Board Approves Extension of Tax Due Date for Vehicle Personal Property by 90 Days

During their meeting this afternoon, the Board of County Supervisors unanimously voted to extend the tax payment due date for the vehicle classification of tangible personal property by 90 days. The vehicle classification of tangible personal property includes motor vehicles for individual and business use.

Normally, the vehicle classification of the tangible personal property tax payments is due by October 5 of the calendar year. The approved extension means that the vehicle personal property tax for tax year 2023 will now be due on Jan. 3, 2024. This does not extend the business classification of the tangible personal property tax due date; business tangible personal property will continue to be due on Oct. 5, 2023.

Prince William County is required to use a nationally recognized service for vehicle assessments. The county uses JD Power (NADA), which is one of the commonly used services by other Virginia jurisdictions to assess vehicles.

The county has historically utilized a 100 percent ratio against the assessed value until last year, tax year 2022, when vehicles were assessed at 80 percent of value to mitigate the unusually high appreciation of new and used cars.  This phenomenon, largely driven by the COVID-19 supply/production chain issues and computer chip shortages across the nation, resulted in inflated car values that were deemed not reflective of true fair market value.  As the car market has begun to normalize with assessed values generally depreciating year-over-year, the county returned to utilizing a 100 percent assessment ratio for tax year 2023.

The Board recognizes that the change from 80 to 100 percent ratio of fair market value, coupled with the declining percentage of tax relief from the fixed dollar amount provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia under the Personal Property Tax Relief Act, creates a hardship for taxpayers in this high inflationary environment and as taxpayers recover from the pandemic. The Board extended the payment due date to provide temporary relief to taxpayers by providing additional time to accumulate funds for the payment.

The Board also issued two directives to staff regarding vehicle personal property assessments: one directs staff to explore other nationally recognized pricing guides as the basis for assessments, and report back to the Board on options for next tax year. The other directs staffs to examine and report back to the Board regarding levels of impact of various refunding options at 5 percent, 10 percent and 20 percent.

More information about personal property tax is available at pwcva.gov/department/tax-administration/personal-property-tax. Residents may contact the county's Taxpayer Services at [email protected] or 703-792-6710.