Arlington County strikes again
Living a commuter life between two different states is not easy, and involves a lot of attention to detail. I have been very careful to follow all the rules in keeping my legal domicile in Michigan while working in Virginia. This has meant a complicated tax situation, including paying the trolls at the People's Republic of Arlington for annual personal property taxes on my car. And now life has just gotten more interesting. The County of Arlington has an ordinance that allows it to fine vehicle owners $100 per year if their car is not properly licensed. Recently, they have decided to interpret that as meaning that any car with out of state plates is not properly licensed, and thus must pay the fine with their annual property taxes. Basically it's a tax on all of the commuters from out of state. So much for equal protection under the law. I'm sure a Federal Court would find Arlington's stance unconstitutional, but it would cost far more than a hundred dollars to challenge it.
Of course, because I am a Michigan resident, Michigan law requires me to have my car registered in the State of Michigan. If I were to register my car in Virginia as a non-resident in order to get Virginia plates, I would be committing a misdemeanor the second I drove back home. As I have no desire to abandon my home in Michigan and establish a domicile in Virginia, it looks like I will be stuck paying the folks in Arlington another $100 per year.
Of course, because I am a Michigan resident, Michigan law requires me to have my car registered in the State of Michigan. If I were to register my car in Virginia as a non-resident in order to get Virginia plates, I would be committing a misdemeanor the second I drove back home. As I have no desire to abandon my home in Michigan and establish a domicile in Virginia, it looks like I will be stuck paying the folks in Arlington another $100 per year.
posted by David at 5/12/2008 08:41:00 PM
2 Comments:
Your rant holds little weight. First, the only sound justification for a personal property tax on an automobile is to pay for the expensive road repairs and upgrades necessary to support the automobiles that routinely use the jurisdiction's roads. If you spend the majority of your time in Arlington *regardless of what place you call your legal residence* then it is to Arlington that you should be paying a property tax: that is where your property resides most of the time and that is where your property contributes to the wear and tear of the roads as well as forcing the county to upgrade their road system. Should that not be the case and you spend the majority of your time in Michigan, then yes, you should pay such taxes there. However, to simply keep and proclaim your cherished Michigan residency as a way to dodge taxes and fees in Arlington is a deceit and does, as a whole, harm Arlington.
As a long-time resident of Arlington I have fumed for ages at the vast number of "in-fact" residents who maintain out-of-state licenses for their vehicles in order to avoid local taxes. The argument that one technically remains a resident of a home state or other non-local jurisdiction is almost always their excuse; yet in truth, rarely do these people actually spend much time in such places. They maintain a 24/7 domicile in Arlington, they work full-time in Arlington, they go to school in Arlington, etc. In effect, they are simply exploiting Arlington and its roads without paying their fair share to support the benefits they gain.
If you can demonstrate to Arlington that you (or more precisely, your car) is kept and used far more often per year outside of Arlington than within its boundaries I would wager that you could gain an exemption or waiver. However, I'd bet that you are simply another of the scofflaws that like to irrelevently claim that their emotional and "on-paper" attachment to another jurisdiction should shield them from paying their fair share of Arlington's infrastructure burden. Hogwash. If you are going to benefit from the numerous positives of residing in Arlington and using your car on its roads the majority of the year you are morally, ethically, and yes, properly *legally* obliged to pay for that privilege.
You may be surprised to learn that I do pay taxes in Arlington. Arlington County requires owners of out-of-state cars that are garaged in Arlington to pay the annual Personal Property Tax, and each year, I dutifully do so. My car has the nice little decal sitting in the middle of the windshield. I also pay Virginia income taxes as well, in addition to my Michigan income taxes. So I am paying all of the taxes that you do, in addition to the taxes of my home state. So I am more than supporting my share of Arlington's infrastructure.
What I objected to was Arlington County improper use of an ordinance. Arlington County has an ordinance that allows them to charge fees for vehicles on county streets that are missing plates, have expired plates, etc. Arlington County claimed that under this ordinance, properly licensed out-of-state cars are not properly licensed. They sent me the notice because my car is registered with the Arlington tax office with Michigan plates. Further, they only sent this notice to all out-of-state individuals who were properly paying Arlington County Personal Property Tax.
So given that I pay Arlington and Virginia taxes on top of my Michigan taxes, perhaps you can see why I would object to Arlington's attempt to illegally grab some more revenue under the guise that out-of-state cars are equivalent to a broken down car sitting on county streets.
As it turns out, the Code of the Commonwealth of Virginia has a provision that says that out-of-state vehicles are properly licensed in Virginia, provided that they are not here for more than six months at a time. Once I quoted the statute to the Arlington County tax office, they made a note in my file and went away.
Yes, there are out-of-state individuals who don't pay their share of taxes. But there are plenty of individuals from other states who spend time here, and not only pay taxes at home, but pay the full tax burden of Arlington and Virginia. And given that these people are not here full time, but they have to pay the taxes of a full-time resident, they are picking up more than their fair share of the tax burden.
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