cost of taxes on car

(repost)

You will pay a Road Tax, which is $0.16 per pound, based on the weight of the vehicle that is printed on the car title (not the feight bill of lading, which is often different). They take cash, money orders and cashier's checks only. Getting this receipt is one of the most important pieces of paper you will need. 🙂

You will also pay an excise tax on 4%, which is based on the value of the car. The excise tax office used the value of the car we declared on the bill of lading for insurance purposes, which was the blue book value we looked up on the net at http://www.kbb.com/ Again, you pay this with cash, money order or cashier's check only. The excise tax office here on STX is at the container port, so that helped us cut down on stops.

Registering the car will cost between $31-$94, based again on the value of the car, plus $10 for the inspection fee (required every year) and $12 to get your title reissued from the USVI. The DMV on STX accepted cash, money order, cashier's check, plus Visa and Mastercard. Remember: you also need to get a $5 permit to move your car from the dock to the DMV inspection/registration station. (Cash only.)

Insurance costs were a shock -- we are paying as much for one car here (a 2002 Saturn SC!) as we did in VA for that car plus another 1999 Saturn, and we have higher deductibles here, plus no discount for good driving history or driving limited miles per year. It's running us about $1200 a year for that one car. FYI - you will also need to to make an extra stop to pay $5 to get a traffic history record from the police department/public safety office for each driver to be insured before you can get your auto policy. It does pay to shop around. We we not offered payment options -- the entire premium for the year was due in cash, money order, personal check (local bank only), or cashier's check. Other agencies may offer payment plans and/or accept credit cards.

Other advice based on our experience (read: things we wish we'd known):

--Call the shipping company often to ask when your car will arrive/if it has arrived. You only get five days storage from the Port Authority for free -- after that, they start charging you storage fees for every day, including weekends and holidays when you can't go get your vehicle. These storage fees are STEEP. We were told our car would arrive on the 22, but it actually arrived on the 15th. The shipping company lost our contact info, so we didn't know our car made it to STX until we called after the five day grace period had expired.

--Take photos of your car inside and out before shipping. That way you have a record of its original condition in case any damages that occur in transit. While we had no exterior damage, someone did put out a cigarette out in our cupholder and there is grease on the diver's seat upholstry, floor mat, and door that will be hard to get out. We filed a damage report, but wish we had photos of the before condition to help back us up.

--We know you've head this before, but it bears saying again and again: The process for getting all of this done is LONG and involves a lot of steps and details! Go into it knowing you will make a lot of stops and phone calls (including backtracking your own route a couple of times), and will spend a lot of time waiting. We suggest mapping out where the various tax offices, insurance agent, public safety office, and port authority/shipping company offices are and compare it to which forms need to be picked up and in what order. We probably spent two full 8 hour days or more getting all this done. Even though it was arduous, everyone we had to deal with was pleasant and helpful, including Macho, the local vehicle inspector (he even refilled my water bottle so I could take my medication while we were waiting) and the ladies at the police station where we got our traffic records. Remembering to say Good morning and how are you today before jumping into the business at hand/what you need will go far to getting a warm and helpful response from just about everyone.

Good luck -- I'm sure things will work out fine for you!

HipCrip

Since we have a lien on one of our cars we have to have proof of insurance before we get to STX. I called around for quotes. I was amazed at the high cost of insurance too. I got good service from Pearl and Bea at Golden Grove Insurance. They were slightly less expensive and very willing to work with me in getting all the paperwork I needed. They have payment plans as well.
Good luck!