Originally Posted by
FObangah
This is a combo comment/question so bare with me:
To the best of my knowledge, here in Henrico, the AMOUNT of your taxes is a percentage of what the commonwealth assesses your car at.Rarely do they base it on the "sale amount" (which they should). There's a connection between DMV and the Depo. of Taxation (don't know the exact process) that lets the depo know that you even have/own the car at all. If the person behind you (junker,buyer,etc.) doesn't register the vehicle and you have TURNED YOUR TAGS IN TO DMV, the "gum'ment" is still under the impression that you have/own the vehicle and it doesn't have to be registered for them to STILL tax you for it.
This has happened to me before with a previously OWNED car of mine. I've NEVER had to turn in tags before when selling a car (got a collection to prove it) so I didn't think any different. DMV sent me a letter saying I needed to fork out the $500 un-insured motorist fee for the car. "SAY what? hell naw..." I bring the tags/bill of sale to DMV and tell the rep that I sold the car some time ago. She even ran the name of the guy on the bill of sale to see if we may be able to find it as an error in the titling or something. " It hasn't been registered to anyone else sir. " " I'm sorry that the guy I sold it to didn't register it but it's not my responsibility to make sure he does." After a round of stupid ass comments like ' You need to bring the title in sir" (Why would i have the title?) it's settled by a different more cooperative rep.
It gets cleared up but the state was still trying to get me for $20 for the car. Desk rep at the taxation/permit place tells me that I HAVE to pay the extra $20 or face suspension because DMV's "system" says I still own the car.... which I had settled 3 months before. I said check with DMV because "....I don't own that car, they have the tags and everything." She then says she "doesn't have a way of checking". Thats weird because she had already told me the DMV "system" showed her that i still owned the car.... and she had a phone right in front of her and wouldn't call them. Soooooo good luck to this dude with the tax problem. I guess my overall question is how does someone avoid all this again w/ a buyer that doesn't register the vehicle?
If you sell a vehicle, it is your responsibility to take the tags (registration) off of it. Someone can purchase a vehicle and have it sit for years before titling and registering it in their name (although technically its illegal to sell it to another buyer without titling it in that persons name first) so it will still show up that you were the last RO (registered owner).
I see this often. Best thing for you to do is to turn the tags in when you sell the car, even if its just one tag and you say you "lost" the other one if you want to keep a collection.