Pesonal Property Tax? (Austin, Richardson, Muleshoe: inspection, taxi, live in)

[ArmyWife94e]

We are currently stationed in Kansas and will be moving to Texas after my husband retires from the Army in March. I am curious does Texas have personal property tax on vehicles?
We have 2010 Dodge Charger and here I have to pay a yearly tax of 368 and then the fees for the renewal of our plates. How does Texas work?

[War Beagle]

You have to get a new registration sticker each year, though I believe you can also register on a multi-year basis. You also have to get the vehicle inspected annually, though I believe the requirements vary by county. I live in county with a lot of air pollution, so part of the inspection includes emissions.

My recollection is that between the registration and inspection, I pay significantly less than $368.

[hoffdano]

The state of Texas does not have a personal property tax on vehicles. A particular county or taxing body COULD levy such a thing. But I am not aware any that do today.

We pay an annual registration fee. The fee is relatively small (well under $100).

[TheOverdog]

In Texas, you pay license and registration taxes which is pretty much the same as personal property tax as it collected by your county tax collector, plus a yearly inspection done by a registered inspection place, such as the dealership, Firestone, or other local garages.

My car is a 2005 sedan, and I pay $65 a year plus $45 a year for an inspection. If you have specialty plates (ie a different design than the standard) then you also pay a yearly fee for that. Yeah, it's much less than $300 a year.

[High_Plains_Retired]

There are only a very small handful of Texas counties that still levy a county property tax on POVs. I think most of these are in west Texas but the only one that I know for sure that still has this tax is Bailey County, Texas which levies it on POVs less than ten years old. Muleshoe is the county seat of Bailey County.

BTW, this tax is over and beyond the fees for state safety inspection and state registration.

[FalconheadWest]

Collin County (Richardson) and Travis County (Austin) have both tried to collect personal property tax on my vehicle, but I think it's because I'm self-employed. I have to fight the tax every year and get it waived.

As above, the costs are minimal. If you want a specialty plate, it's $35 a year. If you want to be able to specialize the letters too, like mine (being a Realtor, mine says BUYIN on the realtor plates from Texas Association of Realtors), then it's $70 a year, very minimal.

[ArmyWife94e]

Awesome thank you all so much for the info! We will be moving to Bell County. I am so excited to be moving to Texas.

I actually have another question, if anyone can answer it that would be great. I hope I dont sound stupid for asking this but ...
Here in Kansas we have 1 option on where we get our electricity from, I Googled electric companies for harker heights and SO many companies popped up. Am I missing something or do you choose who you want and how do you know which is best?

[War Beagle]

We have deregulated electricity here and it make the process much more convoluted than it needs to be. You have to go to Power to Choose and search through plans and rates for dozens of companies. Essentially, all you are doing is choosing a plan and who you will pay a bill to. Your company can do nothing for you in the event of an outage or non-billing related problem.

The idea was that deregulation would add competition. I like the idea of more market competition, but it doesn't work in this case because the competition only occurs at the retail level. Transmission is still a monopoly and it has to be a monopoly because it would be a disaster to have multiple transmitters. I have looked at the rates of cities that have grandfathered municipal electric and they seem to be much cheaper than the deregulated rates.

[ArmyWife94e]

Thanks war beagle, now I will have another thing to consider LOL

[War Beagle]

Yeah, it is annoying. I'm a libertarian leaning guy and even I think deregulation was nothing more than an ideological ploy.

Anyway, welcome to TX and don't hesitate to let us know if you have more questions.