If you are or ever going to buy a car in Va. read this

Illinois does the same thing, just not at the counter. I traded a truck for a car this past summer. The book value of the truck was maybe $11k. I filled out the paperwork to reflect the "purchase price" of the car to be the value of what I trade following the advice of the lady at the DMV. Two months later I got a letter from the department of revenue stating I owed something like $4k in taxes and they were going to start collecting interest on that. They figured my car was worth $67K. I called and spoke with a gentleman at the department of revenue who said to just send them a copy of the bill of sale showing the transaction. I did and the new tax figure was dropped back to the $25 I paid. The guy said they don't even have any books to show value and he guessed they just pull the figure out of thin air since there is no actual chart for value. He laughed and said it was just his job to "fix it" when this happens.
Lesson learned, never buy without a bill of sale signed by you and the seller. This means if you are flipping titles, you might get a letter too.