PIP Registration costs - in your state. How much for your tags/plates?

Yep, says right on the registration renewal notice that the license fee may be an income tax deduction. One thing I did notice in going over the paperwork (curiosity aroused by this discussion) is that at the time I bought the car in March 2012, I was charged an "estimated" license fee of $220, plus "registration/transfer/titling fees" of $79. The DMV didn't ask for any additional license fee, nor was any refund offered. The rate was approximately .0065% on the purchase price of the vehicle and accessories.. The renewal came in last March with the license fee portion (again, value based) at $198, so if I use the same percentage rate, they consider the value of the car to have dropped by about 10%. This works out right, as the value is supposed to go from 100% to 15% over 11 years. The DMV chart shows value of 90% for the second year. (I was in error in my earlier post when I said it drops after the first four or five years. I guess this is what the IRS refers to as a "personal property tax" as opposed to real estate taxes. Depending on who is in the governor's office, and which way the political winds are blowing, that rate fluctuates. Messing with the rate is easily noticed by the citizenry, because it is paid once a year and all at once. At one point it got up to 1.15% IIRC.
We pay sales tax on the purchase price at the time of sale, and it differs based on the county in which the vehicle is registered, which was 7.25% in Ventura County when I bought my car. OTOH, if you buy a used car from a private party, the tax is collected at the same rate, but is then called a "use tax." Go figure........

 

This "use tax" is also due on Internet purchases when the merchant does not collect sales tax. There is an item right on the state Income tax form for you to declare it. I've heard that the compliance rate is rather low.

 

I'd be curious to know if Maine and Arizona car tax portion is Federal tax deductible. Instead of actual blue book values, those states just use a generic depreciation schedule.

I would like to see Virginia move in that generic depreciation schedule direction, but I don't want us to lose the FORM 1040 tax deduction. Last time I checked, Prius depreciates more slowly than almost any other car. This is a defacto extra tax on Prius if your state uses actual blue book value.

 

Yes, Prius depreciates at a slower rate than some cars, but so I imagine does a Mercedes or Lexus, among others. But as I pointed out in my post, California depreciates the car over an eleven year period, from 100% on the purchase price down to 15% of that price. So if you cut a better deal than your neighbor for the same car, you will wind up paying less each renewal period. Hard to imagine any state using Kelly Blue Book to try to determine values for the purpose of setting license renewal fees, but then we are dealing with government entities...........

 

...AFAIK, that is (blue book) exactly what VA does except for rare cars. We even get a chance to dispute the blue book value if our car has more miles than they used, or if it is damaged. Our system (in NoVA) is 5% tax per year (2.5% under $20k) so bigger bite than CA's 1% property tax.

 

Maybe it is easier to manage with the combination of a higher tax rate ($$$ coming in) and probably fewer vehicles to register than we have here. I do know that if you go to the DMV to register a privately purchased vehicle they look at the price you are claiming to have paid if it looks to low. I got a form in the mail from them after selling a Model A Ford years ago to verify the selling price as claimed by the new owner.

 

Only in the Australian state of Victoria, all Hybrid and EV vehicles pay $500 yearly instead of the normal $600. It's Ok but still negligible compared to the American subsidies ($7500?).

 

That would be nice! my state charges extra for hybrids and plug-ins! Though we're the only ones that do that.
Hybrids no longer have USA subsidies (for a short period in 2006/7 we had up to $3150 off on Prius).
Plug_ins get up to the $7500 you mentioned, but PiP is only $2500 based on batt size...that is Federal...some states have incentives.

 

Checked up on CONNECTICUT who has wild and crazy car property taxes. A simple Honda Civic could owe $100 to $800 a year, depending on town you live in. Ironically the wealthy suburbs have lower car taxes whereas the bigger cities depend heavily on car taxes. Virginia car tax amount also depends on town tax rate but it is much more standardized, with North VA towns hit hardest. CT is hoping to change their car tax system but it is hard to change once the towns start depending on cars for property tax income.

 

Nevada, $481 for 1 year. Not good!

 

Sorry to hear. Yet another state with annual fee based on vehicle value (property tax). We did have Nevada on our list of states with property taxes on cars, so you are confirming. I like the generic depreciation curve Nevada uses though.

 

Adding Massachusetts to the list of states with annual property tax on cars, on tip from Bisco...

 

The justification from the Virginia Governor seems to be that hybrid owners do not pay their fair share of gasoline tax which supports the road infrastructure. Hence the extra $69 a year (correct amount?) is designed to replace the lost road tax revenue. What is your view of that argument?

In any case, the extra tax is clearly a disincentive to own a Prius (or any hybrid or EV) and is in stark contrast to the incentives such as car-pool lane license plates that were given to encourage hybrid ownership by previous Virginia administrations. Tis a puzzlement.

 

It makes no sense to tax hybrids. Virginia will probably repeal this fee. There is a new republican Transport commitee head (Tom Rust, Herndon) who plans to kill it. There were already some dems trying to kill it.

Mr. Rust points out we have hybrids (eg; Highlander) getting like 28 MPG paying more fees than a Corolla getting 34 MPG, due to the hardware design difference. The hybrid fee is equivalent to saying if you buy a 4-cylinder car, we tax you more. It's just stupid. I agree with you it is an unfair dis-incentive. Not to mention our car tax system in VA already slams hybrids without any need for further pain and suffering.