2025 Code of Georgia
Title 40 - Motor Vehicles and Traffic (Chs. 1 — 16)
Chapter 2 - Registration and Licensing of Motor Vehicles (Arts. 1 — 7)
Article 7 - Motor Vehicle License Fees and Classes (§§ 40-2-150 — 40-2-168)
Annotations
JUDICIAL DECISIONS
Purpose. —Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 259 (see now O. C. G. A. § 40-2-150 et seq.) is properly construed as an Act providing for the licensing and registration of motor buses, the fees charged and collected thereunder to be used primarily for the maintenance of the highways, and not as an Act to levy an occupational tax on motor bus corporations using the highways to raise revenue for general purposes. Georgia Power Co. v. Musgrove, 77 Ga. App. 880, 50 S. E.2d 118, 1948 Ga. App. LEXIS 663 (1948).
Scope and extent of Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 259 (see now O. C. G. A. § 40-2-150 et seq.) shows a legislative intent to deal comprehensively with the registration and licensing of motor vehicles operated over the highways of this state. Its primary purpose seems to be the control and regulation of motor vehicles, and not the raising of revenue, although license and registration fees necessarily bring in revenue. Georgia Power Co. v. Musgrove, 77 Ga. App. 880, 50 S. E.2d 118, 1948 Ga. App. LEXIS 663 (1948).
Manifest purpose of Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 259 (see now O. C. G. A. § 40-2-150 et seq.) is to require each motor vehicle capable of operating generally over the highways and roadways of this state to be registered and a license obtained for the vehicle’s operation. Georgia Power Co. v. Musgrove, 77 Ga. App. 880, 50 S. E.2d 118, 1948 Ga. App. LEXIS 663 (1948).
While Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 259 (see now O. C. G. A. § 40-2-150 et seq.) was entitled an amendatory Act, it did not purport to be merely cumulative or auxiliary to the former Act on the same subject, but it was a comprehensive Act covering the entire subject of the levying of annual license fees for the registration and licensing of the operation of motor vehicles and the Act was evidently intended by the legislature as a complete revision of and substitute for the former Acts insofar as the former Act dealt with fixing the annual license fees for the registration and licensing of the operation of motor vehicles. Georgia Power Co. v. Musgrove, 77 Ga. App. 880, 50 S. E.2d 118, 1948 Ga. App. LEXIS 663 (1948).
License fees not a tax against public property. —License fee provided for in Ga. L. 1937-38, Ex. Sess., p. 259 (see now O. C. G. A. § 40-2-150 et seq.) is nothing more than a license fee, and is not in essence a revenue-raising measure. Therefore, it does not amount to the levying of a tax against public property. Burkett v. State, 198 Ga. 747, 32 S. E.2d 797, 1945 Ga. LEXIS 226 (1945).
Opinion Notes
OPINIONS OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL Classification of a vehicle depends upon the vehicle’s use,rather than the method by which the owner is compensated for use, or the ownership of the vehicle. 1954-56 Ga. Op. Att'y Gen. 484.
Research References & Practice Aids
RESEARCH REFERENCES Am. Jur. 2d.7A Am. Jur. 2d, Automobiles and Highway Traffic, §§ 53, 54, 56.
ALR.Tax on automobile or on its use for cost of road or street construction, improvement, or maintenance, 24 A. L. R. 937; 68 A. L. R. 200.
Constitutionality of retroactive statute imposing excise, license, or privilege tax, 146 A. L. R. 1011.
Deductibility of other taxes or fees in computing excise or license taxes, 148 A. L. R. 263; 174 A. L. R. 1263.
Municipality as subject to state license or excise taxes, 159 A. L. R. 365.
Hierarchy Notes:O. C. G. A. Title 40
O. C. G. A. Title 40, Ch. 2
- § 40-2-150. Definitions
- § 40-2-151. [Effective until July 1, 2027] Annual license fees for operation of vehicles; fee for permanent licensing of certain trailers; fee for new passenger car with paid title ad valorem taxes
- § 40-2-151. [Effective July 1, 2027] Annual license fees for operation of vehicles; fee for permanent licensing of certain trailers; fee for new passenger car with paid title ad valorem taxes
- § 40-2-151.1. Highway impact fees for heavy vehicles; use of funds
- § 40-2-151.2. Transportation Trust Fund established; funding; accounting
- § 40-2-152. Fees for apportionable vehicles; restricted license plates for vehicles
- § 40-2-153. [Reserved] Registration and licensing of makers and dealers of motor vehicles; application; fee; dealer’s number plate; prohibited uses; licensing of persons transporting motor vehicles, mobile homes, or house trailers; exemption of farm tractors
- § 40-2-154. License plates for different classes of vehicles; distinguishing markings
- § 40-2-155. Transfers of annual licenses and plates to certain other vehicles upon application, approval, and payment of fees
- § 40-2-156. Proportional license fees for certain vehicles registered during specific months
- § 40-2-157. Proportional license fees for certain vehicles registered under the International Registration Plan
- § 40-2-158. [Reserved] Fee assessment to registrants
- § 40-2-159. Time of application and payment for plate
- § 40-2-160. Liability of residents and nonresidents for taxes and fees; prorated fees for motor vehicles hauling seasonal state agricultural products
- § 40-2-161. Rate of annual license fee for vehicles carrying passengers over route of 50 miles or less
- § 40-2-162. Apportionment of cost of annual license fees of motor buses to motor common carriers of passengers for hire operating partially outside state; formula; rules
- § 40-2-163. Purchase by truck or tractor owner of higher weight license plate; payment of difference between fees
- § 40-2-164. Decrease of registered vehicle weight class
- § 40-2-165. Purchase of new license plate required for vehicles with excessive weight
- § 40-2-166. Violation of article; penalty
- § 40-2-167. Separately stated fees in a rental agreement; recoverable fees and taxes
- § 40-2-168. Registration and licensing of taxicabs and limousines; issuance of distinctive license plate
