ACCOMACK, Va. — If you’ve ever given any thought to how much a Class I railroad pays in taxes, consider this: A single county in Virginia owes Norfolk Southern more than $158,000 for a relatively small taxation error.
The Eastern Shore Post reports that Accomack County, Va., will be sending NS a $158,713 refund for taxes erroneously paid on 48 trucks and SUVs that were never kept in the county, and had already been taxed in another fashion. The vehicles were taxed as personal property, while the railroad had already paid tax on them as rolling stock.
County Administrator Mike Mason told a recent county board of supervisors meeting that the charges likely resulted from errant use of a dropdown menu in the computer system at the state Department of Motor Vehicles, reflecting that the county is first on an alphabetical list. The charges date to 2020 and were undetected until discovered by the railroad.
NS does NOT have 1 inch of track in Accomack County! The Commonwealth of Va. allowed a barge company to abandon all rail trackage up the Eastern Shore!
It is my understanding that some property taxes for railroads, utilities,
mining, oil drilling, etc. are levied by the state, rather than the county or city, such as here in NM, AZ, and others. I would think that pre-emptive state property taxes in other states, as described above, would help curb these false property tax problems.
I don’t know much about how this works, but are these trucks and SUVs fleet vehicles? If so, would they actually be considered personal property or rolling stock? (The latter seems dubious for anything not on rails; are they hirail vehicles perhaps?)
Accomack County should pay a penalty to NS equivalent to what a taxpayer would have to pay for underpayment.
Last time I researched this the railroads collectively paid over $2B/year in property taxes alone. I’m sure it’s higher now. Question: how much representation comes from that taxation?