Moving from MD to VA - Leased Vehicle Taxes

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Hello Everyone,

I leased an electric vehicle from a Virginia dealership 14 months ago and registered the vehicle in Maryland. When leasing, I had to pay sales tax upfront on the full price of the vehicle, but this cost was covered through a lease cash offer.

Now that I am moving to Virginia, I have a few questions:

  1. Sales Tax: Since Maryland required me to pay sales tax upfront on the full vehicle price, how does Virginia handle this? Will I need to pay Virginia sales tax again, or does Virginia recognize the tax already paid in Maryland? Is there a possibility of a tax refund either from VA or MD?
  2. Vehicle Inspection: Since the vehicle was originally leased in Virginia and already appears to have a Virginia Inspection sticker on the car, will I need to get it inspected again when I register it back in Virginia? I’m moving to Arlington County and the vehicle is electric, I assume an emissions inspection is not required? Or would I need to show some kind of documentation?

Thank you in advance!

I researched this briefly a few months ago when my friend in VA was considering taking over my iX lease from NC, which taxes only the payments.

I spoke to a person at the VA DMV and the take home point is you shouldn’t have to pay taxes again since they were already paid. You may need to either provide a receipt or a letter from the financial services saying taxes were previously paid to another state.

Also Virginia taxes non-new cars when ownership changes and since you are leasing, the car company retains ownership.

Can’t help with the inspection part though.