Along with being a big fan of taxation, the state of Virginia seems to have gone out of its way to make registering new vehicles at the DMV as difficult as humanly possible. I could enter the state & become a resident, having all sorts of infectious diseases and no one would blink an eye, but the state requires that I show excessive documentation showing that my car is in tip-top shape. To become a resident, here's the list of things the Old Dominion requires of me:
1. Apply for a Virginia driver's license
2. Obtain a state vehicle inspection sticker
3. Meet Virginia's emissions inspection standards (only applies for certain counties)
4. Meet Virginia's vehicle insurance standards
5. Title my vehicle in Virginia
6. Register my vehicle & acquire license plates
7. Obtain sticker or decal from my locality
Now this may seem like a pretty standard list of things to do when moving to a new state, but in order to do these things, I must first prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that I am who I say I am, that I am a new Virginia resident, that I am gainfully employed, that my car legally belongs to me, and that my car is properly insured. To do this, I need the following:
1. Proof of identity - requires 2 forms of identification; however, if these 2 are issued by the same government body, then additional id will be required.
2. Proof of legal presence - must have my full legal name & date of birth printed on them (like my birth certificate & passport).
3. Proof of Virginia residency - must present at least 1 document to prove that I live here.
4. Proof of Social Security number
5. Proof of name change (if applicable)
They're very strict about this documentation issue. The Harrisonburg city site even suggests taking more than the required amount of documentation just in case. Titling my vehicle takes even more documentation. This requires proof of address, my previous title, my current out-of-state registration, and proof of the purchase price. Ugh.
The other thing that drives me nuts are the fees. In addition to the normal fees for getting my drivers license ($20 for 5 years), registering my vehicle ($29.50), and getting my license plates, I have to pay for the state inspection ($15) and a vehicle sales & use tax of 3% of the purchase price (a minimum of $35). The thing that blows my mind is that they're going to have me pay a sales tax on a car I purchased 4 1/2 years ago in another state. Completely ridiculous.
6 comments:
This is kind of funny. I had to do all those things in both Idaho and Montana. And in Montana, there's no sales tax, so they screw you when you do things like register your car. Mine was over $200 when I first moved here and is more than $100 every year just to get the new sticker. Welcome to grownup land! :)
You had to do ALL of that in Idaho and Montana? Dude, i didn't even have to do all of that in Cali - I just had to wait in line for 2+ hours...
I don't remember having to pay all the little fees, but I did have to have all that documentation. In Montana, I needed more than I expected and had to leave and come back with more. Ugh.
And, you guys probably had to do this, too, but because both times I moved I still was paying for my car, I had to transfer the title every time, which was also fun.
i did some more poking around the virginia dmv website & the virginia state code & found a little line of code that says cars purchased over a year ago that have already had sales tax paid on them in another state are exempt from the 3.5% sales tax. whew.
I don't suppose the Virginia DMV would have clued you in on that exemption. Good thing you researched that.
I can't sympathize with you on the tax - Nebraska gets me for a few hundred every year because vehicles are taxed as "personal property"...dang me for buying a new car!
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