Tax Type
Local Taxes
Property Tax
Description
Boat Docked In State; Imposition of Personal Property Taxes
Topic
Property Subject to Tax
Date Issued
01-19-1990
[Opinion - Virginia Attorney General: 1990 at 264]
REQUEST BY: The Honorable Stanley R. Lewis Commissioner of the Revenue for Middlesex County P.O. Box 148 Saluda, Virginia 23149
OPINION BY: Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General
OPINION:
You ask whether a Virginia locality may assess personal property taxes on a pleasure boat that is owned by a South Carolina domiciliary but that has been docked in Middlesex County continuously since 1985. You state that a South Carolina locality has notified you that the boat and all other personal property belonging to a South Carolina resident is taxable by South Carolina under its taxation statutes, and you further ask whether this fact would affect the imposition of personal property taxes on the boat in the Commonwealth.
I. Applicable Statutes
Tangible personal property is made subject to local taxation pursuant to X, § 4 of the Constitution of Virginia (1971). See also § 58.1-3500 of the Code of Virginia (statute paralleling constitutional provision.) § 58.1-3511 provides, in part, that "the situs for purposes of assessment of . . . boats . . . as personal property shall be the county, district, town or city where the vehicle is normally garaged, docked or parked."
II. Boat Owned by Domiciliary of Another State but Docked in Virginia Locality Subject to Personal Property Tax in Virginia
As quoted above, § 58.1-3511 provides that the test for imposition of a personal property tax on a boat is based on its normal location for garaging, parking or docking on January 1 of the year in which the personal property tax is imposed. See 1979-1980 Att'y Gen. Ann. Rep. 353. Prior Opinions of this Office consistently conclude that the phrase "normally garaged, docked or parked" means that the personal property being taxed must have been located in a particular jurisdiction for six months or more. See Att'y Gen. Ann. Rep.: 1987-1988 at 592, 593; 1986-1987 at 329, 330; 1979-1980, supra.
In the facts you present, the pleasure boat has been docked in a Virginia locality for several years, including 1989. It is my opinion, therefore, that this boat is subject to personal property taxation in the Virginia locality in which it has been docked. The authority to impose this tax in Virginia is not affected by the fact that a similar tax may be imposed against the same property by South Carolina or any other jurisdiction outside the Commonwealth. See 1957-1958 Att'y Gen. Ann. Rep. 274-75.1
1 Because South Carolina law does not alter the rules concerning the personal property taxation of a pleasure boat under Virginia law, I do not address the taxpayer's liability under South Carolina law. I note, however, that the due process clause of the Constitution of the United States prohibits the ad valorem taxation by the owner's domicile of tangible personal property permanently located in some other state. Union Refrigerator Transit Co. v. Kentucky, 199 U.S. 194, 202 (1905). In other words, an essential requirement to the validity of a tax is that the property be within the territorial jurisdiction of the taxing power. Id. at 204.
Attorney General's Opinion