As everyone who lives in Virginia knows, we are one of the few states that imposes an annual tax based on the value of your automobile. Most of the tax money collected goes to the county or city in which you live. You are also required to register your vehicle with the county tax authority and pay $ 25 per year for a decal that must be displayed in the front windshield. That is, until recently. Several major Virginia jurisdictions have gotten rid of the county tax decal, including Virginia Beach, now the state’s largest jurisdiction, Fairfax County, is following suit:
The owners of almost 900,000 Fairfax County cars will get a reprieve starting this week from that dreaded Virginia ritual, acquiring the car-tax decal.
The windshield sticker is used throughout the state as evidence that car owners have paid their personal property tax. The tax will stay, but on July 1, the $25 fee to acquire and show the evidence became history.
The change was approved by the Board of Supervisors this spring. Households, on average, will save $58 a year, county officials said, and Fairfax will lose about $20 million a year in revenue.
I wouldn’t call it a “dreaded ritual”, just an annoyance and $ 25 we shouldn’t have to pay. Though I have always dreaded haveing to remove the old sticker from the windshield after its been there for a year.
In other parts of Virginia, when one jurisdiction has eliminated the decal, others have rather quickly followed suit. Hopefully, Fairfax’s move will prompt its neighbors, including Prince William County, to get with the program.
July 6th, 2006 at 1:12 pm
That really was a stupid law. When you pay the tax you get a receipt. That should be all the proof you need. but to pay $25 dollars for another proof on top of paying the tax is dumb. And now the design of cars has changed so much it is next to impossible to reach the sticker between the ectended dash and the steeply sloped windshield.
Plus there was another whole bureaucracy just to print, guard, and dispense the stickers.
Good riddance.
July 6th, 2006 at 1:48 pm
I am surprised that Fairfax did away with the fee. The cities in Hampton Roads that have gotten rid of the sticker still collect the fee. In Norfolk, the fee is tacked on to the personal property tax bill. I think Virginia Beach collects the fee with state license plate renewals.