In Cycles Of Circular Notion
We recently received the car excise tax bills, and that had the dangerous side-effect of getting me thinking.
It also gave us the pleasure of seeing Deb’s truck drastically undervalued in an apparent mistake by the town. So sad for them. Lower tax on a 2001 than on a 1993, and barely more than on a 1988. Which is not to say I don’t consider excise, as done in Massachusetts, a relatively “good” tax, as such transfers of wealth at the point of a gun go. Since the local governments take care of the local roads, and the cars in the town presumably use those roads, it makes a modicum of sense. How weird. Kind of like the gas tax being used for financing roads and thus being vaguely palatable in its relative unobtrusiveness and logic.
Anyway, as everyone knows, the government owns all real property, and people merely have use of it. That can be taken away for failure to pay rent (taxes), or for the whim of some “public use” more important than whatever you were doing with it, like, say, merely living or operating a business there. This seems to follow logically from the days when a king was construed as owning the land in his kingdom, as a standard tenet of government, however purportedly free or respectful of property.
The first place I ever noticed the word chattels was on a show or movie in which, on winning new territory, it was announced that all your land and chattels are belong to the new king. Naturally I had to look the word up and see what was up with that, at which point I was horrified that in the olden days the sovereign owned everything.
So I was thinking that cars are chattel property. Ditto for property other than real estate used in a business. That both of those things can be taxed, and taken for failure to comply, means that the same “you don’t really own it” concept applies to, well, everything.
This leads to the conclusion that the government owns everything, whatever commercial and social lubricant fiction leads to a general perception otherwise.
Okay, so in this country, we have a “democracy,” in the form of a democratic republic. Thus we are the government and “own” the country. So we collectively own everything. Which naturally makes us communists, so who needs private property…
If you don’t mind me asking, exactly how does this excise tax work? Up here in Cow Hampshire, I pay 32 to the state (for plates) and about 70 to the city (for registration), for about 100 bucks a year—bare minimums in both cases, because my car’s old and crappy. How does that compare with Massachusetts? I’ve always boasted that you guys are worse, but I’ve never really gotten a solid answer…
J.
Posted by Jay Tea on 04/25 at 05:32 AMIt’s funny, I always assumed other states worked the same way, until I learned how vastly different California was.
First, when you buy a car you pay sales & use tax, which you have to prove you’ve done to register it, and the registry will charge you tax on an inflated book value if you don’t have the right documentation showing you paid less. That’s one time, and is to be expected, except the part about charging tax on, say, $2000 when you paid $600, if you have a transferred title but not a bill of sale.
Next, you either transfer registration from an existing vehicle, or for more money, newly register the vehicle. I am not sure what that costs, but it is extra for a new registration because you pay for the plates which in renewals and transfers you already own. A renewal is IIRC $40 every two years, paid to the registry, and can be done entirely by mail. Bill Weld totally transformed the registry and was Best Governor Ever if only for that reason. The people following him continued along those lines, so the dark days are long gone. Bill Weld rocks. He ought to be President.
Next, each year you get a safety inspecting, which costs $29, and every other year includes an emissions test. If you fail, you get a rejection sticker and have 60 days to get it fixed and go back for a free reinspection. These are done by authorized garages with the appropriate equipment, which talks to the Registry computers. They are pretty mellow about expired or missing stickers.
Finally, each year the town sends an excise tax bill. The amount they can charge was regulated by the same proposition 2 1/2 that limited real estate taxes and created the rental deduction on income taxes. This is all based not on where YOU live, but on where the CAR lives, which is why “principle place of garaging” is part of the registration info, which is shared among town, registry and insurance company. Thus when I had my Sentra parked at my sister’s in Hanson, they sent the excise bill, and I saved a lot of money on insurance because that is also based on the garaging and varies by locale.
The value they tax on, at $25 (or less) per $1000 of value, is not generally what the vehicle would sell for, and is most likely to be less. You WILL pay the Excise tax. If you don’t, they add money, and more money, and more, and it goes to a sheriff, and you can’t do business with the registry, and you risk arrest, all in fairly rapid order.
My 1988 Sentra costs IIRC $16.50 in tax. My 1993 Plymouth POS (AKA Voyager) costs $35 in tax. They are taxing the 2001 Chevy S10 at about $20 and change. None of it too onerous.
Posted by Jay on 04/25 at 10:40 AM"This seems to follow logically from the days when a king was construed as owning the land in his kingdom...”
In the strictest legal sense, in England that’s still the case: the Crown owns all land, and freeholders own only an estate in that land.
Posted by on 04/25 at 05:33 PM
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