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Mechanics feel taxed by new fees
To a state legislator in Richmond, collecting a new fee on vehicle safety inspections might seem a straight-forward process. It's just a matter of charging an additional $10 per inspection.
And the ends might justify the means: The fee, part of the road-funding package passed by the General Assembly last year, will provide more money for roads and trains to help unclog Northern Virginia's congested byways.
But the fee -- along with a new sales tax on car repairs -- has introduced a few administrative wrinkles for the local auto shop owners who have to collect it.
“We've made several inquires, and they cannot tell us how we are supposed to administer these fees,” said Jeremy Curry, co-owner of Auto Solutions in Leesburg.
Curry said he has been trying to get answers from the Virginia State Police, which collects the fees from the businesses, as well as the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, the actual taxing authority.
According to Kala Quintana, interim public information officer for NVTA, her team has been proactive in addressing questions.
“This is historic legislation and it will take time” to get everybody used to the new rules, she said.
This is the first time that NVTA has had tax-levying authority. Quintana said that because NVTA hadn't decided to start the tax collecting until the late November, she and the public relations team had to hustle to inform and educate businesses.
In fact, there isn't yet an official public relations team for NVTA – she is officially in charge of communications for the Northern Virginia Transportation Commission.
Curry said he received a letter from NVTA in mid-December informing him that, starting Jan. 1, he must collect an extra $10 – in addition to the existing $16 charge – for safety and emissions inspections. Also, a new 5 percent sales tax on the cost of labor must be collected. Before Jan. 1, state sales tax was only levied on auto parts.
The main confusion, Curry said, was regarding how many times the $10 fee for inspections must be levied. The team at Auto Solutions performs hundreds of inspections a year, but some of them are multiple inspections on the same vehicle, because that vehicle previously failed. The letter did not explain whether he must charge customers $10 for these additional inspection.
The letter, Curry said, also didn't make clear whether the fee is the same for all vehicles – for example, motorcycles and trailers as well as automobiles and trucks.
Curry is not alone in his confusion. The NVTA has posted information on the home page of its Web site for businesses confused about how to collect the money.
Quintana said that as the calls and e-mails came in from business owners, the Web site has been updated to answer questions the NVTA hadn't yet thought of.
“We are working with [businesses] steadfastly,” she said.
“I've told the staff here to go the extra mile with these guys,” Quintana said. “They are on the front lines dealing with customers ... and change is always hard.”
She said she even made undercover calls to all the local jurisdictions, which have been briefed on how to answer questions about the new tax. After pretending to be someone calling from an inspection station, she said Loudoun County and Arlington County got the highest marks.
In fact, Curry's questions have been answered on the Web site. Apparently, the new fee is only collected on the first inspection and it must be collected on all vehicles. The site also answers 15 other questions asked by businesses around the region.
Jon Kofod, general manager of Curry's Auto Service in Sterling -- no relation to Jeremy Curry and his Auto Solutions -- upon learning about the new inspection fee, decided to give customers free safety inspections in 2008.
“The economy's not great and people were already frustrated, and now there's this new tax on top of everything else,” Kofod said. “We thought of it as a marketing opportunity ... perhaps it will build us a new customer base.”
He will still have to pay the state the fees, but it will be out of his bottom line, not his customers' pockets.
Carl Epstein, owner of The Auto Shop in Sterling, doesn't provide safety inspections, but he does have to collect the 5 percent sales tax on labor. He must fill out a separate form from one used to remit the 5 percent auto-parts sales tax he already collects, which adds another layer of bureaucracy.
“Why can't they have one form?” he asked.
He also noted that he receives a small portion of the sales tax on auto parts to compensate him for time spent filling out forms, but no such payment is given on the new labor tax.
He said that everyone keeps telling him the fees are necessary – it's for the roads. But he said he knows how slowly the money will translate into actual asphalt.
“I guess our kids will enjoy the roads,” he said.
Contact the reporter at akeisman@timespapers.com
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