Background info: I live in Virginia where they have a personal property tax. Instead of monthly taxes on the payment it’s an annual fee. Virginia bills Audi financial, they pay it and then bill me the amount. I leased my Audi in October of 2019.
I turned in my Audi vehicle lease earlier this year, 2021. I turned it in early due to not driving because of work from home due to Covid.
I called audi 2 times to confirm the payoff quote and disposition fee as this all factored into turning the car in early.
A few months went by and all was good until I received a bill in the mail from Audi. I called to figure out what this was since I had met the payoff quote and disposition fee at turn in. It turns out it was from 2019 taxes, apparently they did an audit on their end and realized they never charged me for this.
I am not happy as they waited 2 years to figure this out on their end and send me a bill after I turned in the car. It’s also a few hundred dollars which might have changed my decision on when I turned the car in.
Any thoughts on what I can do? I feel the payoff quote should have been everything I owed, but maybe I am wrong?
Call the Commissioner of Revenue of your county or city. Find out if they prorate personal property tax. If they do not prorate, if you had the lease on January 1, you are liable to pay the entire year. If they do prorate, you pay the tax on the time period you had the lease.
Your County or City Commissioner of Revenue and Treasurer can provide you the tax bills Audi paid and you need to verify they are correct. If they are not correct, the Commissioner of Revenue will adjust the tax bill and either charge Audi more or less, and Audi will correct the amount they billed you.
I live in VA too – In my case, Volvo FS said that if I bought out my lease, then they estimate the property tax and add it on and if its over the actual amount, then they refund the amount. Would assume that opposite would be the same too.
My thoughts: the pay off included everything owed to Audi financial, but not necessarily 3rd parties (e.g., what if they got 5 speed camera tickets after you paid off your car?). I’d lump property taxes in with that, personally. Sucks its a 2019 charge, but you returned the car in 2021, so not technically 2 years later… If they sent this charge to you 2 years after buying out the car, I’d feel differently.
