> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. wheel tax in Wausau? (john wagnitz)
> 2. Re: wheel tax in Wausau? (Arthur Ross)
Arthur wrote:
[snip]
>form) bottom of instructions page, instruction 11. Growing up in
>Massachusetts, we had an annual "excise tax" on cars. You = paid an
>annual tax based on the value of your vehicle, as set by the DMV.
A number of other states (including our neighbours in Minnesota and Michigan) also
treat their vehicle registration fees as what is essentially a personal property tax.
If you own a new car or a particularly excessive one, you pay accordingly.
How that valuation is done, however, can make a difference in whether the tax is as
fair as it would appear on the surface. When my brother lived in NoVa, where the
motor vehicle registration is done according to vehicle value, he was driving a rather
older and not especially expensive car. Nonetheless, his registration cost was, in
his opinion anyway (I don't know what the amount was) quite high. His comment on it
was that "if the state really thinks it's worth that much, I'd be happy to sell it to
them for that price." (Well, okay, actually Commonwealth, not State.)
[Of course, it's all a matter of perspective. When I moved to Wisconsin, I thought
the vehicle registation fee here, then $40, was high. The fee was little more than it
was in NYS (based on vehcle weight), except that NYS had a two year registration, and
I paid almost as much in Wisconsin **EVERY** year.]
I believe that Iowa also has a registration fee based on value, but it is fairer at
the lower end of the scale because after a certain vehicle age it becomes a flat rate
($35 if I recall correctly from research of several months ago), so it doesn't unduly
overtax poor/mod.inc. residents (or others who drive older cars) as was apparently the
case in Virginia. I think the scale in Minnesota also goes to a minimum rate with
age as well.
Now go have a lunch!
Now go have a beer,
Bob Paolino
"A proof is a proof. What kind of a proof? It's a proof. A proof is a
proof. And when you have a good proof, it's because it's proven."
--Jean Chr�tien
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