American Samoa Import Excise Exemption for a Specially Equipped Vehicle

American Samoa has no vehicle property tax and no annual ad valorem levy. What it has is an excise tax on imports, at chapter 10 of the revenue title, and since every motor vehicle on the island arrived by ship, that excise is the tax on buying a car. Section 11.1003-1, enacted by Public Law 20-3 in 1987, is one sentence: "Any motor vehicle, which has been specially equipped and is imported by and for the personal use of a severely disabled individual, is exempt from the excise tax on the importation of a motor vehicle." This is not written as a veterans benefit and it does not mention VA, service connection, or a rating. It is written for severely disabled individuals generally. It is in this catalog because of what it pairs with. VA's automobile allowance and adaptive equipment benefit, at 38 U.S.C. chapter 39, provides a one-time payment toward a vehicle and pays for adaptive equipment for a veteran with a qualifying service-connected condition, including loss or permanent loss of use of a hand or foot, permanent impairment of vision in both eyes to a prescribed degree, and, for adaptive equipment only, ankylosis of a knee or hip or severe burn injury. A veteran who uses that benefit is by definition acquiring a specially equipped vehicle for personal use, and in American Samoa that vehicle has to be imported. Section 11.1003-1 is the provision that keeps the territorial excise from taking a bite out of a federal adaptive-vehicle grant. Three cautions, because the section is short and old. "Severely disabled individual" is not defined in the section, and the code defines it nowhere else in this chapter. Whether the Treasury and Customs will accept a VA rating decision, a VA adaptive equipment approval, or a physician's statement as proof is an administrative question. Ask before the vehicle ships, and get the answer in writing. The exemption attaches to a vehicle that "has been specially equipped" and is imported by and for the personal use of that individual. Read plainly, that describes a vehicle already adapted when it arrives. A veteran planning to import a standard vehicle and fit adaptive equipment on island should ask whether the exemption still applies, because the wording does not obviously reach that sequence. The section carries no rate, no cap, and no vehicle count. It has not been amended since 1987. Confirm the current administration of it with the ASG Tax Office and the Customs division rather than relying on the text alone. For completeness, nothing else in American Samoa law gives veterans a vehicle benefit. There are no veteran license plates in the code, no registration fee waiver for a disabled veteran, and the disabled parking provision at 22.0321 is a general disability provision with no veterans clause. The Army benefits library records that American Samoa has no motor vehicle benefits for veterans, and on the veteran-specific question that is right.