Todd Esque: My name is Todd Esque and I'm a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey. I was on a field expedition down in Mexico over in Baja and one evening at the end of the field day I had the great opportunity to capture on my cell phone I captured video of a tarantula hawk wasp finding a place to hide its prey.
Calculating Your Tax Amount. Local car tax bills are a function of the tax rate times each $100 of assessed value. In other words, take the value of the car as assessed by DTA, divide by 100, and multiply the result by the tax rate (which is $4.57 for most vehicles). For personal use vehicles, a substantial part of this bill is then subsidized by the stateâs Car Tax Relief program.
Ownership tax is a personal property tax based on a vehicle's manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP). The taxable value of your car is calculated by multiplying the MSRP of your vehicle by 75 percent for trucks and trailers or 85 percent for passenger vehicles and motorcycles. Therefore, a passenger car with an MSRP of $20,000 would have a taxable value of $17,000. This amount is then multiplied by the vehicle's tax rate, which is determined by the age of the vehicle. The tax rates range from a flat fee of $3 to 2.1 percent of a vehicle's taxable value depending on the age of the vehicle. A 3-year-old car with a taxable value of $17,000 would have an ownership tax of $204; which would be the amount that could be deducted from the federal tax return.