Personal Property Tax

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Pay Your Personal Property Tax

Pittsylvania County residents and property owners are required to pay personal property taxes on automobiles, trucks, recreational vehicles, motorcycles, trailers, boats, airplanes, and mobile homes.

The current personal property tax rate is $9.00 per $100 in assessed value.

Property owners do not pay taxes on the full value of their vehicles. For fiscal 2025, the taxpayer is responsible for 61% of their tax bill based on $9 per $100 of assessed value in Pittsylvania County, 30% of market value. The relief percentage changes yearly as per the Code of Virginia.

Bills are divided into two instalments that are due on June 10 and December 10.

There are a number of convenient ways for Pittsylvania County residents to pay their personal property taxes, including:

Online with a debit or credit card. Citizens can pay online through the Pittsylvania County Payment Portal. A 2.99% convenience fee will be applied.
By phone. To pay by credit card, call toll free 1-844-272-9468 (844-2PAY-GOV). For telephone payments, enter your Entity Code (100559) when prompted.
By check in the mail. Citizens can mail their check to P.O. Box 230 Chatham, VA 24531
In one of the two dropboxes located outside the courthouse, one of which is on the wall before the security entrance into the building and the other is in the parking lot behind the building.
In person with cash, check, or credit or debit card at the Pittsylvania County Courthouse (11 Bank Street Chatham, VA 24531) or one of several area banking institutions: all American National Bank & Trust and First Citizens Bank locations in Danville and Pittsylvania County, as well as the main and Vista branches of First National Bank of Altavista.

What is Taxed?

Who is Taxed?

Personal Property Tax Rate

The current personal property tax rate as of 2024 is $9.00 per $100 of assessed value. The Board of Supervisors set new tax rates by June 30 of the current year.

Property owners do not pay taxes on the full value of their vehicles, however. In FY 23, owners will pay taxes on approximately 45% of their vehicle's value; Pittsylvania County is providing relief on the remaining 55%, which is higher than the State-mandated 34%.

How is Personal Property Assessed?

Assessment Criteria

Pittsylvania County is not a pro-rating jurisdiction. This means the assessment made by this office is based upon residency and ownership as of January 1 of the tax year. If you are a resident as of January 1, you are liable to Pittsylvania County for the taxes for the entire year.

If you change residency during the year to a pro-rating jurisdiction, be sure to advise them you were taxed in Pittsylvania County for the entire tax year. If you move to Pittsylvania County after January 1, you will be liable to the locality in which you resided as of January 1. You should reflect this information when you register the vehicle with the Commissioner of the Revenue Office.

If you trade or sell a vehicle after January 1, you will be taxed only on the vehicles you owned as of January 1. Any change made during the year will be reflected in the following year and our office should be notified of the change in addition to notifying DMV.

Filing Information

Pittsylvania County does not assess a penalty on individual persons for failing to file. However all owners of personal property are required by State Code 58.1-3518 to report any personal property to their local Commissioner of the Revenue Office.

Property to be reported includes motor vehicles, utility trailers, travel trailers and campers, boats and boat trailers, and mobile homes.

Business owners need to report business personal property. (See separate instructions for business filings.)

Active Duty Military

Any member of the armed forces with a legal domicile in Virginia that is stationed in another state in compliance with military orders would not be subject to personal property in another state. They would be required to pay personal property taxes to the Virginia locality where they maintain legal domicile or home of record even though the physical location of the vehicle or vehicles is outside of Virginia during this period of military service. (See the Service Members Civil Relief Act.)

College Students

Pursuant to State Code 58.1-3511, vehicles taken to other localities by students of institutions of higher education are taxed in one of two ways, depending on who's name the vehicle is registered under.

In Pittsylvania County. If the vehicle is owned by the parents that still live in Pittsylvania County, then that is where the vehicle should be counted for personal property tax
Where the institution is located. If the vehicle is registered in the student's name, then the locality where the college or university is located could assess and tax it there instead of in Pittsylvania County.

Town Residents

There are 3 towns located within Pittsylvania County. They are the Town of Chatham, the Town of Gretna, and the Town of Hurt. If you reside within the town limits, you are required to pay personal property taxes to both the town and the county. Each local town council sets the tax rate for the respective town. You may contact them for the appropriate tax rates:

Town of Chatham: 434-432-8153
Town of Gretna: 434-656-6572
Town of Hurt: 434-608-0554

Mobile Homes

Single wide mobile homes are classified as personal property. Double wide mobile homes owned by the landowner are classified as real estate. Double wide homes located on another person's land are classified as personal property. All mobile homes are taxed at the real estate tax rate regardless whether they are classified as real estate or personal property.

The mobile homes are appraised during the general reassessment conducted by the county every 4 years. The tax rate is applied per $100 of appraised value.

Higher Tax Bills in 2022 and 2023

The assessed value of vehicles across Pittsylvania went up approximately 28% between FY 22 and FY 23. This is a national trend playing out across the Country.

The Board of Supervisors was determined to not pass that full increase onto County taxpayers. The Board of Supervisors did not change the tax rate, but did increase the amount of relief provided to County taxpayers. The State continues to provide relief to taxpayers across the State and reimburses localities to help offset that relief. Even though the amount of relief given by the State to localities is the same each year, the relief percentage provided fluctuates based on the value of vehicles in the locality.

Based on the 2022 values, this relief percentage should have fallen to 34%. However, the Board was able to provide additional relief for the upcoming year. Pittsylvania County's FY 23 Budget, which the Board of Supervisors will have the opportunity to adopt at an April 11 meeting, includes relief on 55% of the value. That is approximately $2.5 million in additional relief that the County is passing onto its citizens.

So the short and simple version: Pittsylvania County residents will see higher personal property tax bills in the upcoming fiscal year, but the increase won't be as stark as it could have been because the County is providing extra relief.

Pittsylvania County, VA

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