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Old 01-02-2015, 07:31 PM
 
Location: Falls Church, VA
540 posts, read 787,496 times
Reputation: 471

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Emigrations View Post
It doesn't even have to be called a personal property tax to effectively function as one. I live in Hamilton County, IN - an affluent county near Indianapolis. Indiana bases the registration fee of vehicles off of the price and age of the vehicle - as the vehicle ages, you pay less each year. For my 2013 Hyundai Elantra, the tag itself was $266. By the time you count the fees for switching my license and title, I'm out over $300. The Elantra is no fancy vehicle. A couple with two newer SUVs could easily be out a grand a year simply registering their vehicles. A large family with several cars could easily be out $1,500-$2,000. That's absurd. We also have a 7% sales tax, middle of the road property taxes (1% of home price roughly), 3.4% state income tax, and another 1% county level income tax. Other counties have higher income taxes, with some exceeding 3%. For a deep red state, we are taxed out the wazoo in Indiana.

I used to work in Virginia and they have a personal property tax on vehicles and inspection, but I can't recall anyone at work paying close to what I do in IN. In TN, it was $31.50 out the door last year, flat fee. There is no property tax, nor county or state level tax on earned income. Florida is much the same way. I'd save $200/month in income taxes alone by moving to TN, but wages are there are so low it's more reasonable for me to stay up north, but for a retiree, wages don't matter.

To some degree, you can control your property taxes, but these matters are not always clear cut and are unique to the person.
Yeah, it is that bad in Virginia. We replaced our 2000 Mazda Protege with a 2014 Honda CRV and went from taxes/registration of $60 to over $400.
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Old 01-02-2015, 07:57 PM
 
Location: TN/NC
34,899 posts, read 31,006,838 times
Reputation: 47252
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fallout Zone View Post
Yeah, it is that bad in Virginia. We replaced our 2000 Mazda Protege with a 2014 Honda CRV and went from taxes/registration of $60 to over $400.
It was southwest VA. Everyone there is dirt poor and is driving something held together by duct tape. Still, the fact that Indiana does not have a "personal property tax" when VA does and the fees are so close is quite telling.
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Old 01-02-2015, 08:08 PM
 
Location: Purgatory
6,367 posts, read 6,233,865 times
Reputation: 9889
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoriBee62 View Post
It would be a more meaningful comparison if it were reflected as a percentage of the property's assessed value, not actual dollars paid. This is basically just showing average property values throughout the country.
Upper left. Click "percentage."
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Old 01-02-2015, 08:11 PM
 
2,645 posts, read 3,314,534 times
Reputation: 7358
Quote:
Originally Posted by Utopian Slums View Post
Upper left. Click "percentage."
Already answered that one and moved on ages ago Try to keep up.
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Old 01-02-2015, 08:59 PM
 
Location: Somewhere in America
15,479 posts, read 15,544,630 times
Reputation: 28462
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emigrations View Post
It doesn't even have to be called a personal property tax to effectively function as one. I live in Hamilton County, IN - an affluent county near Indianapolis. Indiana bases the registration fee of vehicles off of the price and age of the vehicle - as the vehicle ages, you pay less each year.
In some states, the personal property tax has nothing to do with the registration fees. They collect both! I paid both when I lived in SC. There the personal property tax decreases as the vehicle ages. At least, they cap sales tax at $300 so that is awesome when you buy a brand new vehicle. That was a nice perk.
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Old 01-02-2015, 09:29 PM
 
Location: OH>IL>CO>CT
7,482 posts, read 13,512,163 times
Reputation: 11832
Quote:
Originally Posted by ss20ts View Post
In some states, the personal property tax has nothing to do with the registration fees. They collect both! I paid both when I lived in SC. There the personal property tax decreases as the vehicle ages. At least, they cap sales tax at $300 so that is awesome when you buy a brand new vehicle. That was a nice perk.
Same/similar in CT. Property tax on car ( same mill rate as houses) declines with age/FMV of car. ( Up to $300 deduction on state income tax.) My 2008 Ford was $147 in 2014. Plus license/registration fee ( about $90 every 2 years). Full sales tax at 6.35%.

The worst thing in CT is the mill rate varies for each of the 169 towns in CT. And perversely the mill rates are higher in low assessed value towns. The same car can be 100s different one town to the next. A Jaguar in Greenwich could be taxed less than a Focus in Hartford
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Old 01-03-2015, 05:33 AM
 
11,156 posts, read 15,945,122 times
Reputation: 29822
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emigrations View Post
It doesn't even have to be called a personal property tax to effectively function as one. I live in Hamilton County, IN - an affluent county near Indianapolis. Indiana bases the registration fee of vehicles off of the price and age of the vehicle - as the vehicle ages, you pay less each year. For my 2013 Hyundai Elantra, the tag itself was $266. By the time you count the fees for switching my license and title, I'm out over $300. The Elantra is no fancy vehicle. A couple with two newer SUVs could easily be out a grand a year simply registering their vehicles. A large family with several cars could easily be out $1,500-$2,000. That's absurd. We also have a 7% sales tax, middle of the road property taxes (1% of home price roughly), 3.4% state income tax, and another 1% county level income tax. Other counties have higher income taxes, with some exceeding 3%. For a deep red state, we are taxed out the wazoo in Indiana.

I used to work in Virginia and they have a personal property tax on vehicles and inspection, but I can't recall anyone at work paying close to what I do in IN. In TN, it was $31.50 out the door last year, flat fee. There is no property tax, nor county or state level tax on earned income. Florida is much the same way. I'd save $200/month in income taxes alone by moving to TN, but wages are there are so low it's more reasonable for me to stay up north, but for a retiree, wages don't matter.

To some degree, you can control your property taxes, but these matters are not always clear cut and are unique to the person.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Fallout Zone View Post
Yeah, it is that bad in Virginia. We replaced our 2000 Mazda Protege with a 2014 Honda CRV and went from taxes/registration of $60 to over $400.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reed303 View Post
... The same car can be 100s different one town to the next. A Jaguar in Greenwich could be taxed less than a Focus in Hartford
When I got a new Jaguar in 2012, the registration fee in Nevada was $1,503. (Nevada bases their registration fee on the car's MSRP which was $85K.) The following year it was going to drop to only around $1,400, but I ended up registering it in Florida instead and saved well over $1,000. I traded that car in for a 2014 Jaguar (Once again, an MSRP of $85K) and just received my registration renewal in the mail for 2015 from the Florida DMV: $113.

Quite a difference from what it would have been in Nevada. But then again, even though neither state has income taxes, my property tax rate in Miami Beach is about double (2% vs. 1%) what they are in Las Vegas, so you can't just pick one state tax and say that that specific tax is absurd or ridiculous. You have to look at taxes overall.
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Old 01-03-2015, 05:47 AM
 
Location: Near a river
16,042 posts, read 21,924,417 times
Reputation: 15773
Quote:
Originally Posted by Emigrations View Post
Indiana bases the registration fee of vehicles off of the price and age of the vehicle - as the vehicle ages, you pay less each year. For my 2013 Hyundai Elantra, the tag itself was $266. By the time you count the fees for switching my license and title, I'm out over $300. The Elantra is no fancy vehicle. A couple with two newer SUVs could easily be out a grand a year simply registering their vehicles. A large family with several cars could easily be out $1,500-$2,000. That's absurd.
First year excise tax in Mass. on a 2014 Subaru Forester, $500, going down slightly each year over the next four years and then fixed. In Mass., 5.5% sales tax, no tax on groceries, no tax on clothing up to a certain amount. I cannot imagine paying tax on groceries, but others cannot imagine what we pay in property tax. My California sister pays less prop tax on her almost-mil-dollar home in an upscale town than I do on an old renovated farmhouse here.

It always evades me how so many good areas of the country, outside of New England, manage to pay their municipal costs and administrative salaries and pensions and build new schools and libraries all for a fraction of the cost to taxpayers of what we pay here.
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Old 01-03-2015, 08:08 AM
 
3,490 posts, read 6,078,494 times
Reputation: 5421
Excellent post. Of course, wrapping in all the data can be very difficult, but the two maps (one with dollars and one with percents) give excellent information to people that are planning to relocate, have many options available, and want to make a long time financially prudent plan.

I live in an area that is a fairly light blue in both maps. Per the map, the tax rate is .49%, but based off actual transactions and tax bills, it is about .6%, which is still extremely attractive. Low property taxes encourage home ownership and long term home ownership is one of the best wealth building machines of the middle class due to the combination of cash flow savings (cheaper than renting), forced principal reduction, appreciation, and for those that itemize, the tax deduction. Granted, people that can't commit to living in one place will throw away all those benefits if they move frequently, but for the long term situated adults that don't need to relocate for work, it is an enormous advantage to live in an area that encourages owning a nice home through lower tax rates.

PS. The low property taxes were a major incentive for me to pick this area. I don't waste my money on going out to the movies, my one vice is wanting a very nice. I don't want to see the government tax me into oblivion for choosing to put my money into a nice property.
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Old 01-03-2015, 09:02 AM
 
Location: Near a river
16,042 posts, read 21,924,417 times
Reputation: 15773
Does anyone get a FIRE TAX in addition to their property tax? This is the way my Mass. town gets around the cap on the Proposition 2 1/2. Unbelievable. So my "property tax" is actually "property tax" + "fire tax," but when you see the real estate listings for my town, you only see the "property tax" itself.
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