Tax Type
Taxes of Other Agencies
Description
Motor Vehicle Purchased by a Church
Topic
Exemptions
Local Power to Tax
Local Taxes Discussion
Property Subject to Tax
Taxability of Persons and Transactions
Date Issued
11-20-1984
[Opinion - Virginia Attorney Gereral: 1984 at 223]
REQUEST BY: Honorable S. Vance Wilkins, Jr. Member, House of Delegates
OPINION BY: Gerald L. Baliles, Attorney General
OPINION:
You have asked whether the Virginia motor vehicle sales and use tax must be paid on a motor vehicle purchased by, and to be titled in the name of, the trustees of a church diocese for use by a church official.
Chapter 12.1, Title 58 (§ 58-685.10 et seq.) of the Code of Virginia imposes a tax upon the sale price of each motor vehicle sold in Virginia. The tax is collected by the Division of Motor Vehicles at the time the purchaser applies for a title certificate for the vehicle, and it is, therefore, sometimes referred to as a "titling tax." In fact, however, it is a sales and use tax imposed by a separate chapter on motor vehicles in lieu of the retail sales and use tax which applies to virtually all other retail sales in Virginia.
Exemptions from the motor vehicles sales and use tax are listed in §§ 58-685.13 through 58-685.13:2 of the Code.1 There is nothing in any of those Code provisions which would exempt from taxation the purchase of a vehicle by a religious organization for church related activities.2
1 At its 1984 Session, the General Assembly adopted § 58-441.6(gg), which provides an exemption from the Virginia Retail Sales and Use Tax for certain purchases by religious organizations. That section is not applicable to your inquiry because the sales tax on motor vehicles is imposed under a separate chapter which pertains only to sales tax on motor vehicles.
2 The provision in § 6(a)(2) of Art. X of the Constitution of Virginia (1971) relates to exemption from ad valorem taxes and not from sales taxes.
The general rule in Virginia is that taxation is the rule and not the exception. Jefferson v. Tax Comm., 217 Va. 988, 234 S.E.2d 297 (1977). Accordingly, because there is no express exemption in the Motor Vehicles Sales and Use Tax Act for religious organizations or church related activities, I am of the opinion that the tax must be paid in the circumstances you describe, and I answer your inquiry in the affirmative.
Attorney General's Opinion