I just googled it and about half the states have it and half don’t. While I have never had to pay property tax on my car based on its value, I have had to pay registration fees every year or two
Annoying but understandable
I think I remember that in two of the three other states where I’ve lived as an adult, part of the registration bill had an ad valorem tax element that served generally the same function (and had the same federal tax treatment) as CT’s property taxes on cars.
In one of those states, the check was made out to the state. In the other of those state, I paid the county and they would have been responsible for sending any required money on to the state.
In CT, the property tax is paid to the town. The state gets none of it.
Ah. I’ve been in CA so long the registration has 2 parts, part is the annual reg fee, part is the tax based on “vehicle value” which goes down pretty quickly. But the vehicle value part was always a federal deduction when you took itemized SALT deductions on the tax return but the registration part was not.
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The feds will still share the information; it just takes longer, which is why the states ask that you include a copy of your federal return when you file the state return.
Yeah, sure, if you e-file federal and paper file state then obviously there is no automatically attaching the federal to the state. But if you use the same software for both or pay your accountant to file them for you or whatever then it might be happening automatically without you realizing it. I didn’t mean to say that it’s automatic in every case… just that it’s conceivable that someone on here has gone on for years without realizing that their federal return has been getting attached to their state return the whole time.
And please don’t go to the accountant and ask them to not include the federal copy. They can’t do that. We get VITA taxpayers asking us that all the time. They want to file the Schedule C for their business so that they can get the Earned Income Credit, but then they don’t want the state to find out about it. No, suck it up. The state is going to find out.
Does the portion that is tax appear to be for one year only?
Some states do indeed assess a tax on the value of the car. When I lived in Seattle, Washington state used to do this. Then they changed it to a flat $35 which wasn’t quite as great as it sounds for several reasons:
- It was no longer deductible on federal income taxes.
- $35 was more than poor folks driving beaters were paying, so the poor people actually paid MORE while the rich people driving nice cars paid LESS.
But I know a number of other states still have this. Kentucky, Connecticut, and Virginia are three I know of off the top of my head, but I’m pretty sure there are others.
Naw, the feds share everything with the states.
But as a general rule the information flows DOWN (fed to state to local) and does not flow UP at all. Unless you’re talking Al Capone levels of tax fraud the IRS couldn’t care less what the state or local governments have to say. I mean, they require those governments to file 1099-Gs if they give you any money that might be taxable.
But if Connecticut happens to discover that you improperly claimed the federal Earned Income Credit (which would make you automatically ineligible for the Connecticut Earned Income Credit) and they tell the feds, the feds aren’t going to listen to Connecticut… even though it means that you also owe a bunch of money to the feds. Information is like water… it doesn’t flow up, only down.
Oh, lots of states don’t have this. I mean, I’m sure all 50 states require vehicle registration, but in lots of states the expense has not one thing to do with the value of the vehicle. It doesn’t in Washington, Oregon, and Ohio… the last three states before my current one that I registered a car in. (It used to in Washington, but they got rid of that around 2000 or so.)
Not sure but I think my property tax on 2 cars was around $600 this year. The newer car is 2018 and the older is 2008.
Lol. Imma bring this up next time someone says taxes are cheaper in the US. $600 bucks. Unbelievable. I’m honestly shocked.
We had like a $60 fee annually/vehicle, attached to our license plate. They used to send a sticker out for the $60 and we’d every year on our birthday get to put the new sticker on the plate.
But, the cost of administering that process was the same as the amount of revenue derived, so they actually stopped doing this. Now there’s no registration or ‘property taxes’ on vehicles in Ontario (and a couple of other provinces as well).
Part of it i guess is the idea that our taxes were always presented as licensing fees attached to the license plate not the car. So the idea of property taxes like a house is weird.
My plate renewal was in the neighbourhood of $120/year!!! 
Huh, $31 a year where I live… can buy 1-5 years for $31 each. There’s no TVM discount but you avoid potential future price increases by pre-paying. I do it more to avoid the hassle than anything else.
But by actuarial standards I am in the Po. Which definitely has its advantages.
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That’s because you were renewing for two years there buddy.
$100/year here, plus up to $200 more for EVs, and of course a special fee if you pay with a credit card.
Kansas has entered the chat. It was $1,200 to get tags for my Tesla - plus sales tax north of 9%. Next time I’m buying a used car!
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Do you live in Northern Ontario, pal?
Yikes!
Oh where I am it’s $31 to register an ICE or hybrid but there’s a significant surcharge (maybe $200 a year???) to register an all-electric vehicle.
Still a lot less than $1,200 though!
Nobody lives in northern Ontario. Certainly not actuaries.
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Sounds like the perfect hideout for actuarian types.