Register a Vehicle

Arlington County Code §14.2-69 provides that residents must register their vehicle or trailer within thirty (30) days of being garaged or parked in the County or within thirty (30) days of purchasing a vehicle that will be garaged or parked in the County.

Arlington County Code §27-11.1 requires vehicles and trailers to be listed for property taxes within sixty (60) days of the vehicle first being garaged or parked in the County.

Vehicles and trailers will be listed for property taxes when they are registered. If this is not done within sixty (60) days of the vehicle first being garaged or parked in the County, the owner shall incur a late filing penalty of ten percent (10%) of the amount of tax assessed or ten dollars ($10.00) whichever is greater, but not to exceed the amount of the tax, which penalty shall become part of the tax.

All vehicles that are regularly parked or garaged in Arlington overnight must be registered within 30 days.  Failure to register your vehicle could result in a ticket from law enforcement officials. Furthermore, late tax filing penalties begin if the property is not listed for property taxes within 60 days of it acquiring situs in the County.

Register your vehicle online via CAPP (Customer Assessment and Payment Portal), by mail, or in person at the Commissioner of Revenue’s Office.

The Arlington County Commissioner of Revenue's Vehicle Personal Property Division will automatically register personal property including motor vehicles, trailers, and semi-trailers garaged in Arlington that have been registered with the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).  According to Virginia Code § 46.2-754 and Arlington County Code § 14.2- 69, vehicle owners are required to file for local vehicle registration within sixty days of purchase, or of being brought into the jurisdiction. Please note, it is the taxpayer's responsibility to ensure that all vehicle personal property accounts with Arlington County are properly registered and updated in the event files from the DMV aren’t received timely.

To alert customers about a change on their account(s), CAPP (Customer and Assessment Payment Portal) account subscribers will receive a notification via email.  Non-CAPP subscribers will receive a letter from our office via the US mail.  Upon receipt of this notice, all customers can review and certify that the information is correct by going to the main CAPP landing webpage and doing the following:

1. Locate “I Want To”. 
2.  Select “Review DMV Registration”.  (At this time, CAPP users are unable to review their DMV registration while logged in to their CAPP profile.)

For more information or if you have questions, please call the Vehicle Personal Property Division at 703-228-3135 to speak to a Tax Assessor.

• A period of half a month or more is considered a full month.
• If your vehicle is not registered in another jurisdiction, it is considered to be temporarily absent from Arlington so the Arlington tax will not be prorated.
• If the vehicle is moved to a non-prorating Virginia locality, you will still owe taxes to Arlington for the full year.
• Review your tax bill to ensure that it reflects the correct period of time.  If correction is necessary, email the Commissioner of Revenue’s Office or call 703-228-3135 Option 0.