Nelson County, Virginia Tax Rates

Nelson County Tax Rates - At a Glance

Nelson County Current Tax Rates Summary (TY2025)

Tax Type	County Rate (per $100)	Notes
Real Estate	$0.650	Countywide - no town overlays (zero incorporated towns in Nelson).
General Personal Property	$2.790	Personal use vehicle rate may differ - confirm with the Commissioner of the Revenue
Machinery and Tools	$1.250	Materially lower than TPP - standard Virginia pattern
Merchants' Capital	$0.000	Standard Virginia pattern - Nelson switched to Business TPP decades ago
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 (Table 1; Nelson has no entries in Table 3 town rates or Table 4 county district levies). Verify current adopted rates with Nelson County.

Real Estate Tax

Rate and Assessment

Nelson County's real estate tax rate was $0.650 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 Nelson County Board of Supervisors. Nelson County uses fair-market-value assessment under Code of Virginia § 58.1-3201.

The entire county pays the $0.650 rate with no town overlays. Because Nelson County has zero incorporated towns, no Nelson rows appear in Virginia DOT TY2025 Table 3 (Town Tax Rates). The county seat Lovingston is an unincorporated Census-Designated Place. Other major communities including Nellysford, Roseland, Afton, Schuyler, Tyro, Faber, Massies Mill, Gladstone, and Piney River are also unincorporated and pay only the county rate. Wintergreen Resort is a private resort community governed by a property owners association rather than an incorporated town; Wintergreen properties also pay only the Nelson County rate. Nelson County does not appear in DOT Table 4 (County District Levies), so there are no countywide sanitary, transportation, or special-service district levies.

Verification note: Rates are from the Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey (tax year 2025). Verify the current adopted county rate at nelsoncounty-va.gov or by contacting the Nelson County Commissioner of the Revenue.

No Town Overlays (Unincorporated County)

Nelson County is one of a small group of Virginia counties with no incorporated towns. The Virginia DOT TY2025 Local Tax Rates Survey Table 3 (Town Tax Rates) does not include any rows for Nelson County. This means every parcel inside the county - whether in Lovingston, Nellysford, near Wintergreen Resort, or in any other community - pays only the $0.650/$100 real estate rate and the $2.790/$100 personal property rate. There is no town-level tax overlay anywhere in the county.

Exemptions and Relief Programs

Nelson 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 Nelson 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

Nelson County's general personal property tax rate was $2.790 per $100 of assessed value countywide for tax year 2025, as reported in the Virginia DOT Local Tax Rates Survey. The same rate applies everywhere in the county because Nelson has no incorporated towns. 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 Nelson County may differ from the $2.790 general rate. Contact the Nelson 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. Nelson 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 Nelson County Commissioner of the Revenue or visit nelsoncounty-va.gov 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).

Sales Tax

Rate and Composition

The combined sales tax rate in Nelson County is 5.3%. Nelson 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.

Nelson 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: Augusta County (west), Rockbridge County (southwest), and Amherst County (south, same publish sequence).

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

Geography and Context: Blue Ridge Foothills

Nelson County sits in central Virginia between Charlottesville (to the northeast) and Lynchburg (to the southeast), in the Blue Ridge foothills. The Blue Ridge Parkway and the Appalachian Trail both pass through the western portion of the county along the ridge. US-29 is the main north-south corridor, running through Lovingston (the unincorporated county seat). Nelson is home to several distinctive landmarks: Wintergreen Resort (private four-season mountain resort near Roseland), Crabtree Falls (tallest cascading waterfall east of the Mississippi, in the George Washington National Forest along VA-56 near Tyro), and the Schuyler community (childhood home of Earl Hamner Jr., creator of The Waltons TV series). The county was named for Thomas Nelson Jr., a signer of the Declaration of Independence and Governor of Virginia (1781).

Adjacent jurisdictions: Augusta County (live; west - Shenandoah Valley anchor; contains independent cities of Staunton and Waynesboro), Rockbridge County (live; southwest), Amherst County (live in this same publish sequence; south, James River side), unbuilt Albemarle County (east - Charlottesville MSA), and Buckingham County (live 2026-05-19; east - central VA / Piedmont, Carter G. Woodson birthplace).

Central Virginia Cluster Context

Nelson County completes the central Virginia cluster northward extension in tonight's nightly run, paired with Slot 71 Amherst County. The cluster now reads contiguously from Bedford in the southwest through Lynchburg, Amherst, Nelson, Rockbridge, and Augusta to the Shenandoah Valley anchor at Rockingham County. Nelson is the bridge piece: adjacent to live Augusta on the west (Shenandoah Valley side) and to live Rockbridge on the southwest, plus same-sequence Amherst on the south. Nelson is also the geographic gateway to the Charlottesville MSA via its eastern Albemarle County border, an unbuilt cluster anchor that becomes triple-live-adjacent (Augusta, Nelson, plus Lynchburg via Amherst) once Nelson goes live tonight. All counties in this cluster levy the same 5.3% Virginia general sales tax rate (Lynchburg City applies the higher 6.0% Central VA regional rate); their real estate, TPP, and M&T rates vary considerably by jurisdiction.