Committee delays bill to allow prorated tax credits for totaled vehicles after procedural and administrative questions

The Missouri House Ways and Means Committee on an unspecified date heard testimony on House Bill 708, a proposal to create a voluntary depreciation schedule allowing taxing jurisdictions to prorate personal property tax for motor vehicles declared totaled.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Philip Bollerking, said House Bill 708 “creates a voluntary depreciation schedule for totaled cars, well, as it relates to personal property tax assessment.” He told the committee the measure would let taxing authorities establish a proration program and award a prorated property-tax credit during the tax year to reduce the total personal-property tax owed on a totaled motor vehicle.

Committee members and witnesses questioned how the credit would work in practice and which entities would implement it. Kenny Moore, Boone County Assessor, representing the Missouri State Assessors Association, said his reading of the bill is that “the way I read this bill, the way it is currently written, does not deal with any assessments at all. This this is purely…it states it's a tax credit.” Moore explained current practice: assessors mail personal-property declarations on Jan. 1 and taxpayers report vehicles in their possession on that date, so midyear changes currently do not reduce that year’s assessed value under state law.

Richard Sheets, executive director of the Missouri Municipal League, said he read the bill the same way and that, as written, each taxing jurisdiction — cities, counties, school districts, fire and ambulance districts — would have to enact its own voluntary proration program. “It's completely voluntary and each taxing jurisdiction…would individually have to enact this voluntary program,” Sheets said, adding that the approach could be administratively different from current practices and that his organization had no formal position.

Witnesses described local practice differences. Moore said Boone County applies a 40% reduction the following January for vehicles with salvage titles when taxpayers provide loss records from insurers, but he warned that granting midyear reductions could short taxing jurisdictions of revenue if preliminary valuations have already been used for budgets.

Committee members asked several operational questions: whether the credit would be applied against tax dollars owed or via assessment adjustments, whether assessors or taxing jurisdictions would administer it, and how the law would treat vehicles that remain drivable on salvage titles. Representative Taylor and Representative Wright noted how current timing can defer tax liability: as Taylor put it, if someone buys a vehicle on Jan. 5 they often do not see a tax bill on it until the following year.

After extended questioning and requests for more data on how often vehicles are totaled and how many taxpayers would be affected, the committee agreed to continue the hearing at a later date so the sponsor could respond to questions and consider revisions. The chair announced: the hearing will be extended and the committee was adjourned.

Votes at a glance

Earlier in the same meeting the committee recorded several roll-call votes on unrelated measures. The committee's recorded outcomes included: - House Bill 660 — passed, 6 yes, 3 no. - House Bill 349 — passed, 6 yes, 3 no. - House Bill 816 — passed, 9 yes, 0 no. - House Committee substitute for HJR 4 — passed, 8 yes, 1 no.

Those measures were taken earlier in the session; the committee heard House Bill 708 in a later public hearing and did not take a final vote on it.