I hope I have this in the right forum.

We are stationed in California, have been since August 07.. have not had any of our personal property in the state of VA or in the county since then.. but we keep our VA drivers licenses, just have our California change of address. Taxes from DHs check are also to the state of VA still.

My question would be about our county taxes. Do any of you know if theres some kind of rule to help with that??

We just got a personal property tax from them for our vehicles for the year of 2008. Our cars are registered in VA with VA tags but the registrations say our California address and say MILITARY/CALIFORNIA in the garaging area or whatever.

I cant see paying taxes to a county we will probably never return to and if we do.. it will be many many years from now! It doesnt seem fair! Any help please??

So you are legal residents of VA but are currently stationed in CA? If so, then the only thing you can do is compare the laws of the two states to see if having the cars registered in one state will result in lower taxes than having them registered in the other. You may find that you are saving money by having them registered in VA.

Also, you might want to check the CA laws regarding whether dependents are required to get a CA driver's license.

since the cars are registered in VA, you owe PP taxes in VA. doesn't matter that they are physically elsewhere, they are legally part of VA.

Oh, and BTW,personal experience here: IF you should decide to go to CA. tags when the VA plates expire, be prepared to get SLAMMED. they will charge you back taxes from the date you arrived in CA, NOT when your VA tags expired.

our car was in storage in Norfolk while we lived in Japan. No tags on it, to keep insurance down to the minimum. we got stationed in San Diego after Japan. he flew out to Norfolk, picked up the car, got VA tags and drove it back to SD. a couple of months later he deployed. the VA tags expired the month before he returned from deployment. ( I do not drive, so it was sitting in our reserved spot the entire time)

In June, when he got back, we went to get CA tags( couldn't get the VA tags renewed, his DL is from NY and we had no residence in VA) now remember, we had been in CA about 14 months at this point, but had legal VA tags for 12 of those months. CA charged us for the Year we had VA tags in addition to the upcoming year. No break because he was militray and had legal tags from another state.

Their law states that ANYONE who has an address in CA, military or otherwise MUSTY get a CA DL and MUST register the vehicle in CA.

we were unpleased, to say the least.

My friend who was in the MARINES, she has TX tags and lived in CA for several years with TX tags and as far as I know, she still has TX tags and living in CA.

You are right livearmy.

OP,you need to fill a form (Nonresident Military Exemption Statement REG 5045)

Most of the states if not all,let the military keep the registration of their state of residence.Just google CA DMV and you'll find the form there or go the MV office.

Our cars are still registered to VA but in the garaging line it says MILITARY. Thanks ladies, we are fine there.. I just wanted to know about the county taxes. we also still have our VA DL and thats fine as well.

Most counties in VA have a Military exemption.. if you are stationed on a military base and the vehicle is registered military, you dont have to pay taxes in that county. BUT our home county is poor and they tax no matter what so boo.. oh well, hopefully they put the stinkin money to good use!

Between taxs and oil we are getting broke,eh?