Indiana Car Registration Cost: Fees, Excise Tax and Wheel Tax

There is no single Indiana car registration cost. Every registration, the first one and each renewal, pays the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) a registration fee and the Transportation Infrastructure Improvement Fee, plus an annual vehicle excise tax set by the car's class and age. Some counties and cities add their own vehicle tax, hybrids and electric cars pay a supplemental fee, and a new Indiana title in your name adds the title fee.

This guide takes each part in turn with the figures the BMV publishes for 2026, the full excise table and worked examples, then covers what a new resident pays the first time and how excise comes back when you sell or move. For the branch visit, the documents and the VIN inspection, see our guide on how to register an out-of-state car in Indiana.

How Much Does It Cost to Register a Car in Indiana?

Add up three parts: the BMV's flat fees, the state excise tax for your car, and any county or municipal tax where it is registered. For a gasoline passenger car the flat fees are the same everywhere, so the excise and the local tax account for most of the difference between one bill and another.

Take a car whose original retail price puts it in Class 14 ($25,000 to $29,999), registered in 2026 with a 2024 model year, so its age is two. Its renewal bill is the $21.35 registration fee, the $15 Transportation Infrastructure Improvement Fee and $265 in state excise, which comes to $301.35 where neither the county nor the city charges a local vehicle tax.

Registered in Marion County in 2026, the same car adds the county surtax of 10 percent of the state excise, $26.50, for $327.85. A hybrid version adds $81 to either figure.

What Fees Are on an Indiana Registration?

The BMV's fee chart, revised January 1, 2026, sets these amounts for a passenger car:

• Registration fee, $21.35. Paid at the first registration and at every renewal. The chart lists passenger registration among the fees that are not prorated.
• Transportation Infrastructure Improvement Fee, $15. Charged on every motor vehicle registration, first and renewal, as part of the road funding package the General Assembly passed in 2017.
• Title fee, $15. The fee to issue an Indiana title in your name, which a new resident pays when bringing a car titled in another state. A speed title costs $25.
• Plate options. Extra only if you choose them: $45 for a personalized plate message, $37 for an authentic model year plate and a varying fee for distinctive plates. Transferring, amending or replacing a plate, decal or registration certificate costs $9.50.
• Penalties. $30 for a late title and $15 for late registration, which includes renewing after the expiration date.

The excise tax is charged on top of these fees, and unlike the registration fee it depends on the car.

What Do Hybrid and Electric Cars Pay?

A supplemental fee on top of everything else: $81 for a hybrid and $242 for an electric vehicle on the 2026 fee chart. Like the infrastructure fee, it comes from the 2017 road funding package and is paid at the first registration and at every renewal.

The BMV applies the fee to every hybrid or electric vehicle that has to be registered. The exemptions are motor driven cycles, government entities, vehicles required to provide a fuel tax license and, from January 1, 2027, low speed vehicles.

How Is the Indiana Vehicle Excise Tax Calculated?

The excise is an annual tax that has to be paid to register a vehicle in Indiana, and most vehicles owe it. For a passenger car, two things set the amount:

• Class. Set by the vehicle's value as determined by the manufacturer's original retail price, not by what you paid or what the car is worth today. There are 17 classes, from Class 1 under $1,500 to Class 17 at $42,500 and over.
• Age. The calendar year the car is due to be registered minus its model year. A 2026 model registered in 2026 is age 0, and a 2024 model registered in 2026 is age 2.

The tax drops or holds steady as the car ages, and from age 9 it stays at the 9+ figure, which is $12 for Classes 1 to 10 and between $21 and $50 for the higher classes. The BMV publishes the rates on its Excise Tax Information page:

A passenger vehicle of model year 1980 or older skips the table and pays a flat $12. Other vehicle types have flat rates of their own, among them $30 for mini trucks, $10 for motor driven cycles and $8 for vehicles registered as military vehicles and for trailers of 9,000 pounds or less, and recreational vehicles have a separate table.

To find your figure, take the class from the car's original retail price and the age from its model year, then read the cell where they meet. Three examples for registrations in 2026:

• A 2024 model in Class 14. An original retail price between $25,000 and $29,999 and an age of 2, so $265. The same car pays $228 in 2027 and $195 in 2028.
• A 2026 model in Class 17. An original retail price of $42,500 or more and an age of 0, so $532, the highest figure in the passenger table. Four years later, at age 4, it pays $296.
• A 2016 model in Class 9. An original retail price between $10,000 and $12,499 and an age of 10, so it falls in the 9+ column at $12.

Because the class comes from the original price, a car that has lost most of its market value can still sit in a high class. The age column is what brings the bill down.

Do Counties and Cities Add a Wheel Tax or Excise Tax?

Some do. A county that adopts a vehicle tax by ordinance charges it on vehicles registered there, either as a flat amount or as a percentage, and a city or town that adopts one charges a flat amount. The tax is paid with the registration.

For a passenger car, the local charge is the county or municipal vehicle excise tax, often called a surtax. The wheel tax is a separate local tax on heavier vehicles: buses, recreational vehicles, semitrailers, trailers over 9,000 pounds and trucks and tractors over 11,000 pounds. Where a county or city has adopted a local tax, a car, a motorcycle or a truck of 11,000 pounds or less pays the surtax, not the wheel tax.

New or changed rates follow a fixed calendar. BMV guidance for county officials says an ordinance adopted on or before September 1 is charged from January 1 of the next year, and one adopted later waits until January 1 of the year after that.

Marion County, which covers Indianapolis, is changing its rates. Its surtax is 10 percent of the state excise, with a $7.50 minimum.

City-County General Ordinance No. 44, 2026, passed by the City-County Council on July 6 and adopted when the council overrode the mayor's veto on August 10, replaces that with a flat $100 a year on passenger cars, motorcycles and trucks under 11,000 pounds, and sets the county wheel tax at $240 for buses, recreational vehicles, semitrailers, tractors, trailers and trucks.

Because it was adopted before September 1, state law applies the new rates to vehicles registered after December 31, 2026, and a vehicle that pays the surtax does not also pay the wheel tax.

What Does a New Resident Pay at the First Registration?

The first Indiana registration combines a one-time charge with the yearly ones: the $15 title fee, the $21.35 registration fee, the $15 infrastructure fee, the state excise, any county or municipal tax and, for a hybrid or electric car, the supplemental fee. Title the car within 60 days of moving to avoid the $30 late title penalty.

The excise on that first registration is prorated. Indiana Code 6-6-5-7.2 charges it by the month: the annual figure from the table, divided by 12, times the number of months until the car's next registration date, with a partial month counted as a full one.

The same rule covers a car that was registered in another state during the same calendar year, and the BMV's new resident packet asks new residents to give the date they moved to Indiana at the title transfer so the tax can be prorated. A car whose annual excise is $265 and whose first registration runs seven months is charged seven twelfths of $265.

How long that first registration runs is partly your choice. Under Indiana Code 9-18.1-11-3, it starts when the car becomes subject to Indiana registration and ends, as you select, either on the expiration date in Indiana's registration schedule or 12 months later, and it cannot be shorter than three months or longer than 24. The $21.35 registration fee is not prorated.

Is There an Indiana Excise Tax Calculator?

The BMV's own estimator is Quick Quote, also linked from its site as Estimate My Plates. It is designed to estimate the price of a new registration from the details you enter, and it cannot estimate annual renewals. The BMV says the actual cost can differ because of credits and transfer fees, including credits for taxes paid on earlier registrations, which Quick Quote cannot calculate, and it asks customers not to prepare payments such as checks from the estimate.

For a renewal, the excise table above does the work: move one column to the right each year, then add the flat fees and any local tax.

Can You Get Excise Tax Back When You Sell the Car or Move?

Yes, part of it. The BMV takes the Application for Vehicle Excise Tax Credit / Refund, State Form 55296, in two situations: you sold or destroyed the car, or it is now registered in a different state. The state vehicle excise and county and municipal vehicle excise taxes qualify.

After a sale, Indiana law sets the credit at the tax you paid, reduced by one twelfth for each full or partial month of the registration year that passed before the sale. The credit can be applied toward any other BMV transaction, such as registering your next car.

If the car was sold, destroyed or otherwise disposed of, any credit left after 90 days is refunded by check. If the car was registered in another state, the BMV mails a refund check once it processes the application. A refund must be at least $4, and the BMV deducts a $3 processing fee.

Proof goes with the form: proof of the sale, disposal or trade-in for a sold car, an insurer's statement that the car was a total loss, showing its VIN, for a destroyed one, or a copy of the new state's registration or registration receipt for a car registered elsewhere, with the Indiana registration if you have it. A mover leaving Indiana uses the same form once the car is registered in the new state.

Disabled veterans may also qualify for excise tax credits. Indiana law lets some disabled veterans apply their property tax deduction against the excise, and the BMV refers them to the Indiana Department of Veterans Affairs for eligibility.

Is the Excise Tax the Same as Sales Tax?

No. The excise is an annual tax that comes with every registration for as long as the car is registered in Indiana. Sales tax is a one-time 7 percent tax on a purchase.

A new resident who brings a car they already own pays no Indiana sales tax on it, according to the BMV, but still pays the excise at every registration.

What Should You Know if You Ship Your Car to Indiana?

A shipped car arrives on its current plates and registration, and the Indiana bill comes due at the branch, not on delivery. Keep the title and a note of the date you moved with your papers rather than in the car, since the branch uses that date to prorate the excise.

Rivalane coordinates door to door car shipping into Indiana with licensed, insured carriers. Carrier assignment typically takes one to three working days after booking, and pickup and delivery dates are estimates rather than guarantees, so book with time to spare before the 60-day title deadline. For the route, see our page on car shipping from New York to Indiana; for deliveries anywhere in the state, car shipping in Indiana; and for a quick estimate, the car shipping calculator.

Frequently Asked Questions