Registration and title fees
Put the government fees for registering a car in one place: what you pay at the counter now, which fees come back, and what they cost per year. Sales tax and dealer fees stay out of it.
Copy the amounts from your DMV’s fee chart (New York: fee charts and estimator) and the worksheet sorts them into what’s due now and what each year costs.
It doesn’t know any state’s fee schedule yet.
Check these fields
Your fees
How the worksheet works
- Due now is every fee you entered, including multi-year registrations paid up front.
- Per year counts only fees that come back, each divided by the years it covers.
- A blank amount is unknown: the total leaves it out and names it. Enter 0 when a fee doesn’t apply.
- Sales or use tax is not a registration fee and isn’t included. Neither are dealer charges such as documentation fees.
A worked example
Fictional fees, not any state’s schedule.
| Title certificateone time | $50.00 |
|---|---|
| Plate feeone time | $25.00 |
| Registrationevery 2 years | $60.00 |
| Local feeevery 2 years | $10.00 |
| Due now | $145.00 |
The recurring part is $70 every two years, so $35.00 a year. Half the amount due now ($72.50) would be wrong: the title and plates are paid once.
Where to find the fees
- New York: the DMV’s registration fee, use tax and supplemental fee charts (by vehicle weight and county) and its fee estimator.
- New Jersey: the MVC’s initial registration page.
- Elsewhere: your state DMV or motor vehicle agency’s fee schedule.
Questions
Why doesn’t this know my state’s fees?
Fees depend on weight, county, fuel type and dates, and they change. Rather than guess, the worksheet uses the numbers from your DMV until a state’s schedule has been built in and checked against official sources.
Is sales tax part of registration?
Often you pay it at the same time, but it isn’t a registration fee. Estimate it with the out-the-door calculator.