first also, right? His MD emissions test is more than 1 year old. Addressing those issues, than he will do it.
I know DC proper requires the emissions test. VA localities that require it can be found at this link. Not all do.
I believe RVM’s son is in Fairfax county, so emissions would be required.
Finished! This was a bit of a project, but we have:
Paid the Fairfax County bills for 2017 and 2018
S2 got the car to pass inspection and emissions
S2 got his own insurance policy
DH transferred the title to him and S2 registered car in Virginia
DH returned the Maryland plates to MVA - learned you can’t cancel old insurance until plates are returned
Tomorrow I cancel that car off our insurance policy
I have used my new knowledge to warn my cousin - who is doing the same thing we did - her recent graduate son has a car she owns with Maryland plates in Florida - he is expecting to be there for 1-2 years and has not gotten a Florida DL either - she is an attorney - so if she was unaware of these issues - makes me feel better. Like me, she is using common sense and feels it is not worth all of the hassle if he in going to be in FL for only 1-2 years - so I wsrned her to check further.
S2 has also informed his housemate with NY plates of what he needs to do.
Some states do the emission tests based on model year of the car. If you have an even year car, you get emissions test every other year, in even years. If you moved in an odd year, you’d get a test to register, and then the next year (an even year) and then 2 years later. Thus, 3 tests in 5 years.
While the son who has permanently moved to FL is required to register in FL, there are so many OOS plates there he will not stand out. We were transferred there from California and while I transferred everything, my co-workers did not and kept their California plates and licenses. We were there 3.5 years. FL has a big first time registration fee (it was over $450), but then the yearly fee is much less (about $70 for my older car)
I’m glad my state does not have a personal property tax. One of my friends owns a condo in Florida and has Florida plates on all her vehicles because plates, insurance etc are cheaper there. She spends half the year here and the other half in Florida. When my aunt moved across the river to Kentucky, she was hit hard with their personal property tax not only on the vehicle but saving, stocks and bonds and estimated value of all her personal property. Had she known beforehand she would have stayed on this side of the river.
@GloriaVaughn lived in Ohio most of my life and we hate the KY property tax!
I can’t believe the registration and insurance in Florida are cheaper. It is at least $450 to register a car (more for a newer model) and we found insurance to be more expensive if in any kind of a city. Daughter moved from a smaller city to West Palm and her insurance almost doubled. Mine was more in Jacksonville than it was in California (same car). To add my teenagers to my insurance was $3000/yr. EACH (they didn’t get licenses because I couldn’t afford the insurance). When I moved to Colorado, it was $110 each (away at school rate).
Florida doesn’t have an income tax, but the get you every single other way they can. Even the cost of a license is $55 while it is $20-30 in most other places.
@twoinanddone Her husband owns a nindependent insurance company so I’m sure they have that part covered at the best rate possible. Insurance here isn’t cheap and if you live in the major city it’s double, no matter the age of the vehicle. Yearly plate stickers are $110 here no matter the age of the vehicle. I’m sure that her husband and their tax accountant have everything figure out as to which way is cheaper. Actually there are a lot of Florida plates in my town.