*I know a lot of you already know about personal property taxes, my wife and I have had to learn all of this stuff on our own.
Just thought I'd throw this out there as people moving to VA with a Tesla (or any expensive car) might want to know about the personal property tax situation here. In short, you must pay $ per year to own your car. The more your car is worth, the more $ you pay per year.
Currently, I'm unaware of any EV tax relief.
My wife and I just moved to Leesburg, VA from Fairfax County, VA. We are already aware of the county property tax that Virginia counties have. Each county in VA uses the Eastern Edition of NADA’s Official Used Car Guide. Specifically, the Department of Tax Administration (DTA) uses the clean trade-in value published in the January edition of the pricing guide. Anyway, each county has a % that differs from others that you must pay either bi-annually or annually. There is a tax relief so the owner pays a % of the tax up to the value of $20k and then pays 100% of the tax up to the value of the vehicle after.
We used to live in Fairfax County and not in a town or city so we've only had to pay just the county property tax there on our vehicles. Now that we moved to Leesburg, VA we not only have to pay the Loudoun County property tax, but we also have to pay a Leesburg, VA property tax... lol.
Just to recap when purchasing a vehicle here in VA:
VA Initial Sales Tax - 4.15%
County Personal Property Tax - Differs
Town Personal Property Tax - Differs
Our old location:
Fairfax County tax - 4.57%
Our new location:
Loudown County tax - 4.2% | tax relief is 60.5% on the first $20k
Leesburg, VA tax - 1% | tax relief 52% on the first $20k
For a $100,000 car in Loudoun County it would cost:
$100,000 * .042 = $4200
Relief calculation:
$20,000 * .042 = $840
$840 * .605 = $508.2
Total with relief:
$4200 - $508.2 = $3,691.80
Now to calculate same car value in Leesburg, VA:
$100,000 * .01 = $1000
Relief calculation:
$20,000 * .01 = $200
$200 * .38 = $104
Total with relief:
$1000 - $200 = $800
Now to add both taxes...
Loudoun County + Leesburg:
$3,691.80 + $800 = $4,491.80
That comes out to $374.32 per month just to pay personal property taxes on a $100k electric car. Now, I know this will go down slightly each year as the car devalues, but it's still quite a hard pill to swallow considering it's money out of your pocket. I was able to rationalize moving up to a more expensive car (Model X 75d) that doesn't have the gas costs of an ICE, but after we found out that we have to pay both the county and town personal property tax (we thought we would only have to pay the town tax), it bumps the Model X out of rationalization for us.
Just thought I'd throw this out there as people moving to VA with a Tesla (or any expensive car) might want to know about the personal property tax situation here. In short, you must pay $ per year to own your car. The more your car is worth, the more $ you pay per year.
Currently, I'm unaware of any EV tax relief.
My wife and I just moved to Leesburg, VA from Fairfax County, VA. We are already aware of the county property tax that Virginia counties have. Each county in VA uses the Eastern Edition of NADA’s Official Used Car Guide. Specifically, the Department of Tax Administration (DTA) uses the clean trade-in value published in the January edition of the pricing guide. Anyway, each county has a % that differs from others that you must pay either bi-annually or annually. There is a tax relief so the owner pays a % of the tax up to the value of $20k and then pays 100% of the tax up to the value of the vehicle after.
We used to live in Fairfax County and not in a town or city so we've only had to pay just the county property tax there on our vehicles. Now that we moved to Leesburg, VA we not only have to pay the Loudoun County property tax, but we also have to pay a Leesburg, VA property tax... lol.
Just to recap when purchasing a vehicle here in VA:
VA Initial Sales Tax - 4.15%
County Personal Property Tax - Differs
Town Personal Property Tax - Differs
Our old location:
Fairfax County tax - 4.57%
Our new location:
Loudown County tax - 4.2% | tax relief is 60.5% on the first $20k
Leesburg, VA tax - 1% | tax relief 52% on the first $20k
For a $100,000 car in Loudoun County it would cost:
$100,000 * .042 = $4200
Relief calculation:
$20,000 * .042 = $840
$840 * .605 = $508.2
Total with relief:
$4200 - $508.2 = $3,691.80
Now to calculate same car value in Leesburg, VA:
$100,000 * .01 = $1000
Relief calculation:
$20,000 * .01 = $200
$200 * .38 = $104
Total with relief:
$1000 - $200 = $800
Now to add both taxes...
Loudoun County + Leesburg:
$3,691.80 + $800 = $4,491.80
That comes out to $374.32 per month just to pay personal property taxes on a $100k electric car. Now, I know this will go down slightly each year as the car devalues, but it's still quite a hard pill to swallow considering it's money out of your pocket. I was able to rationalize moving up to a more expensive car (Model X 75d) that doesn't have the gas costs of an ICE, but after we found out that we have to pay both the county and town personal property tax (we thought we would only have to pay the town tax), it bumps the Model X out of rationalization for us.
