Few people are happy about receiving a tax bill — Loudoun County in Virginia has taken a step that could reduce the amount residents pay for the unpopular car tax.

“It’s something that hits you twice a year, you kind of know it’s coming, but you kind of forget about it,” Matt Letourneau, chairman of the board of supervisors’ finance committee, said at a meeting Tuesday. “Then the bill is always more than you think it will be. It’s nobody’s fault, it just is.”

Amid a budget surplus, the council is considering two forms of tax relief, including a recommendation to lower the vehicle tax rate to $3.48 in fiscal year 2026, while leaving the overall personal property tax rate at 4 .15 USD.

“We’re still in a high-cost environment,” Letourneau said. “This tax, the personal property tax, is the most unpopular — we have far more complaints about it than we do, even with the real estate tax.”

In Virginia, personal property taxes and real estate taxes are local taxes, meaning they are administered by cities, counties, and towns in Virginia.

If passed by the full board, the motion by Sterling County Supervisor Koran Saines would direct County Administrator Tim Hemstreet to prepare a budget based on a property tax rate of 84.5 cents per $100 of assessed value evaluated.

“The low rate will have a significant impact and help our residents,” Saines said. “And ultimately the goal is to have a higher rate for data centers, and I’ll put it there.”

Letourneau said council members constantly hear from residents frustrated that they aren’t seeing a benefit from the county’s data center revenue.

“When you really get into the numbers, we know our tax rate would be much, much higher, like some of our neighbors, if we didn’t have data center revenue,” Letourneau said. “If we can get the vehicle property tax rate down by 50 cents, really almost exclusively because of so much revenue coming from the other property tax line item, that really illustrates the point and provides some relief tangible to people.”

In addition to the proposed decrease in the auto tax rate, the committee voted to eliminate the $25 annual vehicle license fee for the next fiscal year 2025. Letourneau said he spoke with absent chairwoman Phyllis Randall, who said she would support the measure, when it will be before the full council.

“I’m well ahead of the budget where we’re going to have a very significant surplus and I think we can easily afford to reduce the money that we’re collecting to reduce that tax,” Letourneau said of the license fee.

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