New Kent County Vehicle License Fee and Exemptions

Article II of chapter 70 of the county code levies an annual license registration fee "on each car, truck, motor home, passenger bus, pickup or panel truck, and trailer or semitrailer designed to provide living or sleeping quarters" in the amount "as provided in appendix A to this Code". Appendix A sets the fee at $25.00 a year for a motor vehicle, $15.00 for a motorcycle, a trailer or a farm vehicle, $15.00 per unit for a tractor and trailer, $6.50 for a two-wheeled trailer, half the applicable fee ($12.50) for a Virginia National Guard member's vehicle, and nothing for the vehicles of volunteer firefighters, rescue squad members and auxiliary deputies. Section 70-55 carries a cross-reference to the fee schedule rather than a dollar figure, so the appendix is the operative amount. The fee is assessed on vehicles registered in the county on January 1 and is payable on December 5; it is collected as taxes are collected (section 70-56). Section 70-54 applies the fee "except for the exemptions provided for in Code of Virginia, § 46.2-755" - the statewide bar that keeps a locality from charging a license fee on a vehicle carrying DMV disabled veteran plates - and the code separately adopts the volunteer-fire and rescue exemptions with a certified list due the Treasurer by September 1. A veteran who qualifies for the plates at a lower rating, or who kept a standard plate, should expect the fee and ask the Treasurer's office; the county's tax-rate table lists no separate disabled-veteran line.