Waterford residents surprised by unexpected car tax bills

DMV review of registration records leads to municipalities sending out additional invoices

Waterford — More than 100 vehicle owners in town have been surprised by an unanticipated tax bill.

The Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles generates a list of registered vehicles on Oct. 1 of each year. On July 1 of each year, municipalities send property tax bills to individuals on the grand list for the previous nine months and the future three months.

Over the past few years, the Connecticut Association of Assessing Officers has observed an uptick in the number of vehicle owners renewing registrations with previously expired plates, Waterford Tax Assessor Paige Walton said. She said if a registration is renewed after grand lists are generated, it is not reported to the town or taxed for the full time period that it should be.

Municipalities generate supplemental tax bills in January for vehicles registered between Oct. 2 and July 31 of the previous cycle to collect the partial-year payments for the months leading up to the new grand list.

“Assessors across the state have noticed that, in these instances there was sometimes an entire year or more gap when cars that should have been taxed for previous full tax years were not,” Walton said. She said it was not related to the coronavirus pandemic.

“The CAAO requested that the DMV provide us with a list by town back to 2018 of vehicle information, registration start dates and customer (identification numbers),” Walton said. Each town compared the provided information to their respective grand list to find any vehicles that may have been missed during a registration lapse.

According to Alan Wilensky, Waterford tax collector and president of the Connecticut Tax Collectors Association, Waterford collects property taxes on approximately 20,000 vehicles, and the town generated about 125 tax bills based on the review of the DMV records.

“This is a normal process, but happening out of the ordinary time frame,” he said.

The DMV did not respond to requests for comment or questions about why the lapse occurred.

The tax bills are generated based on the value of the vehicles in the original tax year and are not considered past due. Wilensky said one resident received a bill for 2019 and 2020 for about $900, which had to be paid within 30 days to avoid accruing interest. Property tax interest is calculated at 1.5% a month or 18% per year. It is not compounded.

“People don’t expect to get a tax bill in April,” Wilensky said, and municipal tax collectors can provide no relief to people facing a bill they did not budget for. He said without legislation at the

“This is a normal process, but happening out of the ordinary time frame.”

ALAN WILENSKY

WATERFORD TAX COLLECTOR AND PRESIDENT OF THE CONNECTICUT TAX COLLECTORS

state level or an executive order, towns are powerless to extend the payment deadlines, because state statutes govern how property taxes are collected and the penalties for nonpayment.

Each municipality in the state is currently cross-checking the information provided against their own grand list, and then they will eliminate people who may have moved or had their vehicle added manually.

“Once each town completes the review process, add-on tax bills will be generated for those vehicles that were not previously taxed for either an entire Grand List period or a portion of a grand list period,” Walton said.

Wilensky said Waterford has completed its review and all bills have been mailed.