Botetourt County Vehicle License Fee Exemptions

Section 13-30 of the Botetourt County Code imposes an annual registration and license fee of $20 on automobiles and trucks, $11 on motorcycles and $7.50 on trailers and semitrailers, and section 13-33 makes payment of the vehicle's personal property tax a prerequisite to licensing, with payments applied first to delinquent taxes. Section 13-28 imposes the fee on every resident "provided that a personal property tax bill for that tax year is issued on such vehicle", and exempts "a person exempted under the provisions of the laws of the state from payment of the county vehicle license tax" and any vehicle not required to be licensed by state law. A volunteer fire or rescue member gets one license free on annual certification by the chief. The state bar in section 46.2-755(B) of the Code of Virginia (a Commonwealth entry) prohibits a county license fee on the one vehicle of a veteran with Disabled Veteran plates, and on the qualifying vehicles of former prisoners of war, Medal of Honor, Purple Heart and Bronze Star recipients, so those veterans owe no Botetourt fee. The county code has no section of its own naming them; how the DMV exemption reaches the fee is a question for the Commissioner's office, which keeps the personal property rolls the fee rides on.