The in basket: Mrs. Road Warrior, aka TheJudybaker, had to renew
her car tab this month and was surprised to find wording on the
reminder the state Department of Licensing sent her that said we
now are required by law to provide the drivers license numbers of
all registered owners at the time of renewal.
Reluctant to have any more personal ID numbers on any more
documents than necessary, she asked if a person really has put the
drivers license numbers in the blank spaces provided or the tab
won’t be renewed.
The in basket: Mrs. Road Warrior, aka TheJudybaker, had to renew
her car tab this month and was surprised to find wording on the
reminder the state Department of Licensing sent her that said we
now are required by law to provide the drivers license numbers of
all registered owners at the time of renewal.
Reluctant to have any more personal ID numbers on any more
documents than necessary, she asked if a person really has put the
drivers license numbers in the blank spaces provided or the tab
won’t be renewed.
The out basket: Not yet, says Brad Benfield of DOL. And, sure
enough, the Kitsap County Auditor’s clerk to whom I presented the
form in buying the tab said it isn’t required.
The Legislature enacted the requirement in 2005, Brad said. “The
goal, as expressed by the bill reports at the time, is to reduce
sales tax
evasion by making sure our citizens have Washington state
driver
licenses and not licenses from other states that would exempt
them
from paying sales tax. It was sponsored by a legislator from Clark
County down on our southern border.”
Brad said DOL has asked its licensing agents and subagents to
educate those renewing their tab about the law since it went into
effect, “and not stop any transactions if someone didn’t happen to
have their license.
“Our original timeline was to require full compliance after one
complete renewal cycle (one year), but we recently implemented a
very large computer project that moved our entire vehicle titling
and
registration from a mainframe computer to a Microsoft
Windows-based computer environment. This is the system our agents
and subagents use and it has been quite a switch for them.
“(So) we decided to continue our ‘education mode’
for the driver license requirement a little longer so our partners
get … back up to normal
operational speed before having to focus on another big change.
“We do expect to tighten up our interpretation of the exceptions in
the near
future, but I can’t tell you exactly when that will happen,” he
said.
Good grief!! We license three vhicles at the moment. One in my name. One in my husband’s name, and one in both our names. The owner of a vehicle isn’t necessarily the driver of the vehicle, as in the case of cars being operated by teenage members of the family. What next? Hopefully, we won’t have numbers tattooed on our foreheads any time soon.
The answer you received from Brad Benfield dossn’t jibe with the current RCW. A valid driver’s license is not a requirement for vehicle ownership. RCW 46.16.010 para. 7.a.ii(A) allows a non-licensed person to certify that a vehicle is not driven on the public roads and get license tabs. Para. 7.a.ii.(B) allows for persons exempt from driver’s license requirements in accordance with RCW 46.20.25 which includes out of state drivers licenses. While a person other than the registered owner attempting to renew a license may be indicative of sales tax avoidance, having a Washington State License is not required. The case can be made for an unlicensed owner (although illogical to license a vehicle certified to not operate on the road) or an out of state owner with a valid license. And what of a case of a non-licensed parent who owns a vehicle for the primary use of a 16-18 year old who is not allowed vehicle ownership?
And if the owner of the vehicle doesn’t drive?
If the DOL needs my driver’s license number, they can look in their own records- it IS a license, you know.
One’s DL number is rapidly becoming as important as one’s SS number. There is no need to throw it about willy-nilly.