How the used-car price spike affected tax assessments in Virginia

Why?
Don't you pay some sales tax when buying a car, and you are done for life.
I pay 10.5% of the total sales in tax ( minus trade difference). then pay $100 every six years to register the vehicle. That's it.
 
I paid about $160 to renew my vehicle registration for two years, it might have been less don't remember exactly. No other taxes on it.
 
Why?
Don't you pay some sales tax when buying a car, and you are done for life.
That would seem to make sense to the payer.

To the receiver of funds, getting sales tax, and then getting property tax every year sounds pretty good.

The state gets the sales tax, and the municipality gets the property tax. Win-win for the taxation authorities.
 
Here in Wilson County TN, you pay appx 10% sales tax as part of initial title fees, then appx $50/year for a tag. No further taxes based on value post-purchase. Registration renewal costs the same for a $500k supercar as it does for a $1k beater. Our reg fees are levied as a 'road use fee' kind of deal and vary by county.

Cheaper regs available for classic/antique, agriculture, etc.
 
Though I think this yearly car tax is totally bananas, vehicles do take up space and require maintenance of roads and such for the municipality. Streets, parking lots, lights, signs, employees, etc. It has an impact on the local community’s resources. The income taxes is what gets me. Might as well call it an “existing” tax.
 
And to think that 250 years ago, the greatest empire in the world at the time was defeated for imposing a 3% tax on a single item, tea. We’ve gotten soft. 🫤
No. There were many taxes imposed on the Colonies. Also the commonly known phrase “no taxation without representation“ was used by the Colonists in protest to the heavy taxes without Colonial representation in Parliament. The rebellion was not about a single item tax or the idea of taxation unto itself.

That statement is a gross oversimplification of what happened.
 
North Carolina also has personal property tax on vehicles and boats, but by comparison the costs are cheap and so are real estate taxes in most counties compared to the northern U.S. You buy a vehicle in NC, sales tax is 3%, title is $75 and annual tag fee for cars is $38. That's cheap. Combine that with much lower than average real estate taxes, and NC is an inexpensive place to live.
 
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