Tax Type
Local Taxes
Property Tax
Description
Motor Vehicle Moved Between Jurisdictions; Nonprorated and Prorated Taxing Methods
Topic
Computation of Tax
Exemptions
Local Power to Tax
Local Taxes Discussion
Property Subject to Tax
Date Issued
10-21-1988
[Opinion - Virginia Attorney General: 1988 at 597]
REQUEST BY: Honorable Wallace A. Redford Commissioner of the Revenue for the City of Colonial Heights Municipal Building 1507 Boulevard Colonial Heights, Virginia 23834
OPINION BY: Mary Sue Terry, Attorney General
OPINION:
You ask whether a motor vehicle, which is taxed in a jurisdiction that may not, by statute, prorate personal property taxes, may be taxed by the jurisdiction to which the vehicle is moved if this latter jurisdiction has enacted a proration tax ordinance.
I. Facts
A taxpayer owned a vehicle which was located in the City of Colonial Heights on January 1. The City of Colonial Heights, which is not authorized by statute to prorate personal property taxes on motor vehicles,1 assessed and taxed the vehicle for the full year. You state that personal property taxes on the vehicle were paid in full. During the year, the taxpayer sold the vehicle, and the new owner changed the situs of the vehicle to a county which has a proration ordinance adopted pursuant to § 58.1-3516 of the Code of Virginia. The county assessed and taxed the vehicle to the new owner for the portion of the year that it was located in the proration county. You ask whether the vehicle is exempt from personal property taxation by the county in the facts you present.
II. Applicable Statute
Section 58.1-3516(A) authorizes certain jurisdictions to
provide by ordinance for the levy and collection of personal property tax on motor vehicles . . . which have acquired a situs within such locality after the tax day for the balance of the tax year. Such tax shall be prorated on a monthly basis. . . .
Such ordinance shall also provide for relief from tax and a refund of the appropriate amount of tax already paid, which shall be prorated on a monthly basis, where any motor vehicle . . . loses its situs within such locality after the tax day or after the day on which it acquires a situs (hereafter "situs day"). When any person sells or otherwise transfers title to a motor vehicle . . . with a situs in the locality after the tax day or situs day, the tax shall be relieved, prorated on a monthly basis, and the appropriate amount of tax already paid shall be refunded or credited . . . When any person, after the tax day or situs day, acquires a motor vehicle . . . with a situs in the locality, the tax shall be assessed on the motor vehicle . . . for the portion of the tax year during which the new owner owns the motor vehicle . . . and it has a situs within the locality. [Emphasis added.]
Section 58.1-3516(B) provides, in part:
Such ordinance shall provide for the filing of returns and payment of such tax. Such ordinance shall also exempt property from the levy of such personal property tax for any tax year or portion thereof during which the property was legally assessed by another jurisdiction in the Commonwealth and the tax paid. . . . [Emphasis added.]
III. Property Subject to Taxation Under § 58.1-3516(A) Exempt if Taxes Assessed and Paid in Another Jurisdiction in Commonwealth
Section 58.1-3516(A) authorizes certain jurisdictions to assess and tax a motor vehicle for the portion of the year that the vehicle is located in that jurisdiction. An exemption from this prorated personal property taxation for "any tax year or portion thereof during which the property was legally assessed by another jurisdiction in the Commonwealth and the tax paid," however, is mandated by § 58.1-3516(B). The language of the statute is unambiguous, and it is my opinion that the exemption in § 58.1-3516(B) applies to the facts you present.
This conclusion is supported by the history of § 58.1-3516. § 58-835.1, the predecessor statute to § 58.1-3516, was amended in 1983 to include language limiting the exemption to property taxed to the same owner. Prior to the recodification of Title 58 in 1984, the Virginia Code Commission, without comment, recommended the deletion of this "same owner" limitation.2 The General Assembly subsequently repealed this limitation in its recodification of Title 58.1. See Ch. 675, 1984 Va. Acts 1178, 1180. This Office cannot accomplish by interpretation what the General Assembly has declined to do by statute. See Att'y Gen. Ann. Rep.: 1986-1987 at 104, 106; 1985-1986 at 237, 238 n.1. In the facts you present, therefore, the proration jurisdiction may not tax the motor vehicle for any portion of the year in which the vehicle was legally assessed in Colonial Heights and the personal property taxes there were paid.
1 Section 58.1-3516 of the Code of Virginia authorizes cities having a population greater than 100,000, and the Cities of Fairfax, Falls Church, Franklin, Lynchburg, Poquoson and Danville to provide by ordinance for the proration of personal property taxes.
2 See 2 H. & S. Doc., Report of the Virginia Code Commission on the Revision of Title 58 of the Code of Virginia, H. Doc. No. 16, at 386-87 (1984 Sess.).
Attorney General's Opinion