STATE OF SOUTH DAKOTA
OFFICE OF
THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

July 6, 1966

Dave Sieler
State’s Attorney, Pennington County
Rapid City, South Dakota 57701

OFFICIAL OPINION NO. 67-68 pg. 2

Motor Vehicles. Liability of members of the Armed Services for additional registration tax for motor vehicles.

You have requested an opinion of this office based upon the following factual situation:

"Pennington County, South Dakota, has a great number of military personnel residing within its jurisdictional confines. A number of persons so stated annually attempt to register and license their motor vehicles in the State of South Dakota. In many  cases, when vehicles are originally purchased, the individual pays a sales tax upon the vehicle but is then transferred to a state which has no sales tax upon motor vehicles. After re-registering the vehicle in the state where no sales tax is charged, the individual is then transferred to South Dakota. Upon application for registration and licensing, it has been the policy of the treasurer of Pennington County to again assess to such an individual a sales tax on said automobile or motor vehicle based upon the vehicle's present market value."

You asked the following specific question:

"The question thus presented by these facts is whether or not in the opinion of the Attorney General, the Buzzard and Snapp cases are of such a nature and quality as to preclude the Treasurer of Pennington County from imposing motor vehicle taxes as are required by the State of South Dakota?"

Under the provisions of SDC 1960 Supp. 44.0108(9), it is provided that in addition to any and all other license fees, registration fees, and compensation for the use of the highways, there shall be paid to the County Treasurer upon application for the first or original registration, of a motor vehicle an additional and further license fee at the same rate of tax as provided in SDC 1960 Supp. 57.3201.

Under the provision of the above cited statute, I am of the opinion that once the additional registration fee has been paid to South Dakota upon a motor vehicle registered in this State, that such fee cannot again be required upon that particular motor vehicle regardless of how many states it has been licensed in subsequent to the payment of the additional registration fee in this State and the time of the application for a second registration in this State.

The Soldiers and Sailors Civil Relief Act, Section 514 (50 USC Appendix Section 574) is the federal provision excepting non-resident servicemen from certain taxes in the state in which he is assigned. One of my predecessors issued an opinion that the federal law was applicable to members  of the military and naval personnel stationed within the State of South Dakota and using private motor vehicles upon the public highways of this State, to the extent that, if the vehicle is licensed, or the fee or excise fee or excise tax paid in the state where the operator thereof is a resident or domicile, he cannot be required to pay for a license in this State for the operation of such car upon the public highway. 1943-44 AGR 455.

In the case of California v. Lyman E. Buzard, 382 US 386, 15 L Ed 2d 436, the law of California was construed. Under the motor vehicle code of California, the license for a motor vehicle is fixed at $8.00. Under the provisions of the Revenue Code of California, there is assessed an ad valorem tax in the amount of 2% of the value of the motor vehicle. This tax is assessed each year. In Buzard it was held that the California 2% tax was not imposed as a tax essential to the registration and licensing of the serviceman's motor vehicle. It being an ad valorem tax, the serviceman was not required to pay it.

Under the South Dakota law, SDC 1960 Supp. 41.0108(9) the additional tax imposed is essential to the registration and licensing of the serviceman's motor vehicle. Any person, resident or non-resident, who wishes to operate a motor vehicle upon the highways of this State, must pay such tax in order to register it. I am, therefore, of the opinion that if a non-resident serviceman elects to register his motor vehicle in the State

of South Dakota and license it therein, he must pay the additional registration in this State in the same manner and to the same extent that any non-resident who brings a motor vehicle into this State and seeks to license it herein. That is to say, that if such motor vehicle was licensed in another state which required the payment of a tax similar to that required in South Dakota as a condition precedent to obtaining registration of such motor vehicle, by virtue of SDC 1960 Supp. 44.0108 (9) as last amended by Chapter 129 of the Session Laws of 1966, such serviceman would be exempt from paying the South Dakota tax in question to the amount so paid in such foreign state.