North Carolina Taxes? (sales, purchase, depreciation)

[84 Camaro]

I understand there is a per vehicle tax in NC paid to Dvision Of Motor Vehicles? Is that a one time fee upon moving to NC or do you have to pay that every year for each vehicle you own?

Is there also a something called a "personal tax" on what you own for residents of NC??

[NCHomeFinder]

There is a Highway Use Tax that you'll have to pay when you register your vehicle - it is 3% of the value of the car, with a maximum $150 per car. Here's the link for you to verify that:

http://www.ncdot.org/dmv/vehicle_services/registrationtitling/taxHighwayUse.html

Also, here's a link to the DOT site with a "New to NC" section:

http://www.ncdot.org/dmv/moving/

There's real property tax (on your house) and personal property tax (on your cars, boats, etc.) but not on stuff like your couch!

Of course, there's sales tax, which just dropped, and will drop (yes, that means lower!) again in July to 6.5%, except in Mecklenburg County.

http://www.dornc.com/taxes/sales/ImpNoticeTaxDecrease1106.pdf

And, last but not least, NC State Income Tax:

http://www.dornc.com/taxes/individual/rates.html

Hope that helps!
~Rebekah

[84 Camaro]

Rebeka thank you. I appreciate the links. I will check them out. I still have one question though. The personal property tax on cars, boats etc. Are you saying that is a one time tax at the time of purchase of those items?

Or is that a yearly tax that has to be claimed on personal income tax??

Thanks again.

[miamiblue]

Originally Posted by 84 Camaro

Rebeka thank you. I appreciate the links. I will check them out. I still have one question though. The personal property tax on cars, boats etc. Are you saying that is a one time tax at the time of purchase of those items?

Or is that a yearly tax that has to be claimed on personal income tax??

Thanks again.

Rebekah pretty much covered everything well, but to clarify and answer your question, the personal property tax on vehicles is a yearly tax (from my still new-to-the-state understanding). The tax is based on the value of your vehicle, so it will decline each year according to the vehicle's depreciation. I will say, that so far it looks like the state does not use fair market values because they valued my three-month old car much lower than the actual market value in the real world. This was perfectly OK with me and I am not complaining about it! I hope this helps.

[procfreq]

Yup--the vehicle tax is yearly, on each vehicle that you own. This was an unhappy surprise for us upon moving to NC, as this is not done in IL. But what can you do?

[84 Camaro]

Many thanks to NChomefinder and Miamiblue. The links were helpful. PDF format at DMV site. I understand the $150 maximum Highway usage tax per vehicle for out-of-state people moving into NC.

I can't seem to nail down the personal property tax amounts. I understand that it is based on the value of each vehicle and the amount you pay declines each year as the vehicle depreciates in value. But at DMV they use the phrase "based on value of your vehicle in a table maintained at the DMV"!!

Anyone know of any copies of this table that exist outside of the DMV? I am trying to estimate the cost I might have to pay in personal property tax. I am attempting to factor these costs into my overall relocating costs.