Virginia Beach Circuit Court Clerk Tina Sinnen is looking out for taxpayers in the city. According to this article, she is charging the grantor’s tax, collected when a property is sold, based on the sales price and not on assessed value. Her rationale for not following the 2007 law, which says that taxes should be collected on the greater of the sales price or the assessment, is that “there can’t be a greater:”
Sinnen bases her legal rationale on a 1985 state attorney general’s opinion that said “consideration,” which means sales price, and “value,” are synonymous. “We think they’re the same,” she said.
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“It’s fair to the consumer,” Sinnen said.
A little common sense goes a long way, doesn’t it?
The General Assembly is apparently now in agreement. The article points out that legislation is awaiting the governor’s signature which would base the grantor’s tax on the consideration paid.
The purpose of the law is to get the expected tax when a property is sold considerably below market value, as happens when property is sold to family members or prominent members of the Chicago political machine.
Posted by Anon E. Mouse | Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:00 amThat may be a side effect but I doubt it is the purpose. The true purpose is to collect as much tax as possible. Sales between related parties at less than FMV are not very common.
Posted by vjp | Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:36 pm“Would you encourage our Clerk of the Court in Chesapeake to do likewise?”
Posted by Lamont Simmons | Tuesday, February 24, 2009, 12:33 pm