Virginia Personal Property Tax

Hi,

I was wondering if someone in the state of Virginia could explain to us how the annual tax works on classic cars? Is it based on year or value and how much is it. We are thinking of moving into the state so this will be a major part of our decision if we want to move there.

thanks, Dave

Hi,

I was wondering if someone in the state of Virginia could explain to us how the annual tax works on classic cars? Is it based on year or value and how much is it. We are thinking of moving into the state so this will be a major part of our decision if we want to move there.

thanks, Dave

The tax is based on value, but declines to zero for older cars. For example, the tax on my wife's 1985 Olds daily driver is zero. My older cars, some with YOM plates, also have zero tax. Depending on locality, you still need to pay $25/yr for the decal, but there is no tax.

Contact the Department of Finance in the County you are considering moving to. They will tell you how the tax is accessed and what the rates are for antique cars. As Joe said above the value is based on the January issue of the NADA used car guide loan value. Thus the older the car the less the tax until NADA no longer lists the car and the tax is then zero.

In Chesterfield County (near Richmond, Va.) we pay a one time fee of 5 dollars for a county pp tax on the old cars.

Joe and others correct, if you have your antique car registered with antique plates, or YOM plates, you pay no personal property tax.

However, if you place regular plates on an antique (legally you have to do so for a daily driver, although some people ignore this), they may place a value on it. My personal property taxes on two such licensed cars in 2014 was $175 for '69 Cutlass convertible and $71 for 1971 Pontiac Firebird.

Depends on what your definition of "classic cars" is, and their usage. . Virginia is very antique car friendly toward cars at least 25 years old that are agreed upon to be subject to limited use restrictions. At the state level, permanent antique plates are provided at a one time charge of $50, and if you wish to obtain and use actual original plates of the car's year of manufacture, that can be done for the same fee. (Always clear the tag number with the DMV before paying big bucks for YOM plates, they can reject them) Use with antique plates is restricted, but there is a BIG loophole. You may make "occasional pleasure use" of the vehicle within 250 miles! It's just as vague as that. An additional bonus is that the state safety inspection is not required if registered with antique plates. .

Personal Property tax is collected by the counties, and my experience in Fairfax Co. is that it comes down to zero, it is waived for my 7 antique cars. If you have ultra expensive cars such as Duesenbergs that's a different story. In my county no sticker must be bought either.

Of course, all the above goes out the window if you want to make regular use of a car that happens to otherwise qualify for antique registration because of its age. Regular plates would be applicable in that case as would be inspections, and as previously stated, you need to contact the treasurer of the county for tax details.

Thank all of you for the great information. One car is 26 years old and the other is 50. Both vehicles are rarely driven. It sounds like the Antique plate is the way to go.

thank you very much,

Dave

Don't confuse state registration license plates with the county personal property tax, they are two different animals. As I understand it the personal property tax is based on the January issue of the NADA price guide. The website for Fairfax County gives an example of a NADA loan value of $5,000. Tax rate of $4.57 per $1,000 accessed value, or, 5,000/1,000 = 5 X $4.57 for a tax of $22.85. As the NADA value of a car goes down and the age goes up the accessed value goes down thus the tax goes down.

Don't confuse state registration license plates with the county personal property tax, they are two different animals. As I understand it the personal property tax is based on the January issue of the NADA price guide. The website for Fairfax County gives an example of a NADA loan value of $5,000. Tax rate of $4.57 per $1,000 accessed value, or, 5,000/1,000 = 5 X $4.57 for a tax of $22.85. As the NADA value of a car goes down and the age goes up the accessed value goes down thus the tax goes down.

Bob,

Thanks for the great advice. I do understand that this can change from county to county/city. I have since contacted Page County and they said the same thing that Dave H. said above. That there is no tax on a car with antique plates. A person needs to contract their local county/city gov. to find out what they do.

Dave

If Fairfax or any other county is levying personal property tax on an antique-plated car in the Commonwealth they are treading a very thin line.

It would probably have never become an issue except a few localities tried to value antique-plated cars at ridiculously high values for tax purposes. Danville City for example valued them all at #1 condition for taxing, no matter what condition the car was actually in.

It is and has been illegal for any county in Virginia to charge Personal Property Tax on a registered antique automobile and has been so since 1994 or 1995.  The bill was signed by Gov George Allen at that time.  I was personally involved in that fight along with Tom Cox and others.  In 1993 Richmond County, VA started to charge ridiculous taxes on antique cars and we went to War with them.  I was the recent Founder, and current President of the Northern Neck Region at the time.  The Northern Neck Region and Roanoke Valley Regions garnered support, together, with all the Regions who were part of the Old Dominion Meet Assn.  The Bill was introduced by the Rep from Richmond Co., and supported by Sen. Stosch.  The Chairman of the Transportation Committee lived in Roanoke and that Region got his support.  Several of us, including myself and Tom Cox and the President of the Roanoke Valley Region attended the hearing and it passed.  It was a lot of work but we got it done.  Unless the law has been changed since I moved to Florida, all you have to do is get the number of the Bill.  I don't remember the Bill number anymore.  I believe it is part of the tag law and the tag law was modified since I left, but Tom Cox was involved in that and I'm sure protected the tax provision.

THANKS for the history on it Earl.  I well remember the battle but with Tom leading the way, and support from your region and the Old Dominion Association clubs Va became one of the best states to live in and own an antique auto.  You are correct that the law prohibits localities from collecting personal property tax on antique cars at a rate greater than the state does - and that is Zero!

Terry

This thread is from 2015...

I shall add, even though it is an old thread, that in Virginia we have independent Cities (38 of them right now). i.e. a City has it's own tax department, there is no county anything if you live in an independent City. All the other cities (small c) and towns are in counties and typically  you just have county tax to pay on anything (cars, real estate. No local income tax that I am aware of here in Virginia).

This information is just for those that want to call or write a locality they are thinking of moving into.