Motor Vehicle Refunds Coming Soon
In accordance with Governor's Executive Order 2022-096 and the enactment of HB 6, the Department of Revenue, Commonwealth Office of Technology, the Office of the State Treasurer, county clerks and property valuation administrators have been working collaboratively to develop a process for refunding a portion of the motor vehicle property tax payments made in January, February, and a portion of March. These refunds will reflect the difference in the amount of tax paid based on the vehicle's 2022 assessed value and the amount that would have been due based on the vehicle's 2021 assessed value.
All motor vehicle values were updated in March to reflect this reduction back to their 2021 values and correct tax amounts were then collected. All vehicle tax notices beginning with April reflect the correct tax amount due.
To streamline the refund process, software programming changes to the Motor Vehicle Tax System will allow approximately 221,105 refunds to be issued directly to the taxpayers. These checks are scheduled to be mailed out over a two-week period beginning around mid-to-late April.
The refund check will be mailed by the State Treasurer's Office and will include the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) on the inside of the check. If you have multiple vehicles, you will receive multiple checks.
The following are included in the checks being issued by the State:
- Payments made on vehicles for the 2022 year where the value for 2022 increased over 2021; and
- The owner and address of the vehicle were the same in 2021 and 2022.
The following transactions will need to be processed by the County Clerk with valuation adjustments done by the PVA. Lists of these transactions will be provided to each County Clerk and PVA to perform these automatically.
- Payments made for 2022 where the taxpayer did not live at the same address for January 1, 2021, and January 1, 2022.
- Payments made where manual adjustments to value are required for 2021 or 2022.
There will continue to be limited circumstances that will require a taxpayer to seek a refund through their local county clerk and property valuation administrator's office. Specifically, if a car was purchased in 2021, then no 2021 property taxes were due on that vehicle. Therefore, no information exists to compare the 2022 value, and a refund cannot be generated through the State's centralized process. For this reason, these motor vehicle owners who paid their taxes for 2022 will need to seek a refund at the local level. The same situation would exist if a person relocated to Kentucky in 2021 and their vehicle was first taxed in 2022.
Inquiries on refund status can be sent to
motorvehiclerefund@ky.gov or by calling 502-564-8180.