Is advalorem usually paid for the upcoming year, or the previous year? I was told the previous year. I went in to the tag office yesterday to get my tag transferred to the Fit, and was told I would have to pay advalorem (around $150) on my Fit in September. My birthday is 9/23 and our county does renewals on your birthday. I was trying to make sense of this. In September I'm going to have to pay a year's worth of advalorem for a car that was manufactured 05/08. I bought the car 7/5/08. So I will have owned it 2 1/2 months and the car will have only been manufactued for 4 months. Doesn't seem a bit fair to me.

 

I've been paying the dreaded advalorem tax since I moved to Georgia seventeen years ago, and I've never heard anyone say it was paid on the previous year. As you already pointed out, how can you be charged a tax for a period in which you did not own the item that is being taxed? Without actually looking it up, I'd feel safe in saying that you're paying for the twelve month period following the actual time you pay the tax.

Most people don't give it much thought, but if you wait to buy a car until the month following your birth month, you will get a eleven month free ride from advalorem tax. Of course, you will have already paid the tax on your old car, but in most cases, it would be less on the older car than the new car.