If I store my boat or travel trailer at a Virginia town facility but use it mostly somewhere else, which locality gets to charge me personal property tax on it?

Plain-English summary

Several boat and trailer storage businesses in Abingdon, Virginia (Washington County) hold customers' boats and travel trailers that are then taken to nearby South Holston Lake. The lake straddles the Virginia / Tennessee line, with parts in Washington County and parts in Sullivan County, Tennessee. The Town of Abingdon's attorney asked the Virginia AG: when can the Town tax these vehicles?

Attorney General Jason Miyares walked through Virginia Code § 58.1-3511 and concluded that the question turns on a single phrase: where the vehicle is "normally garaged, docked or parked." Prior AG opinions, going back decades, have interpreted that phrase to mean a vehicle has to be located in a particular Virginia jurisdiction for six months or more during the year for that jurisdiction to be the tax situs. Where the vehicle is registered does not control.

Three rules fall out of the analysis:

1. If a boat or trailer is normally garaged, docked, or parked in Abingdon (six months plus inside Town limits), Abingdon may tax it, regardless of weight or registration.
2. If a vehicle weighing 10,000 pounds or less is normally kept at the lake on the Tennessee side but is registered in Abingdon, Abingdon may still tax it. (The registration rule is a backstop only when a light vehicle is normally located out of state.)
3. If a vehicle is neither registered in Virginia nor normally kept in the Town for six months, Abingdon has no authority to tax it.

The AG also reminded readers that whether any specific vehicle satisfies these tests is a factual question for the local commissioner of the revenue, not for the AG.

What this means for you

Boat or travel-trailer owners near the Virginia / Tennessee line

Under this opinion, the locality where your boat or trailer is "normally garaged, docked, or parked" is the tax situs, regardless of where it is registered. The AG relies on prior opinions reading that phrase to mean the vehicle is in a particular jurisdiction six months or more in a year. If the vehicle is normally kept out of state and weighs 10,000 pounds or less but is registered in a Virginia locality, that registering locality is the situs. A vehicle over 10,000 pounds that is neither normally kept in Virginia nor registered there has, on the opinion's reading, no Virginia situs at all. Whether any particular vehicle meets these tests is a factual question the opinion leaves to the local commissioner of the revenue.

Commissioners of the revenue and town tax assessors

The opinion holds that situs turns on where the vehicle is normally garaged, docked, or parked over the year, not, for vehicles normally kept in Virginia, where it is registered. For a light vehicle (10,000 pounds or less) normally kept out of state but registered in your locality, the opinion treats your locality as the situs. The AG expressly leaves the factual determination for each vehicle to the commissioner of the revenue.

Attorneys advising on assessment authority or on owners

The opinion describes itself as a synthesis of long-standing prior opinions reading § 58.1-3511, with nothing novel in the analysis. It states that the factual call for any specific vehicle belongs to the commissioner of the revenue, not the AG.

Common questions

Q: What does "normally garaged, docked, or parked" actually mean?
A: Per a long line of AG opinions cited in this one (1984-85, 1986-87, 1987-88, 1990, 2003), it means the vehicle is in a particular jurisdiction for six months or more during the year. Brief absences for use do not reset the clock.

Q: My boat sits in a Virginia marina from October to April but I trailer it to the lake all summer. Where is the tax situs?
A: That is more than six months in the marina locality, so Virginia's marina jurisdiction is the tax situs. Summer trips to the lake do not change that. The factual determination is for the local commissioner of the revenue.

Q: Does registration matter at all in Virginia?
A: For vehicles normally kept in Virginia, no. For vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less that are normally kept in another state but registered in Virginia, registration controls and the situs is the Virginia locality of registration. For vehicles over 10,000 pounds normally kept out of state, there is generally no Virginia situs at all.

Q: What if a Tennessee resident's boat is normally kept in Virginia?
A: § 58.1-3511(A) provides that "any person domiciled in another state, whose motor vehicle is principally garaged or parked in this Commonwealth during the tax year, shall not be subject to a personal property tax on such vehicle upon a showing of sufficient evidence that such person has paid a personal property tax on the vehicle in the state in which he is domiciled." So the out-of-state owner gets a credit if they are already paying personal property tax at home.

Q: Where does my vehicle's location on January 1 fit in?
A: January 1 is the tax day, the date on which the situs determination is made. But the question on January 1 is where the vehicle is normally located across the year, not where it physically sits on January 1. A boat sitting at a relative's house on New Year's Day does not change its tax situs.

Background and statutory framework

Virginia's constitution authorizes the General Assembly to provide by general law for assessment of tangible personal property at the local level (Va. Const. art. X, § 4). The General Assembly did so in § 58.1-3511, which carves out a special situs rule for motor vehicles, travel trailers, boats, and airplanes: the situs is the jurisdiction where the vehicle is "normally garaged, docked, or parked," not the jurisdiction where it sits on January 1.

The statute layers on a backstop for vehicles normally kept out of state: if the vehicle weighs 10,000 pounds or less and is registered in Virginia, the registering Virginia locality is the situs. The 10,000-pound cutoff is meaningful because trailerable boats and travel trailers commonly fall within it; over-the-road commercial trucks do not.

The AG's opinion is largely a synthesis of long-standing prior opinions interpreting § 58.1-3511. Nothing in the analysis is novel. What it does is clarify the application to a real cross-border storage scenario where customers with widely varying use patterns store at the same Virginia commercial facility. The AG declined, as is the office's standard practice, to make the factual call for any particular boat. That call belongs to the commissioner of the revenue, who can examine storage records, owner statements, and use patterns case by case.

Citations and references

Statutes and constitutional provisions:

• § 58.1-3511, Va. Code Ann. (vehicle tax situs)
• § 58.1-3515, Va. Code Ann. (January 1 tax day)
• Va. Const. art. X, § 4 (general-law assessment authority)

Cases:

• City of Richmond v. SunTrust Bank, 283 Va. 439 (2012) (express statutory authority required for local taxation)
• Diggs v. Commonwealth, 6 Va. App. 300 (1988) (plain meaning of statutory words)

Source

• Landing page: https://www.oag.state.va.us/annual-reports-opinions/official-opinions
• Original PDF: https://www.oag.state.va.us/files/Opinions/2023/23-001-Bell-issued.pdf

Original opinion text

Best-effort transcription from a scanned PDF. Minor errors may remain, the linked PDF is authoritative.

COMMONWEALTH of VIRGINIA

Office of the Attorney General
202 North Ninth Street
Richmond, Virginia 23219
804-786-2071
Fax 804-786-1991
Virginia Relay Services
800-828-1120
7-1-1

Jason S. Miyares
Attorney General

December 18, 2023

Cameron S. Bell, Esquire
Abingdon Town Attorney
c/o PennStuart
208 East Main Street
Abingdon, Virginia 24210

Dear Mr. Bell:

I am responding to your request for an official advisory opinion in accordance with § 2.2-505 of the Code of Virginia.

Issue Presented

You inquire regarding the assessment of personal property taxes of certain vehicles that are regularly, but not exclusively, stored in the Town of Abingdon. In essence, you ask under what circumstances a locality serves as the situs for the imposition of such taxes.

Background

You relate that there are several storage businesses within the Town of Abingdon, which is part of Washington County, Virginia. Customers store boats and travel trailers in these businesses' Abingdon facilities. You indicate that these vehicles, although routinely stored in Abingdon, are "primarily stored, registered and used at nearby South Holston Lake." South Holston Lake is not located within Abingdon; parts of the area are in Washington County while others are in Sullivan County, Tennessee. You advise that none of the vehicles in question are used for business purposes. Additionally, none of the vehicles are registered in Abingdon. You indicate that some confusion has arisen as to the authority of the Town to assess personal property taxes for these vehicles.

Applicable Law and Discussion

Vehicles are a form of tangible personal property that "shall be assessed for local taxation in such manner and at such times as the General Assembly may prescribe by general law." Local taxes "can only be assessed, levied and collected in the manner prescribed by express statutory authority." Section 58.1-3511 of the Code of Virginia governs your inquiry.

With respect to the issue you present, § 58.1-3511(A) establishes that "the situs for purposes of assessment of motor vehicles, travel trailers, boats and airplanes as personal property shall be the county, district, town or city where the vehicle is normally garaged, docked or parked . . . ." Prior opinions consistently have concluded that the phrase "normally garaged, docked or parked" means that the vehicle must have been located in a particular jurisdiction for six months or more during the year. When a Virginia locality thus qualifies as a tax situs, where the vehicle is registered is irrelevant. Rather, the plain language of § 58.1-3511(A) makes clear that the tax situs of a boat or travel trailer generally is the particular Virginia locality where it is "normally garaged, docked or parked."

Registration is relevant under § 58.1-3511(A) only when a vehicle is "normally garaged, docked or parked in another state" but is nonetheless registered in Virginia. The statute directs that for such "vehicles with a weight of 10,000 pounds or less[,]" the situs "shall be the locality in Virginia where registered." Accordingly, if a vehicle meets this description, it will have a tax situs in the Virginia locality in which it is registered, notwithstanding the fact that it is normally garaged, docked or parked outside the Commonwealth. Per the statute, weight only becomes a consideration when the vehicle is normally garaged outside the Commonwealth; otherwise, as described above, the locality in Virginia where the vehicle is "normally garaged, docked or parked" is the proper situs. Implicit in the statute is that a vehicle over 10,000 pounds that is neither normally garaged nor registered in Virginia will have no tax situs in any Virginia locality.

Applying these principles to your inquiry, I reach the following conclusions. First, any motor vehicle, travel trailer or boat determined to be normally garaged, docked, or parked in Abingdon is subject to personal property taxes imposed by the Town, irrespective of weight or place of registration. Next, a vehicle weighing 10,000 pounds or less but normally docked at Lake Holston in Tennessee that is registered in the Town of Abingdon also would be sited in the Town for property tax purposes. Finally, a vehicle, regardless of its weight, that is neither registered in Virginia nor normally garaged, docked, or parked in the Town for six months or more, would not have a situs within the Town for tax purposes.

Ultimately, whether a specific locality is the appropriate situs of any particular boat or travel trailer is a factual question to be determined by the commissioner of the revenue of that locality or other appropriate tax official. Attorneys General historically have declined "to render official opinions when the request involves determinations of fact rather than questions of law" or when the inquiry involves "the interpretation of a matter reserved to another entity." Consistent with this practice, I am unable to address whether a particular vehicle is taxable in any specific jurisdiction.

Conclusion

Accordingly, although the status of any particular boat or travel trailer is a fact-specific inquiry, it is my opinion that vehicles generally do not acquire a situs in a locality for local taxation purposes unless such vehicles are normally garaged, docked or parked within that locality. It is further my opinion that the place of registration is not determinative of situs unless the vehicle in question weighs 10,000 pounds or less and is normally garaged, docked or parked in another state, but registered in Virginia; the locality in which the vehicle is registered is the tax situs for vehicles meeting these conditions.

With kindest regards, I am,

Very truly yours,

Jason S. Miyares
Attorney General