By allowing ads to appear on this site, you support the local businesses who, in turn, support great journalism.
Changes in paying vehicle tax coming
Placeholder Image

Thanks to legislation adopted in last year’s General Assembly session, a confusing new motor-vehicle tax law takes effect March 1.
While state media has addressed the change, which does away with the so-called “birthday tax” for vehicles purchased on or after March 1, Liberty County Tax Commissioner Virgil Jones has been tasked with getting the message out locally.
“It really is major in the sense that every car owner will be impacted at some point,” Jones said.
The tax commissioner advises those conducting business in his office allow for longer wait times and be patient, as the rule will require some increased service times.

Title Ad Valorem Tax
Under the law, car buyers now will pay a title ad valorem tax, or TAVT, in lieu of sales tax at the point of sale when purchasing from a dealership.
Through Dec. 31, the tax rate will be 6.5 percent. On Jan. 1, 2014, the rate increases to 6.75 percent, and in 2015 it will increase to 7 percent. After that time, it will remain at 7 percent unless target revenue rates are not met.
Even once the TAVT is paid, owners still will be required to register their vehicles each year and pay a $20 tag fee.
For casual sales — those between two private individuals — the state will assess a tax value to be levied upon titling.
By basing the tax value of a casual sale on the Department of Revenue’s motor-vehicle ad valorem assessment manual, the government is eliminating fraudulent reporting of the vehicle’s purchase amount in attempt to pay a reduced tax, Jones said.   
Potential buyers who would like to know the assessed tax for a vehicle may contact the title office.

Exemptions and opt-in
For vehicles titled before Jan. 1, 2012, owners will continue to pay their ad valorem taxes when they register the car annually. When or if they purchase new vehicles in the future, however, the new rule will apply.
There is an opt-in provision for owners of vehicles purchased between Jan. 1, 2012, and March 1. 2013. Owners may continue making annual tax payments upon registration, or they may convert to the new system.
 “I think persons who keep their vehicles for a very long time will probably come out better opting in; those who don’t, they may not,” Jones said.
To do so, they must prove that the sales and property taxes they already have paid will exceed what they would have paid through TAVT, according to a state document. If the amount of taxes paid is less than the TAVT owed, the owner can pay the remaining difference and convert.
Vehicle owners must make the transition before Dec. 31. Vehicles purchased out of state, however, are not eligible for opt-in. There is an online formula for calculating the differences available at onlinemvd.dor.ga.gov/Tap/welcome.aspx.
Jones added that there are provisions that allow transfer of title among immediate family members with significantly lower tax rates.

Military and out-of-state
While existing exemptions for military and veterans will remain, those who relocate from out of state and title their vehicles will be subject to the TAVT in two installment payments. They still will have to pay the title and registration fees for which they were responsible in the past.
Because this results in increased cost for transfers from out of state, it also is a new source of revenue.

Revenues
Since the board of commissioners recently received a presentation on its dwindling revenues from taxes and real and personal property, the shift prompts questions about whether eliminating the sales and annual ad valorem taxes will hurt local revenues.
“The state tells us that about 60 percent of all title transfers are person to person; that is where the state is supposed to make up the money that it looks like we’re losing,” he said.
Currently, anyone who comes in with a title from a casual sale does not pay that 6.5 percent, but rather only the ad valorem assessed value. Under the law, however, they will.
Jones acknowledges allocating money between the state and county will create some “accounting challenges.”
But the local percentage of tax is supposed to be distributed to the vehicle owner’s county of residence — regardless of where the vehicle was purchased.
That’s a change because current sales-tax collections mean that if a Liberty County resident purchases a vehicle in Chatham County, Chatham retains a local portion. Under the new law, Liberty would receive that portion of revenue from a resident’s vehicle purchase.
The General Assembly is examining House Bill 80, which proposes some revisions that aim to address the law’s weaknesses.
“We’re going to start out with what’s already being approved, but if HB 80 passes, then we’ll have to go back and change those things that they’ve amended,” Jones said. “It could change year to year, because I think there are some unseen issues that could come up.”


Sign up for our e-newsletters
Book review: Author digs into mining's complicated past and present in 'River of Lost Souls'
95ea3fecbc0a64e4f05e88f3376fb1889a1fe7caae34e3144ec2b2c8665a17dd
Jonathan Thompson will speak about his book "River of Lost Souls" at the King's English Bookshop on Tuesday, April 3 at 7 p.m. - photo by Amanda Olson
"RIVER OF LOST SOULS: The Science, Politics, and Greed Behind the Gold King Mine Spill," by Jonathan Thompson, Torrey House Press, 275 pages (nf)

Plenty has been written about the very small world of a mining town and the very broad reach of a beleaguered industry. From Loretta Lynns iconic song "Coal Miners Daughter," to the 2010 nail-biting coverage of 33 trapped Chilean miners, to the hit Broadway musicals "Paint Your Wagon" and "Billy Elliot," mining is a global story, and its one of heartbreak, hard work and hard times.

Jonathan Thompsons "River of Lost Souls" examines the many facets of risk involved in taking resources from below the earths surface. An environmental journalist, Thompson has reported on southwest Colorado for over 20 years. This book is special, however, because the Four Corners area of Colorado is his current and ancestral home. Thompson is writing about minings ecological, social, financial and political impact on his land, his landscape, his water, his people. That makes "River of Lost Souls" more than a regular reporting job.

Thompson begins with the Gold King Mine wastewater disaster of 2015, which the EPA caused while attempting to drain water near the mines entrance. The spill sent 3 million gallons of waste and tailings into Cement Creek, a tributary of the Animas River and part of the San Juan River watershed which drains into the Colorado, affecting the Utah, Colorado and New Mexico parts of that watershed as well as the Navajo Nation.

From there, Thompson jumps into far stretches of time to 1765, when a Spanish explorer named the Animas River; to 10,000 years earlier, when Paleo-Indians roamed the rivers valley; to the meridian of time, when the ancestors of the Zuni, Hopi and Rio Grande Pueblo people inhabited the land for 500 years; to the mid-1800s and the Swedes who came to Silverton, Colorado, to mine.

Its a grand scope, but telling any story of landscape is telling a very grand story.

It also makes a complex story difficult to follow. Thompsons time warps are important, but they are jarring. His time jumps need clear dates, and Thompson doesnt always make them available. A map would also be useful. Thompsons writing is good, but his sentences can be dense and require readers to do their own mining for the riches the writing embeds. The work is worthwhile, however, as there are many moving parts in any story about mines land, culture, policy, history, money, inevitable disaster and Thompson works to examine all of them.

"River of Lost Souls" is a thoughtful read, but not a quick one. Because Thompsons writings come from 20 years of his newspaper reports, the overall feeling can be disjointed and sparse, which is distracting if one is expecting to follow a tenable thread. This is not a typical narrative with a cast of characters and a traditional story arc. Readers should approach this text as the investigation it is: puzzle pieces of a larger-than-life story that is eons old. If you are the kind of reader who wants it laid out cleanly, this is not that book. But, to Thompsons point, nothing is clean about mining that has never been the case.

Thompsons best writing is in his descriptions of people and places. His telling of how he came to Silverton is familiar and engaging. If readers approach the book with care and attention, they will be rewarded with savoring these descriptive passages when they happen.
Latest Obituaries