Why do I have to pay tax on my car again to register it (sales)

[living20057]

I don't understand why I have to pay tax on my car to register it. I already paid tax on the car when I purchased. Now I moved here so why does VA need another $800 in tax just to register it.

[CaliTerp07]

Every state and locality gets their taxes in some manor. Some states have high income tax, some have high sales tax, others have high property taxes. Virginia chooses to enact a personal property tax to get some of their revenue.

[United_Caps_Skins_Fan]

There are already threads on here about this. Here is one of them. I disagree with the original poster of this thread, and do not advocate what they apparently 'intended' to do. If you try to avoid the car tax, you WILL get caught eventually, then you will end up paying alot more in fines and court costs than you would have initially paid in just paying the car tax up front.

Here is the link to the thread. Enjoy the read:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/north...g-car-tax.html

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by living20057

I don't understand why I have to pay tax on my car to register it. I already paid tax on the car when I purchased. Now I moved here so why does VA need another $800 in tax just to register it.

The OP is not talking about the personal property tax. He's referring to the 3 sales and use tax on the purchase of automobiles which goes to the state, not to the county. If you already paid tax on the car out of state you don't need to pay it when you first title it in VA:

Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles