Best and Worst State Taxes for Hybrids

Don't ask Lauren - You know that registration fees for all cars have gone up as of 7/1/2013 with the new transportation funding bill. That included the $64/yr hybrid fee between July 1 2013 and July 1 2014 (now cancelled). So some of us here pre-registered our Prii 3-yrs in advance at the old rates before July 1, 2013. So I paid like $110 to register for 3 yrs out to 2016, but you can't equal that now. I also registered my minivan 2-yrs in advance. But fees have gone up since then. The good news is the extra hybrid fee is now dead.

BTW welcome to PriusChat! If you see a white Prius from NoVA registered out to 2016 with a shark fin antenna from the PriusChat store...it's probably me.

PS- Don't forget the Va. $64/yr Hybrid Fee is cancelled as of July 1, 2014 so don't pay that if you don't have to

 

Maryland nows gives nice sales tax exemption for Plug_ins only (no hybrids) based on batt size if goes from $550 for PiP and up to I think $3000 for a Leaf (but don't quote me except for $550 PiP). MD has 6% sales tax so not bad tax bite.

But yes Virginia there is still a helluva Property Tax on cars espeically in NoVA (5% per year with some relief below $20k value). What happened Troy if you recall, the Virginia car tax was so unpopular, that it was eliminated in 2000. But in 2002 Gov. Warner re-instituted the car tax with a gradual phase-in. Now its pretty much bad as ever in North VA.

I am an activist for change as I feel $5000 VA car tax on a PiP vs. $1000 in MD kills a lot of interest in green cars in VA. I am just saying we should go to a formula more like Maine where they charge ~15% total car taxes with a less punitive hit on expensive cars (VA system progressive, by accident when they phased it back in, the value below $20k was tax reduced).

 

I agree or top it at 10% total tax.
About 20 states have car property tax, so it's not unsual. But a lot of states it's lower (eg; CA) it is more like 1% so its not so bad.

The states with really high car property tax include ME, VA, AZ, CT. Property tax is a local tax so some states (VA, CT) how bad it is depends on what area you live in. Hartford, CT notoriusly has the worst car tax, although I think some NoVA locations are even worse now depending on vehicle you're looking at.

 

Correct, and it is called "property tax" and it is based on the blue book value. It is not necessarily dumb, I can understand the possible benefit of expanding the tax base. But when you get to 20% tax on a new car (over 10 years), that's dumb....hurts our economy. However, the town governments will fight rather than switch to better system.

Also some states don't call it "property tax" but that's what it is, if it is based on car value each year, and if it is tax deductible on FORM 1040 Schedule A. CA calls it LVT? (dang-it I always forget what CA calls it).

 

...around 20 states do tax cars as property tax.

I would like to see VA change to a system more like Maine.
VA we have progressive tax so the more expensive the car (eg; hybrids), the bigger the tax hit
VA also uses blue book values each year, which means (1) cars with low depreciation (eg; Prius) get hit harder and (2) use of blue book value means it is impossible to calculate future overall tax on your car.

My thing is: OK tax me, but tell me how much? In VA no one knows how much it adds up to.
Instead, Maine uses a flat declining percent each year. So you can say OK its 14% over 10 years (includes 5% sales tax).