Jefferson County drivers shouldn’t suffer too much sticker shock when they receive their personal property tax bills next month.
Assessor Bob Boyer said there have been reports from surrounding counties that because of skyrocketing prices on both new and used vehicles, residents will see spikes in personal property tax bills.
However, that won’t happen here, he said.
“Under state law, county assessors use the October trade-in values published in the National Automobile Dealers Association guide or a successor publication, which is now J.D. Power,” Boyer said. “That’s the recommended guide to assign valuations to vehicles.
“We were made aware that last year, the values on vehicles, particularly on SUVs and trucks were spiking, up 30 to 40 percent in some cases.”
Boyer said he believes supply chain issues, particularly automakers having trouble obtaining computer chips, led to a scarcity of new vehicles, which in turn drove up the cost of used vehicles.
“Then you combine that lack of supply with money being dumped into the economy through the stimulus money, and it’s not hard to predict what happens when you have high demand with short supply,” he said. “COVID-19 caused a lot of problems.”
Boyer said it’s best for all concerned – those who pay the taxes as well as the school districts, first responder districts and others – when taxes are predictable and don’t have dramatic rises or falls year-to-year.
“A school district may be OK with a big increase in taxes one year, but these things usually are cyclical, and the next year, they might be scrambling when tax receipts are far less,” he said.
Boyer said he was expecting the Missouri General Assembly to step in with a solution.
“But we know what happened in Jefferson City, particularly in the Senate,” he said. “Nothing much got done.”
Boyer said the State Tax Commission also offered no guidance, so he decided it would be best to hold vehicle values at the same rate as they were last year.
“That’s why you shouldn’t see your tax bill go up a lot this year,” he said.
The personal property tax bills that will be mailed out the week of Nov. 14 and must be paid by Dec. 31 reflect the value of vehicles that each taxpayer owned on Jan. 1 of this year. Any vehicle bought during 2022 will need to be added to the tax rolls for 2023 when Boyer’s office sends out property declaration forms after the first of the year.
Boyer said he expects that cost of vehicles to stabilize or go down and that change of value will be reflected in future tax years.
He said the decision to hold the vehicle values the same as they were last year is a one-time-only fix.
“If you keep doing that, you’re not allowing the normal depreciation of vehicles, which ends up to be an unfair tax itself,” Boyer said.
He said according to legal counsel from the Missouri State Assessors Association, the term “recommended guide of information” in the state law does not mandate assessors use the October trade-in value if the assessor feels it’s not a true reflection of the market value.
“I felt it necessary to take a ‘wait-and-see’ approach for the volatile used car market and hold values the same as 2021,” Boyer said. “We will review the market and make a determination for 2023 soon.”