Virginia Tire Tax: Fill & Download for Free

I’d say that I didn’t cheat them, but more that they cheated themselves.Last July, I bought a new Chevrolet SS (see David Fulton-Howard's answer to What is your dream daily driver car?). Usually there’s a lot of room for negotiation on Chevys, but the SS was a limited-production car and most dealers in the country only got one or two to sell, and a lot of dealers wouldn’t come down below the “internet price” (which was often no more than $1000 off MSRP). GM did run a 20% off deal on them occasionally, but I had missed the last one and it wasn’t looking like they were going to do another any time soon.After visiting three dealers in Maryland who were unwilling to negotiate below “internet price,” I decided to drive down to Northern Virginia to see if a dealer down there was willing to cut me a deal. They didn’t have the color I wanted, but they had my second choice, and that car was a manual (a prerequisite for me, and somewhat difficult to find, as only around 10% of the 4000 SSes produced for 2017 had one). I walked into this dealer, and the salesman was willing to drop the price to invoice minus my educator’s discount. Then they tried to tack on freight, and I negotiated half off of that. They valued my trade (their offer was a bit low, in my opinion, but it needed new tires and I didn’t want to deal with trying to sell it private-party) and it was off to the finance office.Of course, the finance guy tried to get me to buy the extended warranty and the wheel coverage and the super deluxe paint protection and all of that, and I declined it all. I had financing from my credit union, and they tried but were unable to beat the rate I had. So they typed up the contract and gave it to me to sign. I eyeballed it and it looked like they weren’t tacking on anything I didn’t agree to, so I signed it.A couple of days later, I pulled out the contract to look up something for planning out my financing payments or somesuch, and I noticed that the tax looked a little low. Turns out that Virginia vehicle sales tax is only 4.1%, because they charge yearly personal property tax on cars. Maryland vehicle sales tax is 6%, just like the sales tax for everything else you buy in Maryland. Despite knowing I resided in Maryland and they would have to pay Maryland sales tax when they registered the vehicle for me, the finance guy had put down 4.1% Virginia sales tax on the contract. The savings of 1.9% of the purchase price was over $1000!I then looked more closely at the rest of the contract, and discovered that they had charged Virginia rates for title and tags, too. That was an additional ~$100 savings compared to Maryland rates.The car still had the temp tags on, and I thought for sure they were going to try to collect the extra tax and fees when I went back for the permanent tags. I was all ready to have to make a fuss to get the tags without paying $1100. My fears were overblown. I walked in, signed out the tags, and walked out five minutes later, with no drama.

I didn’t know this before I moved to Virginia, but the state has a $64 annual surcharge to register an electric vehicle (several states have such fees, up to $200). This pretty closely offsets how much the average driver would pay in gasoline tax driving a gas car.Tesla cars all go pretty fast (mine up to 140 mph) and so you need tires rated for that speed and such tires are more expensive.I was going to cite additional travel time and distance to reach a Tesla service center, but Tesla is advancing its Mobile Service. My Model S was recalled for under-spec brake calipers. It was about 90 miles to the service center, but I didn’t have to go there. A technician came to my house to replace the calipers. I live near Charlottesville, Virginia now and the Tesla Mobile Service technician apparently lives within walking distance of my house—I see the van parked in the evenings when I go walking. The service center is about 50 miles away.[Update] There is one hidden cost, not specifically about Tesla, but about a premium car like Tesla, and that is repair costs. Two large rocks hit my windshield and put a couple of very large cracks in it, so that I had to replace the windshield. The only place what would fix it that I could find was the Tesla service center. While you can get a Toyota windshield fixed for $200–$300, getting mine replaced with the Autopilot cameras reattached and calibrated cost $1024.

There’s a lot of ways to go on this one - as one person has already noted, George III was not the leading force in the various acts that fueled the American Revolution (by which I mean the political movement, not the American Revolutionary War that was a subset of the above). It was the British Parliament that passed the various taxation acts to which the nascent revolutionaries objected. But I think the best question to ask is whether or not anything the British did, past a certain point, could have avoided the formation of the United States.Let’s look at the actual events. From 1756 - 1763, the United Kingdom engaged in the first true global war - the Seven Years War (known in the United States as the French and Indian War) against the Kingdom of France. This war involved theatres of battle as far-flung as Poland, as modern-day Ohio, as India, as Senegal. This war was provoked by the clash of French and British colonial expansion in what is now Pennsylvania, and quickly accelerated into the largest war the world had ever seen in terms of material and money. Although ultimately successful, British gains in the Seven Years War were not lucrative. The colony of Quebec was the largest British gain - giving them a large and hostile population of Francophones to rule in a place with minimal economic gain. Some small Caribbean islands were also included in the transfer, and from Spain the British received the swampy and disease ridden peninsula of Florida. France was able to keep its extensive Caribbean possessions, specifically Haiti, that brought in crazy money from sugar; Spain kept Mexico and its other gold-producing colonies. Quite frankly, Britain needed more money, and it only seemed fair to Parliament that the area that had required protection pay for it.The original taxes passed were not severe - they did not cripple large sections of the American economy as the Molasses Act did in 1733, for example - but it coincided with the growing belief in the United States that it was unfair for England to expect to collect taxes from the colonies - colonies full of English citizens, it should be noted - without representation in Parliament. Quite a few names you’ll recognize wished no more than to elect their own members of Parliament in the early years of the Revolution, led by none other than Benjamin Franklin. Indeed, Franklin’s arguments caused several contentious acts to be repealed rather than enforced, though the situation grew more dire with every subsequent act.One of the reasons the situation got more intense was because there was a segment of the American population that was incredibly opposed to all attempts at taxation. This group, run out of Boston, was called the Sons of Liberty. Although regarded as heroes in the modern day, I suspect their tactics would raise some eyebrows. They organized boycotts, yes, and spread pamphlets; they also burned buildings and looted houses to those whom they opposed. The question that Franklin was able to pose to Parliament changed from “Is it fair to tax us without representation?”, to “Are you willing to send an army to the colonies to enforce this tax?” With each escalation; each new tax and each new act of violence (there’s a word that describes it better, but you can come up with it on your own. Hint, it starts with the letter T), the cycle continued.I am somewhat over-simplifying the role of the Sons of Liberty as a group. It became more of a nom de guerre for those who wished to perform violence against the Crown as time went on, and less of an organized group as it had originally been in 1765, but the process of taxation followed by violence increased over time. When the British seized John Hancock’s ship Liberty for smuggling against the Townshend Acts, there was a riot. In response, the British re-instituted the Treason Acts, which led to the Boston Massacre. After the Massacre (and subsequent trial, in which John Adams got the soldiers off most charges), the British rescinded, again, all taxes, save one on tea.The story of escalation followed by de-escalation continued, as Samuel Adams, yes, the beer guy, among others pushed for further action. This led to the burning of a British warship, which understandably upset the British side further. The British began discussing counters; these letters were leaked by Franklin, who was tired of the cycle and was clearly emphasizing more with the revolutionary side of things. This was then used as a pretext for further violence.At this point, most of us should know the rest of the story - the Intolerable Acts were passed, Boston especially got pissed off, the British sent soldiers, the Americans sent minutemen, and at Lexington the second true global war began - the American Revolutionary War. Something else happened around the same time, though - the First Continental Congress was formed, and there we can see the truth of the matter: there were a core of brilliant, charismatic men who were truly dedicated to a permanent break with the United Kingdom. Men like Samuel Adams and his cousin John; a fellow like Patrick Henry of Virginia; someone like Roger Sherman, who is the only signatory of all four of the primary founding documents of the United States. Their own words show their goals:“If you, or Colonel Dalrymple under you, have the power to remove one regiment you have the power to remove both. It is at your peril if you refuse. The meeting is composed of three thousand people. They have become impatient. A thousand men are already arrived from the neighborhood, and the whole country is in motion. Night is approaching. An immediate answer is expected. Both regiments or none!” - Samuel Adams, Address to Governor Thomas Hutchinson following the Boston Massacre, March 6, 1770, seeming to invite a conflict.“The virtuous asserter of the rights of mankind merits a reward, which even a want of success in his endeavors to save his country, the heaviest misfortune which can befall a genuine patriot, cannot entirely prevent him from receiving. I have the most animating confidence that the present noble struggle for liberty will terminate gloriously for America.” - John Hancock, Boston Massacre Oration, March 5, 1774, placing the struggle for American rights as the utmost cause.“Opposition, nay, open, avowed resistance by arms, against usurpation and lawless violence, is not rebellion by the law of God or the land. Resistance to lawful authority makes rebellion. … Remember the frank Veteran acknowledges, that "the word rebel is a convertible term." - John Adams in Novanglus Essays No. 5, arguing that fighting a supposed tyrant is a virtue - and indeed, the old adage that the term “rebel” depends on the point of view.“It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, peace! But there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!” - Patrick Henry to the Second Virginia Convention, 23 March, 1775.All of these men were writing or speaking before Lexington and Concord, and progressively preparing and encouraging what would become the American people towards an armed insurrection against their British overlords and forebears. These voices were influential, and there are more - many more. They convinced enough of the colonists to move towards revolutionary independence, rather than taking a softer approach as other colonial nations did. To the adherents of American Revolutionary thought, it was completely untenable for the British to quarter troops and levy taxes upon the Colonies without representation, and eventually, at all; for the British, it was completely untenable for the colonies to have such say or to go lawless. The two were at complete and total odds.The American Revolutionaries wished the war to come; they used violence as well as cajolery to push the British into more untenable positions; each one another nail in the coffin that was peaceable relations. This is why there is no chance that a more lenient crown might have offered a more peaceful resolution - there were factions in the Thirteen Colonies that absolutely desired a violent end to British rule in the same lands, fueled on by the political change known as the American Revolution, possibly the most important political movement in Western history. In American common parlance, the Patriots were men cornered by an evil tyranny, but in reality, they were far more complex. They were men who believed they had a better way of doing things. That they could form - to steal a phrase from a later American patriot you might have heard of - a more perfect union than the British had. And that is why the war was inevitable - that is why the formation of the United States had become a near certainty.