Tax Type
Local Taxes
Property Tax
Description
Foreign Student; Personal Property Taxation of Motor Vehicle
Topic
Exemptions
Local Power to Tax
Local Taxes Discussion
Persons Subject to Tax
Property Subject to Tax
Date Issued
06-05-1984
[Opinion - Virginia Attorney General: 1984 at 388]
REQUEST BY: Honorable Sam T. Barfield Commissioner of the Revenue for the City of Norfolk
OPINION BY: Gerald L. Baliles, Attorney General
OPINION:
You have asked whether a foreign student, attending a university in Virginia, is entitled to an exemption from personal property taxation. Specifically, you present the situation wherein foreign students are attending Old Dominion University. You are currently exempting motor vehicles belonging to these students from local personal property taxation on the basis that such students should be treated in the same manner as "foreign nationals, assigned to NATO or some other foreign agency in Norfolk."
Section 58-834 of the Code of Virginia provides in pertinent part:
"The situs for the assessment and taxation of tangible personal property . . . shall in all cases be the county, district, town or city in which such property may be physically located on the tax day, except the situs for purposes of assessment of motor vehicles . . . as personal property shall be the county, district, town or city where the vehicle is normally garaged, docked or parked . . . ."
It has been well established by this Office that an automobile operated by a student during the full school year within a jurisdiction wherein he resides while attending school is reportable for personal property tax purposes to that jurisdiction. See Reports of the Attorney General: 1973-1974 at 385; 1971-1972 at 410. In such a situation, the automobiles of students have acquired a taxable situs in a particular jurisdiction because they are actually there during and, by far, for the greater part of the year. See 1967-1968 Report of the Attorney General at 275. The jurisdiction wherein a student's automobile is operated during the school year is the proper place for its assessment and taxation, as long as its presence is not so temporary that it does not acquire taxable situs. See 1971-1972 Report of the Attorney General, supra. This test applies equally to foreign students.
Furthermore, Art. X, § 6 of the Constitution of Virginia (1971) sets forth the classes and types of property which may be exempt from State and local taxation. The personal property in issue does not appear to fall within any of these exemptions.
Article VI, Clause 2 of the United States Constitution provides that federal laws and treaties are the "supreme Law of the Land . . . ." By virtue of this clause, an exemption provided by such law or treaty would supersede state law. Thus, foreign nationals who enjoy diplomatic immunity from personal property taxation do so by virtue of some internationally agreed status. For example, Article XI(2)(c) of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Status of Forces Agreement, 4 U.S. Treaties Services 1792, 1812 gives an exemption to certain foreign nationals from any tax payable with respect to vehicles owned by a member of a military force or civilian component of NATO. Similar exemptions are provided in other international agreements such as the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. I am unaware of any such treaty generally exempting foreign students from payment of property taxes as may be assessed in states where the foreign students attend college. Based on the foregoing, I am of the opinion that unless a foreign student is otherwise entitled to specified exemption, the automobile owned by the student is subject to personal property taxation.
Attorney General's Opinion