So I had a car that was registered in MO but it came off the road due to an inability to pay to get it fixed (it needed a new transmission). In that time, I started working from home, and we just used my husbands car for getting around town. I saved up and got otten a new transmission, and I’m now ready to get it back on the road. Can I register it as a “new car” because it was essentially un-driveable, or do I have to pay back personal property tax on it for the time it was off the road? I kept active insurance on it the entire time…
If it's in your possession, you owe personal property taxes whether it was drivable or not. The license office will want to see a tax receipt or a waiver. When you go to get one of those from the collector or assessor, they will probably see that the vehicle was previously registered to you and they'll want to know where it was in between. If the vehicle is fairly old, it will be assessed at the lowest possible value and you'll only be charged like $5 to $10 per year for up to three years. You're better off paying it rather than getting caught in a lie by either office. Or if you're lucky, you'll live in a big county and the clerks will be too busy to give a shit.
Yes you have to pay personal property tax on vehicles you own regardless of whether or not they were being driven.
if you simply stopped paying personal property tax you will have to catch up.
Being that you have another car what also might be possible is that you crossed out the vehicle that was not running so that it dropped from the tax rolls and paid taxes on the vehicle that was still running.
In which case you would have to get the car added back on and depending on how aggressive your collector is they might consider fraud and penalize you as such because you removed a vehicle you still owned to avoid paying taxes on it.
You'll owe personal property taxes on it dating back to when they were last due, plus penalties.
How far out of date are the tags? It reads like if it's over a year, you can get new plates with no penalty.
You got a property tax bill every year. Did you pay it?
You got a form at the begining every year to update and confirm the listed personal property used for taxing purposes. Did you remove the vehicle from the personal property tax list?
If the answer to both of the above is “no“, then you owe back property tax and will need to pay it in order to get the recipts necessary to register the car.
Typically, after 3 years of non-payment, the property tax is filed in court for a judgement and then goes on your credit.