ad valorem auto taxes? (Cleveland: lender, insurance, luxury)

[wheretomove]

heard about this and looked into it. Tag renewal is 20 bucks. Ad Valorem tax is based on worth of your car. A 2004 expedition in woodstock is 204 per year.
I am assuming it reduces as years go by. Any imput on these and other type of taxes?

[jennydowd]

Can you be more specific as to what type of information you are looking for? What do you mean by input?

[merlin70]

What about it? Sounds normal to me. Are you thinking that is high or something?

If it is any consolation, the costs there about 20% less than Cali.

[xxman777]

I agree about these being about normal. I paid almost exactly the same in Colorado as I do in Georgia.

[pinkpalace]

Yep - Georgia rates are about half to 1/3 of what I paid in Maine. On the other hand, the most I ever paid in Idaho was $80 on a 2-yr old car.

Georgia fits nicely right in the middle.

[pjacksone]

Originally Posted by wheretomove

heard about this and looked into it. Tag renewal is 20 bucks. Ad Valorem tax is based on worth of your car. A 2004 expedition in woodstock is 204 per year.
I am assuming it reduces as years go by. Any imput on these and other type of taxes?

I'm in total agreement with the person that started this thread. I moved here from Cleveland, OH and just got my tag last weekend because I heard about this tax thing that you have to pay and it goes by the age and type of car. Me and my husband have 2005 cars and his is a luxury car. He has to pay several hundred dollars due by his birthday next year. We never had to do this in Ohio so we were totally taken aback by this. I find it unfair and it makes you feel penalized for moving to the state. They didn't even tell me how much I owed by next year, maybe it's free!!! (yeah, right). Then I found out that my car note is going up $20 a month and my husband just got his letter yesterday from his lender saying his car note is going up also, but they haven't told him by how much yet. It really sucks a co-worker got a 2005 Honda and had to pay $300 in taxes (or whatever it is). She wasn't a happy camper. She said that's why you see a lot of out of state license plates, because people are just renewing them from their home state to keep from being bent over with the tax. We knew a lady that has been here for about 7 or 8 years and still has her home state license plate. I'm also guessing that people drive their cars into the ground here because I also heard that the cost goes down with the age of the vehicle.

[Echo]

What is Ad Valorem tax ? How does it work? In NJ we pay for auto registation once a year and it is not based on value.

[JBrown]

From NJ also....it's Latin...basically it means "per value". Many states have this..it's a tax upon your car based upon the value of the car.In some arenas it's known as a luxury tax. The trick is defining luxury. It might be automobiles, could be boats etc etc.
As one post noted it also has the unintended effect of encouraging folks to drive older beat up stuff...avoid the higher fees(taxes) on a newer car. That unintended consequences thing happens alot. I'm in Florida at the moment.Unlike NJ Florida has no required motor vehicle inspection system. Result ?? You wouldn't believe the junk that's on the road down here. Car bodies rusted thru resulting in sharp jagged edges, tail pipes of blue smoke etc... People drive around in cars down here that would be impounded in NJ. go figure

[jennydowd]

Having moved here from NJ, the ad valorem tax doesn't bother me because the registration, driver's license, and auto insurance fees are so much cheaper that even with the ad valorem on a new car, I still save gobs of money.

[rcsteiner]

Originally Posted by pjacksone

I'm in total agreement with the person that started this thread. I moved here from Cleveland, OH and just got my tag last weekend because I heard about this tax thing that you have to pay and it goes by the age and type of car. Me and my husband have 2005 cars and his is a luxury car. He has to pay several hundred dollars due by his birthday next year. We never had to do this in Ohio so we were totally taken aback by this. I find it unfair and it makes you feel penalized for moving to the state.

FWIW, Minnesota used to be the same way -- the cost of the tags for each year was based on the value of the vehicle (one of the reasons some of the folks on the Wisconsin border I know used to keep their vehicles registered in Wisconsin). One of the things Governor Jesse did up there was push for a flat renewal rate for auto tags, which went into effect some years ago.

At least the newer cards are immune from having to pay for emissions testing for a couple of years.