50-state table · what the fee measures
How every state calculates car registration fees
11 states charge flat, 8 tax the car’s value, 7 weigh it, 4 count its birthdays, and 20 let counties decide. One table, all verified.
Four philosophies of charging for the same rectangle of metal
Every state charges to register a car; almost no two agree on what the charge should measure. 11 states charge a flat fee — a Corolla and a new luxury SUV pay the same. 8 tax the vehicle’s value, so the bill falls as the car ages. 7 charge by weight, 4 by the vehicle’s age outright, and 20 combine bases or hand the real charge to counties and towns, where it stops being a state number at all.
For a seller the basis matters twice. It sets what the buyer will actually pay to keep the car on the road — a value-based state adds hundreds a year to a newer car’s cost of ownership, a fact worth knowing before pricing. And it decides what a lapsed registration costs to fix before a sale, which is a story we tell state by state on the expired-registration table.
| State | Fee basis | The rule, in one line |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Mixed / county | Flat $23 plate fee; ad valorem tax base published only to county officials, not public. ↗ |
| Alaska | Mixed / county | Flat $100 biennial state fee, but DMV also collects each borough's age-tiered MVRT (Anchorage $70-$150) - often the larger half of the bill. ↗ |
| Arizona | Vehicle value | VLT is the real bill: $2.89 per $100 of 60% of base MSRP, cut 16.25% each year (min $10), atop $8 registration + $1.50 air-quality fee. ↗ |
| Arkansas | Flat fee | Flat weight-banded fee ($17-$30 passenger car); county property tax also required. ↗ |
| California | Mixed / county | Flat $76 reg + $34 CHP stack with two value-based charges - the 1.15% VLF (REG 365 table) and a $33-$231 TIF band - plus county fees. ↗ |
| Colorado | Mixed / county | SOT on 85% of original MSRP, declining with age, plus weight-based base fee and FASTER surcharges, an age fee and county-set fees. ↗ |
| Connecticut | Mixed / county | Connecticut: DMV side is flat - $120 per 3 years - but towns bill annual property tax (value x mill rate, cap 32.46), normally the larger half. ↗ |
| Delaware | Flat fee | Delaware: flat $40/year for passenger cars, usually billed two years at renewal; no weight or value part, EVs/hybrids add an alt-fuel fee. ↗ |
| Florida | Weight | Florida: Weight-banded license tax—$14.50 (under 2,500 lb), $22.50 (2,500-3,499), $32.50 (3,500+ lb). ↗ |
| Georgia | Flat fee | Annual plate fee is flat $20; 7% TAVT is a one-time title tax at each transfer; only pre-March-2013 cars still owe annual value-based ad valorem. ↗ |
| Hawaii | Mixed / county | Hawaii registration splits 70/30 county to state with four independent counties each setting weight tax rates by ordinance, making statewide computation impossible. ↗ |
| Idaho | Vehicle age | Age-banded: $69 for cars 1-2 years old, $57 for 3-6, $45 for 7+ (Idaho Code 49-402(1)); EVs add $140 a year, plug-in hybrids $75. ↗ |
| Illinois | Flat fee | Flat $151 passenger plate renewal ($148 base plus $1 State Police and $2 Park surcharges, 625 ILCS 5/3-806) - no value, weight or age component. ↗ |
| Indiana | Vehicle value | Indiana excise tax uses a 17-class by 10-age lookup table keyed to manufacturer's original retail price and model year, not a percentage or flat rate. ↗ |
| Iowa | Mixed / county | Iowa charges 1% of value plus 40 cents per 100 lbs of weight, stepped down with age; at 12 model years old the fee becomes a flat $50. ↗ |
| Kansas | Mixed / county | The $30/$40 weight-tier state fee is the small half: the county treasurer collects it together with a value-based motor vehicle property tax. ↗ |
| Kentucky | Mixed / county | Registration is a flat $11.50; the dominant charge is a January 1 ad valorem tax on average trade-in value at state plus local district rates. ↗ |
| Louisiana | Vehicle value | Value-based license tax: $10/year minimum plus $1 per $1,000 above $10,000, on a value frozen at purchase, collected two years in advance. ↗ |
| Maine | Mixed / county | Maine has a flat $35 state registration fee plus a municipal excise tax of MSRP times a statewide mill rate set by model year - 24 mills in year one stepping down to a 4-mill floor from year six ($24 to $4 per $1,000 of list price), minimum $5. ↗ |
| Maryland | Weight | Class A fee is banded by shipping weight — $120.50 to 3,500 lbs, $125.50 to 3,700, $191.50 over — with the $40/yr EMS surcharge already inside. ↗ |
| Massachusetts | Mixed / county | $60 biennial RMV plate fee plus the annual municipal excise: $25 per $1,000 of value, MSRP percentages stepping 90% down to a 10% floor, $5 minimum. ↗ |
| Michigan | Vehicle value | Percentage of original MSRP at depreciation levels 0-3; a used car's level is calendar year minus model year, capped at 3; pre-1984 goes by weight. ↗ |
| Minnesota | Vehicle value | $10 plus 1.575% of MSRP scaled by age (100% year 1 down to 10% year 10), $30 total from year 11; the tax can never rise on a car once registered. ↗ |
| Mississippi | Mixed / county | Flat $15.00 annual privilege tax plus county-set ad valorem personal property tax on MSRP-derived assessed value less Legislative Tag Credit. ↗ |
| Missouri | Mixed / county | State registration by taxable horsepower (NACC formula on bore and cylinders, $18-$51) plus county personal property tax set locally; no weight or value basis. ↗ |
| Montana | Vehicle age | Flat by age band: $217 up to 4 years, $87 for 5-10, $28 at 11+; $825 surcharge over $150k MSRP, plus any county option tax up to 0.7% of value. ↗ |
| Nebraska | Vehicle value | A flat $15 fee plus a motor-vehicle tax and fee, each set by value-when-new times an age fraction; the tax falls to $0 once a car is 14 years old. ↗ |
| Nevada | Vehicle value | Flat $33 plus 4% GST on 35% of original MSRP, depreciated to a 15% floor; Clark and Churchill counties add a 1-cent-per-dollar supplemental. ↗ |
| New Hampshire | Vehicle value | Two fees: a weight-banded state registration fee plus a municipal permit fee of 18 down to 3 mills on the maker's list price; the mill-rate ladder descends only by actually… ↗ |
| New Jersey | Mixed / county | Fee bands pair model-year era with shipping weight: post-1979 cars pay $46.50-$84, and a car within 2 model years pays $12.50 more than an older one. ↗ |
| New Mexico | Mixed / county | Weight and age combine: three weight bands at $27-$62 a year, each dropping once the car is in its sixth year; two-year terms cost double. ↗ |
| New York | Weight | Biennial and weight-based: $26-$140 per two years across 55 weight bands, plus county use tax and a $50 MCTD supplemental fee downstate. ↗ |
| North Carolina | Mixed / county | Mixed: flat $46.25 DMV fee plus a value-based county property tax billed with renewal (Tag & Tax Together); renewal is refused until the tax is paid. ↗ |
| North Dakota | Mixed / county | Annual fee banded by gross weight and by years since first registration (not model year), prorated monthly, with no late fee - the penalty statute was repealed in 1975; a buyer of a lapsed car pays one annual fee, but whether an owner renewing after a lapse owes back years is unresolved. ↗ |
| Ohio | Flat fee | Flat by class: $36 passenger renewal plus an $8 registrar fee and a district permissive tax up to $30; EVs add $200, hybrids $100. ↗ |
| Oklahoma | Vehicle age | Age-banded flat fee: $96/yr in registration years 1-4 stepping down to $26 from year 17; no value, weight, or county component. ↗ |
| Oregon | Flat fee | Flat biennial charge banded by MPG rating ($126-$376 per two years; $86 in OReGO); three counties add their own published fee. ↗ |
| Pennsylvania | Flat fee | Flat $48/yr passenger fee (MV-70S, CPI-indexed); no back-year or late fees; an insurance-lapse suspension ($500+$119) is the real cost. ↗ |
| Rhode Island | Weight | Weight-banded per registration year ($30/yr under 4,000 lb) plus surcharges, biennial for cars; no late fee; 90+ days lapsed may mean re-registering. ↗ |
| South Carolina | Mixed / county | Flat $40 biennial SCDMV fee ($36 at 65+), but the county's value-based property tax is normally the larger bill and gates the registration. ↗ |
| South Dakota | Weight | Banded by manufacturer shipping weight, $36-$144; cut to 70% once ten model years old (SDCL 32-5-30); county wheel tax can add on. ↗ |
| Tennessee | Flat fee | Flat state fee of $23.75 for Class B vehicles, plus county fees and earmarked surcharges (total unverified). ↗ |
| Texas | Weight | Weight-banded: $50.75 covers everything to 6,000 lb - nearly every car - then $54 to 10,000 lb; county local fee adds $0-$21.50 by lookup. ↗ |
| Utah | Vehicle age | Annual fee includes age-based uniform fee: $150 for under 3 years, declining to $10 at 12+ years old. ↗ |
| Vermont | Flat fee | Flat by fuel type: $91/yr gas or diesel ($167 for two), $135.50 plug-in hybrid, $178 EV; no weight, value, or age bands. ↗ |
| Virginia | Weight | Weight-banded: $30.75 up to 4,000 lbs, $35.75 to 6,500; past a 12-month lapse the record restarts forward with no back fees or late fee. ↗ |
| Washington | Mixed / county | $30 license fee plus scale-weight fee ($35-$96); inside the Sound Transit district a value-based RTA excise stacks on top. ↗ |
| West Virginia | Flat fee | West Virginia's fee is flat: $51.50/yr or $103/2yr (EVs +$200, hybrids +$100); county property-tax receipt gates renewal; no state late fee. ↗ |
| Wisconsin | Flat fee | Wisconsin charges flat $85 annual fee for automobiles; back fees apply for all elapsed time unless 12+ months non-operation claimed. ↗ |
| Wyoming | Mixed / county | Wyoming: flat $30 state fee plus a dominant county fee of 3% of factory price x year-of-service % (60% yr 1 to 15% yr 6+), $5 minimum. ↗ |
How this table was built
Each row comes from the state’s own fee schedule or code — the linked source — gathered for our per-state registration research and re-verified for this table. The row text names the actual mechanism (the mill rate, the band, the county add-on) rather than a dollar figure, because in half these states the dollar figure depends on the car or the county and a single number would be an invention.
The basis changes rarely; the rates inside it change constantly. Rows name the mechanism and link the schedule rather than printing dollar figures that would be stale by renewal season.