EricK

Tax, tax and yet more tax - got a bill through for annual car "property" tax. The mill rate in my City is $.0265 and has generated a bill of $530 for a car they valued at $20,000. If I went out and bought a new car I would be seeing annual property tax bills of $1,000+!

Two questions:

a) Is this level of annual taxation on cars normal for most States in the US, or am I just unlucky where I live?

b) How do they value your car - KBB or something similar? I have read they assess your car at 70% of its value for tax purposes - however I feel they have overvalued my car if that is the case. Anything I can do about it, or there's no recourse for amending property tax valuations?

And to think people complain about road and Council tax in the UK!

tonrob

Not sure if it's a state by state thing. Our annual car tax bill is generated by our town. We bought a new Jeep 6 years ago. We noticed that the value they assigned to it dropped dramatically year-on-year. Our first bill was around $350. This year's was $30.

EricK

Its a town by town thing. The rate for cars in Stamford is $.026. I have a friend in Darien a couple of miles away who is paying $.011 mill rate.

It does go down year by year, I am not sure however how they assess used car values?

Rete

Not heard of this personal property tax in the State of New York. I know that Fairfax County in Virginia does have it. Not heard of it in New Jersey either.

fatbrit

You'd pay about that in Arizona. But it's the price of renewing your annual licensing tags rather than an individual property tax.

dinosaur

Yes - in Newtown mill rate is .02437, so it's the same ballpark. Think they use Blue Book values or similar - so it goes down year-by-year.

Just have to write it down to the cost of living....think eventually you get used to taxes being a bit less direct than they were in the UK, while, once you add them all up (at least here in CT), paying the same sort of total amount.

Tarkak9

Its a state by state thing... county and town/city.

I imagine that if its a 'property tax' then its handled by the assessor's office and that there is an appeal process etc. Check the assessors' website.

SpoogleDrummer

I pay $24 a year per car to renew my car tags. If they started charging me $500 a car we'd be walking.

fatbrit

Why?

The important factor is the taxation across all sources, not a single one. They can take from your income, property, sales tax, vehicle ownership and use, or odds and ends tacked on to utility bills. Only the full picture gives you the information about whether you need to move or not.

fatbrit

Magic little map here:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/89702927.html

scrubbedexpat099

It sort of explains why so many leave CT etc when they retire and head somewhere where they do not dip so deeply into your pockets.

TimNiceBut

I think you're unlucky - our registration cost (which is the only tax we've got to pay on the cars on an annual basis) - ranges between $35-ish and $140. Mind you, our four cars are worth about $20k together :

Bob

In MA, it's $25 tax per every $1000 in value set by the state...thing is, on second hand, the town you reside in get the money, they tend to use mint conditon KBB book price when you register it and so far do not seem to modify the value over the years.

Our car has had the same value since we bought it, it was 6 odd years old when we did, it's now 12 years old.

It's far from being in mint condition. I would love to be able to sell the car for what they think it's worth

Giantaxe

Ah, but it's a federal income tax deduction here, assuming you itemize your deductions

Bluegrass Lass

We have it in KY too.

Our '08 Civic was almost $300 the first year we renewed it, and it has gone down dramatically since then - as the value of the car goes down. I know you can lower the valuation they give on your house, but I don't know if the same goes for a car. If it's brand new, you can count on the first year being the highest amount you'll pay in taxes on it.