Why Did I Get An Arlington County Parking Warning? What Should I Do? (Alexandria: buy, deductible)

[bmwguydc]

I would think that you have a resident who is an informant to the county, who probably thinks that your lady friend is illegally renting her parking space to a DC-registered car. Management companies are not likely to get involved with such reporting because of this issue, but a nosy neighbor is the likely culprit. Unless mandated by law, with full protection, it is a dicey business to be revealing personal information on residents and whose vehicles are registered to their unit as regular visitors. Regardless as to where the vehicle is registered, you may be subject to county tax, so do not ignore the letter, but gather evidence to prove the length of time the vehicle is garaged in Arlington. However, the way that it is written, the code is vague and refers to vehicles regularly parked overnight, which applies regardless as to registration and residence.

I had a nosy neighbor who would report people, and I knew who the person was, since she was unabashedly vigilant to the point of reporting people who had not met the threshold requiring registration of the vehicle for tax purposes. I had an encounter with her, over one of my parents' vehicles that is registered out-of-state because they temporarily left it at my house (in a garage) while they were traveling. They also have local vehicles, but had driven the car in question from New York because they were transporting a few things for one of my siblings from the family homestead. She confronted me and told me that she was a "spotter" and would be reporting the vehicle as it was "her duty," so I had the registration, EZ-Pass records, and other documentation ready for the previous twelve months and provided such to the county, along with a copy of my parents' itinerary, showing that the car in question is not regularly driven in this area, and was not intended to be permanently garaged in the county, and the issue was resolved. It was aggravating, to say the least, and people wonder why I keep my garage doors closed and have privacy glass on the windows, since I do think she had to trespass to see my parents' vehicle in the garage as it would not be in a regular sight angle to the street, even with the door open.

[bluef250]

It's called a Personal Property Tax. Each county and town in Virginia is free to assess it. And you're required to have the decal for the jurisdiction you're in if you're regularly parking there overnight.

Arlington County's website describing it is here:

https://taxes.arlingtonva.us/vehicles/vehicle-taxes/

You're going to need to pay the tax because you park in Alrington County regularly overnight. If you parked there just one night then moved on, I'm sure it's not an issue. It's frequency.

Oh, and BTW, there are some towns that have their own personal property tax IN ADDITION to the county. For example, Leesburg has their own in addition to Loudoun County--yes, you'll pay BOTH if you want to park your vehicle in Leesburg overnight on a regular basis.

[Carlingtonian]

The County's website is poorly written on this topic. It uses the term "regularly parked." The literal meaning of "regular" means happening on a predictable schedule that is not necessarily frequent. (Halley's Comet passes within view regularly!) So that parking in Arlington one night every year on the same night would qualify by that standard. That obviously wouldn't pass muster if challenged in court, so they must mean "frequently"--which is also wide open to interpretation. I have no idea where the County got this sloppy language.

Instead, we should look to the actual County code. Below is the relevant section in PDF form; the part about vehicle taxation is on page 7.

http://arlingtonva.s3.amazonaws.com/...Ordinances.pdf

It reads in part:

There shall be a personal property tax at the rate established each year by the County Board on motor vehicles, trailers, semitrailers, and boats ("taxable property") which have a situs in the County on January 1 of each year or which acquire a situs in the County on or after January 2.

To determine what can be taxed, we have to find out what legally qualifies as having established "situs."

And here we find this:
Code of Virginia § 58.1-3511 - Situs for assessment; nonresident exception; refund of tax paid to city or county; apportioned asse... :: Chapter 35 - Tangible Personal Property, Machinery and Tools and Merchants\' Capital :: Title 58.1 — TAXATI

However, the situs for purposes of assessment of motor vehicles,travel trailers, boats and airplanes as personal property shall be the county, district, town or city where the vehicle is normally garaged, docked or parked...any person domiciled in another state, whose motor vehicle is principally garaged or parked in this Commonwealth during the tax year, shall not be subject to a personal property tax on such vehicle upon a showing of sufficient evidence that such person has paid a personal property tax on the vehicle in the state in which he is domiciled.

So if the OP can show a simple receipt from the DC government showing he's already been taxed on the car there, Arlington cannot tax him on it. But even if he can't, the County has to show that the vehicles is "normally" or "principally" parked there. This is also vague. A reasonable interpretation would be more than half the time--but that doesn't necessarily mean that's the legal definition in Virginia.

But there's good news; that same section says this a few sentences later:

In the event it cannot be determined where such personal property, described herein, is normally garaged, stored or parked, the situs shall be the domicile of the owner of such personal property.

So if DC doesn't assess tax on vehicles--I can't recall if it does or not--then he simply needs to prove he has established "domicile" in DC. And this is how the state of Virginia defines a domicile:

https://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/leg...000+cod+23-7.4

"Domicile" means the present, fixed home of an individual to which he returns following temporary absences and at which he intends to stay indefinitely. No individual may have more than one domicile at a time. Domicile, once established, shall not be affected by (i) mere transient or temporary physical presence in another jurisdiction or (ii) the establishment and maintenance of a place of residence in another jurisdiction for the purpose of maintaining a joint household with an active duty United States military spouse.

[CheapPops]

Thanks Carlingtonian this is so helpful. This whole thing just irks me that we gotten to the point that the government taxes us for parking a car.

[gomason]

^wow Carlingtonian, you deserve a trophy for that post.

Originally Posted by CheapPops

Thanks Carlingtonian this is so helpful. This whole thing just irks me that we gotten to the point that the government taxes us for parking a car.

Those car taxes pay for our schools. Tax evasion is a huge problem America. If everyone in America paid what they're supposed to, we wouldn't have a deficit at all. That's about $600 billion a year.

[TheWatchmen]

I'm guessing that the OP is staying at his girlfriend's house overnight several days a week, effectively living in Arlington.

[TheEggman]

It took me almost a year of back and forth correspondence to successfully resolve a similar problem in Alexandria. The city was getting its information from its own website rather than the actual ordinances. The website said "garaged in" and the ordinance said "PRIMARILY garaged in."

Write them a real, on-paper letter explaining your "visitor" status and it should be resolved.

Good Luck!

[Carlingtonian]

Originally Posted by CheapPops

Thanks Carlingtonian this is so helpful. This whole thing just irks me that we gotten to the point that the government taxes us for parking a car.

Glad to help. If you have time, I'm sure many of us here (and forum members in the future who run into the same problem) will be curious to hear how it turns out. Good luck!

Originally Posted by gomason

Those car taxes pay for our schools. Tax evasion is a huge problem America. If everyone in America paid what they're supposed to, we wouldn't have a deficit at all. That's about $600 billion a year.

Totally with you; I expect people who actually owe taxes to pay them. But given that he's not an actual Arlington resident and is not parking his car here most of the time, I think we all agree he shouldn't be billed.

[gomason]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Totally with you; I expect people who actually owe taxes to pay them. But given that he's not an actual Arlington resident and is not parking his car here most of the time, I think we all agree he shouldn't be billed.

Yeah I wasn't saying that the OP was a tax evader. Just saying that the government has a legitimate interest to make sure people are paying their car taxes cuz the OP said "that they can't believe that the government has gotten to the point of taxing cars."

And my point is well yeah, do you have a better idea on how to fund schools? If you don't own a home and pay property tax on that, then you wouldn't contribute much at all to the local government. Sales tax and meals tax revenue is a very small source of revenue for the local government.

[CheapPops]

Originally Posted by Carlingtonian

Glad to help. If you have time, I'm sure many of us here (and forum members in the future who run into the same problem) will be curious to hear how it turns out. Good luck.

I'll keep everyone posted.