Buckingham County, Virginia Tax Rates

Buckingham County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Buckingham County Current Tax Rates Summary (TY2025)

Tax Type	County Rate (per $100)	Notes
Real Estate	$0.600	Town of Dillwyn adds +$0.120 overlay (combined $0.720 inside town).
General Personal Property	$4.050	Personal use vehicle rate may differ - confirm with the Commissioner of the Revenue
Machinery and Tools	$2.900	Lower than TPP - standard Virginia pattern
Merchants' Capital	$1.000	Rare nonzero - Buckingham is among the minority of VA counties that retained MC. Town of Dillwyn also adds +$0.350 MC overlay (also uncommon).
Sales Tax	5.3% (4.3% state + 1.0% local; not in a regional transportation district; qualifying groceries 1.0%)

All rates from Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey TY2025 (Tables 1 and 3). Verify current adopted rates with Buckingham County.

Real Estate Tax

Rate and Assessment

Buckingham County's real estate tax rate was $0.600 per $100 of assessed value countywide for tax year 2025, as reported in the Virginia Department of Taxation Local Tax Rates Survey Table 1 (County Levies). The rate is set annually by the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors. Buckingham County uses fair-market-value assessment under Code of Virginia § 58.1-3201.

Outside the Town of Dillwyn, properties pay only the $0.600 county rate. Inside the Town of Dillwyn (the only incorporated municipality in the county), the Virginia DOT TY2025 Table 3 lists a town real estate overlay of $0.120/$100 on top of the county rate, for a combined $0.720/$100. Buckingham County does not appear in DOT Table 4 (County District Levies), so there are no countywide sanitary, transportation, or special-service district levies.

Disambiguation: The administrative seat called "Buckingham" is an unincorporated community at the courthouse area off US-15 - NOT an incorporated town. There is no separate "Town of Buckingham" levy in DOT Table 3. Properties at the courthouse and across the rest of unincorporated Buckingham County pay only the county rate.

Verification note: Rates are from the Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey (tax year 2025). Verify the current adopted county rate at buckinghamcountyva.org or by contacting the Buckingham County Commissioner of the Revenue.

Incorporated Town Overlays

One incorporated town is inside Buckingham County per the Virginia DOT TY2025 Local Tax Rates Survey Table 3 (Town Tax Rates). The Town of Dillwyn overlay applies uniformly to all four DOT columns - real estate, tangible personal property, machinery and tools, and merchants' capital. This uniform town MC overlay is uncommon in the dataset.

Buckingham County Town Tax Overlays (TY2025 per DOT Table 3, per $100 assessed value)

Town	Real Estate	Tangible Personal Property	Machinery & Tools	Merchants' Capital
Town of Dillwyn	$0.120	$0.350	$0.350	$0.350

Combined real estate rate inside the Town of Dillwyn town limits: $0.600 (county) + $0.120 (town) = $0.720/$100. Combined personal property: $4.050 (county) + $0.350 (town) = $4.400/$100. Combined machinery and tools: $2.900 (county) + $0.350 (town) = $3.250/$100. Combined merchants' capital: $1.000 (county) + $0.350 (town) = $1.350/$100. Outside the town, only the county rates apply. Verify current Town of Dillwyn rates with the town government before making financial decisions.

Exemptions and Relief Programs

Buckingham County offers tax relief programs for qualifying senior citizens and disabled residents. Disabled veterans who are 100% service-connected disabled may qualify for a full real estate tax exemption on their primary residence under Code of Virginia § 58.1-3219.5. Contact the Buckingham County Commissioner of the Revenue for current eligibility thresholds and procedures.

Source: Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey TY2025 (pdfplumber extraction, direct from source).

Vehicle Personal Property Tax

Rate and Assessment Method

Buckingham County's general personal property tax rate was $4.050 per $100 of assessed value countywide for tax year 2025, as reported in the Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey. Inside the Town of Dillwyn, an additional $0.350/$100 town TPP overlay applies (combined $4.400/$100). Under Code of Virginia § 58.1-3503, localities assess vehicles using a recognized pricing guide as of January 1 of the tax year.

Important note on rate classification: The Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey reports the general tangible personal property rate. The DOT survey explicitly states that "certain items of property, including vehicles, may be considered separate classifications and may be taxed at a different tax rate." The current personal use vehicle rate in Buckingham County may differ from the $4.050 general rate. Contact the Buckingham County Commissioner of the Revenue to confirm the rate that applies to your vehicle.

PPTRA Relief

Virginia's Personal Property Tax Relief Act (PPTRA), Code of Virginia § 58.1-3524, provides partial state-funded relief on the first $20,000 of assessed value for qualifying personal use vehicles. Virginia distributes a fixed annual block grant of $950 million among all localities. Buckingham County calculates its annual PPTRA relief percentage based on its share of that grant and the total qualifying vehicle assessed value in the county. This percentage changes each year. For a deeper explanation of how PPTRA works, see our Virginia PPTRA explained guide.

PPTRA percentage pending official confirmation. Contact the Buckingham County Commissioner of the Revenue or visit buckinghamcountyva.org to confirm the current-year vehicle personal property tax rate and PPTRA relief percentage.

Rate source: Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey TY2025 (pdfplumber extraction, direct from source).

Merchants' Capital Tax (Rare in Virginia)

Buckingham County levies a Merchants' Capital tax of $1.000 per $100 of assessed value for tax year 2025 per Virginia DOT. Most Virginia counties levy $0.000 Merchants' Capital because they substituted Business Tangible Personal Property under Code of Virginia § 58.1-3508.1 decades ago. Buckingham is part of a small minority of Virginia counties (along with Floyd, Appomattox, Carroll, Buchanan, Bland, Charles City, Charlotte, Dickenson, Essex, and a handful of others per DOT TY2025 Table 1) that retained the historical Merchants' Capital framework.

Notably, the Town of Dillwyn ALSO applies a town Merchants' Capital overlay of $0.350/$100 on top of the county rate. Most Virginia towns in DOT Table 3 apply $0.000 to the Merchants' Capital column even when their county does levy MC. Town-level MC overlays are uncommon. If you operate a business in the Town of Dillwyn, your combined MC rate is $1.350/$100.

If you operate a business in Buckingham County selling tangible personal property at retail or wholesale, contact the Buckingham County Commissioner of the Revenue for filing requirements, capital assessment methodology, and current return deadlines. Merchants' Capital filing is materially different from Business TPP filing - the assessment base, exemptions, and tax accounting differ between the two regimes.

Source: Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey TY2025 Table 1 and Table 3 (pdfplumber extraction).

Sales Tax

Rate and Composition

The combined sales tax rate in Buckingham County is 5.3%. Buckingham County is not within the Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads, or Central Virginia regional transportation districts, so no 0.7% regional levy applies. The standard Virginia statewide rate applies countywide. Towns do not add their own sales tax in Virginia.

Buckingham County Sales Tax Rate Breakdown

Component	Rate
Virginia state rate	4.3%
Local rate	1.0%
Combined rate	5.3%

Qualifying food and grocery items are subject to Virginia's reduced 1.0% state rate. Adjacent live county pages at the same 5.3% rate: Appomattox County (south) and Nelson County (northwest).

Source: Virginia Department of Taxation - Retail Sales and Use Tax (tax.virginia.gov)

Geography and Context: Central Virginia / Piedmont

Buckingham County sits in the heart of the Virginia Piedmont, roughly between Charlottesville and Farmville. The James River forms much of the northern boundary. The administrative seat, Buckingham, is an unincorporated community at the historic Buckingham County Courthouse (the courthouse was designed by Thomas Jefferson but burned in 1869; the current building dates from 1869 with later additions). The only incorporated municipality is the Town of Dillwyn (formerly known as Five Forks until incorporation in 1908). The county is sparsely populated, predominantly rural, and economically anchored by agriculture, forestry, the long-running Buckingham Slate quarries, and the federal Buckingham Correctional Center.

Cultural and historical anchors:

• Carter G. Woodson (1875 to 1950), known as the "Father of Black History Month," was born on December 19, 1875, in New Canton in Buckingham County. He earned a PhD from Harvard in 1912 and launched Negro History Week in February 1926, the precursor to today's Black History Month. The Carter G. Woodson Memorial Park is in Buckingham County.
• Buckingham Slate has been quarried in the county since the 1700s and used as roofing slate on Monticello, the US Capitol, the West Point Cadet Chapel, and Robert E. Lee's tomb at Washington and Lee University. The slate is known for very long lifespan (often 100+ years) and uniform dark color. Active quarries remain in operation.
• Yogaville / Satchidananda Ashram and the LOTUS Shrine (Light of Truth Universal Shrine) were founded in 1980 by Sri Swami Satchidananda in the southern part of the county, near the James River.
• Holiday Lake State Park is located in Buckingham County (shared use with the historic 4-H Educational Center).

Adjacent jurisdictions: Appomattox County (live; south - Appomattox Court House National Historical Park), Nelson County (live; northwest - Blue Ridge foothills), Cumberland County (live 2026-05-21; east), unbuilt Albemarle County (north - Charlottesville MSA), unbuilt Fluvanna County (northeast), Prince Edward County (live 2026-05-21; southwest), and Charlotte County (live 2026-05-20; south - southern Piedmont).

Central Virginia / Piedmont Cluster Context

Buckingham County extends the central Virginia / Piedmont cluster that has grown steadily over the past several nightly runs. Tonight's batch (Buckingham + Carroll) builds on the prior nightly runs that closed Appomattox (2026-05-18) and Amherst + Nelson (2026-05-16). From Buckingham you can travel through entirely live county pages: north through Nelson to Augusta and Rockbridge (Blue Ridge / Shenandoah Valley boundary), or south through Appomattox to Bedford and the City of Lynchburg. Buckingham's $0.600 county RE rate is the median of its live neighbors (Appomattox $0.630, Nelson $0.650). All three (Buckingham, Appomattox, and the new Floyd / Carroll southwestern pair) belong to the small minority of Virginia counties that still levy a non-zero Merchants' Capital tax under the pre-1979 framework.