Maine Excise Tax: Vehicle Rates, Calculator and Sales Tax Rules

Maine taxes a car in two separate ways. The vehicle excise tax is an annual local tax, paid to the town or city where you live before registration and worked out from the car's original sticker price and model year. Sales tax, or use tax when no Maine dealer collects it, is a one-time 5.5 percent state tax on a purchase. A payment toward one never counts toward the other.

This guide covers the excise first, from the mill rates to credits and exemptions, then sales and use tax, including cars brought from home and tax paid in another state. If the car is coming from New York, our page on New York to Maine car shipping covers the lane itself. The rules come from Maine Revenue Services, the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV), the Maine Revised Statutes and New York's Department of Taxation and Finance.

What Is Maine's Vehicle Excise Tax?

Maine law defines the excise as a tax levied every year for the privilege of operating a vehicle on public ways. Apart from a few statutory exemptions, every vehicle registered in Maine owes it, and it is paid before the registration is issued or renewed. Maine Revenue Services explains the rules on its excise tax page, but the money stays with the town that collects it, which typically spends it on local roads.

Unlike sales tax, the excise ignores where and when you bought the car. It comes back every year the car stays registered, and it shrinks as the model ages.

How Is Maine Excise Tax Calculated?

The town multiplies the vehicle's maker's list price, in practice the manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP), by a mill rate set in section 1482 of Title 36. A mill is a thousandth of a dollar, so 24 mills means $24 of tax for every $1,000 of MSRP. The rate steps down as the model ages:

• Year 1. 24 mills, the rate for the first or current year of model.
• Year 2. 17.5 mills.
• Year 3. 13.5 mills.
• Year 4. 10 mills.
• Year 5. 6.5 mills.
• Year 6 and later. 4 mills, with a minimum tax of $5.

Model years, not purchase dates, set the step. Maine Revenue Services says the rates drop back on January 1 each year, and its Property Tax Bulletin No. 13 counts a current-year model, or a new model registered in its first year of availability, as year 1. For a car registered during 2026, that puts a 2026 model in year 1, a 2025 model in year 2 and a 2021 or older model at the year 6 rate. When the same owner renews the same car, the law assesses it as if it were in its next year of model.

The price is the MSRP when the car was new, including the accessories and equipment on it, not the price you paid. For a new car bought from a licensed dealer, the town asks for the window sticker or a copy of it. For used cars, Maine Revenue Services points to guides such as the J.D. Power Official Used Car Guide and the Automobile Red Book, and many towns use Red Book software that looks up the MSRP by vehicle identification number (VIN).

Can You Estimate It With a Maine Excise Tax Calculator?

Yes. With the MSRP and the model year, you can run the town's arithmetic yourself. Maine Revenue Services gives its own example: a three-year-old vehicle with a $19,500 MSRP pays $263.25, which is $19,500 times 0.0135. A hypothetical car with a $30,000 MSRP shows how the bill falls as the car ages:

• Year 1. $30,000 times 0.024 is $720.
• Year 2. $30,000 times 0.0175 is $525.
• Year 3. $30,000 times 0.0135 is $405.
• Year 4. $30,000 times 0.010 is $300.
• Year 5. $30,000 times 0.0065 is $195.
• Year 6 and later. $30,000 times 0.004 is $120 a year.

These figures only illustrate the statutory rates. The town works out the real bill from the MSRP it confirms for your car, and Maine Revenue Services gives quotes only to municipal tax collectors, not to individuals, so the town office is where to confirm a figure. Some towns post an excise calculator on their own websites.

Where and When Do You Pay Maine Excise Tax?

An individual Maine resident pays the excise to the municipality where they live. A nonresident pays where they are temporarily or occasionally living in Maine, or otherwise the Secretary of State, and a car leased for a month or longer is taxed where it would be if the lessee owned it.

You pay before the car is registered. The excise on a new registration covers one year from the registration date, and the registration expires on the last day of the month one year after it was issued, so the excise comes due again before each renewal. Some towns also offer Rapid Renewal, the state's online service that renews the registration and collects the excise together.

Do New Residents Pay Maine Excise Tax?

Yes. Moving to Maine does not exempt a car, so a newcomer pays the excise at the town office before the first Maine registration, on the car's MSRP and model year.

Nothing paid to another state reduces it. The excise credits in section 1482 cover only Maine tax already paid on a vehicle, so sales tax, registration fees or any similar tax paid in New York or elsewhere do not count against Maine's annual excise. Tax paid in another state matters only for Maine use tax, covered below.

Vehicles allowed to run without Maine registration under section 109 of Title 29-A are exempt: those of nonresidents, students at Maine schools included, who keep a valid registration and license from their home state and use the car noncommercially. Once Maine becomes your home, the excise applies, and our guide to registering an out-of-state car in Maine covers the 30-day deadline and the documents.

What Happens When You Sell, Trade or Replace a Car?

Excise already paid is not lost. Section 1482 credits the tax paid that registration year on one vehicle, up to that amount, toward another vehicle when ownership is transferred, the car is totally lost by fire, theft or accident, it is junked or abandoned, or its use is totally discontinued, which needs the owner's signed statement. The town charges $3 for each transfer, the credit does not cover that fee, and the old registration's expiration date carries over to the replacement car.

Using the $30,000 car again: you paid $720 in its first year, then early in the registration year you replace it with a new car carrying a $35,000 MSRP. The new car's tax is $840 at 24 mills, the $720 credit leaves $120, and the $3 transfer fee makes the balance $123.

In the last four months of the registration year, the credit is capped at half the tax paid, and Bulletin No. 13 says a replacement car registered in that window generally owes only half the calculated tax. If the credit is larger than the new tax, the town may refund the difference but does not have to. The credit also moves with you inside Maine, since a new town must allow credit for excise paid to your former town.

Who Is Exempt From Maine Excise Tax?

Section 1483 of Title 36 lists the exemptions. Besides the nonresident exemption above, most cover government, institutional or dealer vehicles. These are the ones individual owners meet most often:

• Qualifying veterans. Up to three automobiles owned by a veteran who receives free registration under section 523 of Title 29-A, or federal pension or compensation for a total, service-connected disability, with the veteran's name on the title.
• Automobiles leased by disabled veterans. From July 1, 2026, Maine Revenue Services says a veteran receiving compensation for a total, service-connected disability can also exempt up to three leased automobiles, with their name on the lease.
• Active-duty service members. Vehicles owned by someone on active duty who is permanently stationed at a post in or outside Maine, or deployed for more than 180 days under the statute's rules, including one owned jointly with a spouse. The member needs eligibility documentation from their commander or the commander's designated agent.
• Adaptive equipment. Equipment that makes a vehicle usable by a disabled person is exempt, so the tax is figured on the MSRP without it.

These are excise exemptions only. Maine Revenue Services notes that there is no general sales tax exemption for veterans or military personnel.

How Is Maine Sales and Use Tax Different From Excise?

Sales tax is a one-time state tax on the purchase, at the 5.5 percent general rate Maine Revenue Services lists for 2026, and it is based on the price rather than the MSRP. Use tax is the same 5.5 percent, charged at registration when no Maine sales tax was collected.

A Maine dealer must collect sales tax and give you a bill of sale that shows it, or shows that the sale is exempt. If you buy from a private seller or from a dealer outside Maine, you complete the Use Tax Certificate and pay any use tax before the registration is issued, as Maine Revenue Services' Instructional Bulletin No. 42 explains. A trade-in lowers the taxable amount only when it is the same kind of vehicle, dealer documentation and prep fees count as part of the price, and manufacturer's rebates are not deducted.

Neither tax replaces the other. A car bought from a Maine dealer pays sales tax once, then the excise before registration and before every renewal.

Do You Owe Maine Use Tax on a Car You Already Own When You Move?

Usually not, if it is an automobile you bought and used in your former state while you were a resident there. Subsection 45 of section 1760 of Title 36 exempts that purchase from Maine use tax, with no minimum period of use for an automobile. You claim the exemption in box B of the Use Tax Certificate and show the out-of-state registration.

Bulletin No. 42 counts pickups and vans of 10,000 pounds gross vehicle weight or less as automobiles, but not motorcycles, mopeds, motor homes, recreational vehicles, buses, stock cars or autos registered as antiques. Those need more than 12 months of use outside Maine, and one that has to be registered must have been registered by you in the other state for more than 12 months before its Maine registration. Storage does not count as use.

A nonresident who buys a vehicle in Maine and takes it out of the state on delivery pays no Maine sales tax, but owes use tax on the original price if the vehicle is registered in Maine within 12 months of the purchase, under subsection 23-C. None of this changes the annual excise.

What If You Buy a Car Outside Maine, for Example in New York?

Maine use tax applies, less credit for sales or use tax paid to the other state. Under section 1862 of Title 36, if that tax equals or exceeds Maine's, no use tax is due, and if it is less, you pay the difference, claimed in box C of the Use Tax Certificate with the bill of sale, invoice or receipt. On a $20,000 car from an out-of-state dealer with no trade-in, Maine use tax is $1,100, so $800 paid to the other state leaves $300 to pay.

A purchase from a New York dealer often ends with no New York tax at all. New York's Tax Bulletin ST-590 exempts a nonresident from New York state and local sales tax when the buyer gives the dealer Form DTF-820 at the time of sale and meets its conditions: no permanent place of abode in New York, no New York business use of the car and no New York registration, including a temporary one. With nothing to credit, the full 5.5 percent Maine use tax is due at registration, $1,100 on the example above. Our guide to buying a car in New York as an out-of-state resident covers the New York side of the sale.

If the dealer collected New York sales tax instead, for example because no DTF-820 was given, keep the receipt: that tax counts against the Maine use tax. It never counts against the annual excise, which allows credit only for tax already paid in Maine.

Are Gifts, Inherited Cars and Family Transfers Taxed?

For use tax, it turns on whether there was a sale. Bulletin No. 42 treats a true gift with nothing given in return, a car passed to a beneficiary under a will and a transfer between spouses under a court-ordered divorce decree as not taxable. Taking over someone's loan balance counts as payment, so use tax is due on the amount assumed, and a joint owner's share passing to the other owners is a taxable casual sale even between spouses or relatives. A sale by an estate's personal representative is generally taxable.

The excise follows its own rules. None of these transfers is an excise exemption, so whoever registers the car pays the excise unless another exemption applies, and for the excise credit the law counts a surviving spouse as the owner.

What Should You Bring to the Town Office?

Bring the items that fit your situation:

• Proof of the car's history. The out-of-state registration for a car you already own, or the bill of sale for a purchase.
• The window sticker. Or a copy, for a new car bought from a licensed dealer.
• The Use Tax Certificate. With box B for a car you bought and used while living in your former state, or box C to claim credit for tax paid elsewhere.
• Proof of tax paid elsewhere. A bill of sale, invoice or receipt showing the other state's sales or use tax.
• Exemption paperwork. Your commander's eligibility documentation, or a letter showing total service-connected disability compensation.
• A signed statement. Needed to claim the excise credit when you have totally discontinued use of the old car rather than selling it.

How Does Shipping Fit a Move or a Purchase?

Keep the title, the bill of sale, the out-of-state registration and any tax receipt with you rather than in the car, along with the signed bill of lading. A shipped car travels on its current plates and registration, so keep both valid until the Maine registration is done.

Rivalane coordinates door to door transport to Maine with licensed, insured carriers. A carrier is typically assigned within one to three working days of booking, and pickup and delivery dates are estimates, not guarantees, so leave room before the town office visit. Our pages on shipping a car from New York to Maine and car shipping in Maine cover the lane and deliveries across the state, our Maine registration guide walks through the town office and BMV steps, and the car shipping calculator gives an estimate for the move.

Frequently Asked Questions