Free calculator · Illinois
Illinois Car Tax, Title and License Calculator
Tax, title and license on a $40,000 new car in Illinois comes to about $2,816 — $2,500 of that sales tax and $316 government fees. Put your own price in below and every charge is itemized, with a link to the agency that publishes each figure.
Fill in two things and you have your answer. Everything below is prefilled with the most common case, so change only what applies to you.
Prefilled with $40,000, the median price of the 81 new models we track. Use the price on your quote.
Illinois taxes the price after your trade-in comes off, so this lowers your tax. Leave it at 0 if you are not trading a car in.
Living inside Chicago adds a 1.25% city tax on top of whatever the dealer charges. Nowhere else in Illinois adds a city tax to a car.
A fully electric car pays $100 a year on top of registration in Illinois. Hybrids owe nothing extra.
Financing adds a small fee to record the lender’s lien on your title.
Tax, title and license in Illinois
$2,816
on top of the $40,000 price — $2,500 of it tax, $316 government fees. Then $151 a year to keep it registered.
| Charge | When | At signing |
|---|---|---|
| State sales tax (6.25%) | Once, at signing | $2,500.00 |
| Certificate of title | Once, at signing | $165.00 |
| Passenger plate registration | Every year | $151.00 |
| Total due at signing | $2,816.00 |
- This shows the 6.25% state floor only. The rate you actually pay is the selling dealership’s local rate, which the state publishes through a lookup: https://tax.illinois.gov/research/taxrates.html
- Chicago home-rule use tax of 1.25% is not included — it applies only if your address is inside Chicago.
What each charge on a Illinois car actually is
Four kinds of money change hands when you buy a car, and only two of them are fixed by law. Knowing which is which is the difference between paying the right amount and paying whatever the paperwork says.
| Charge | Who sets it | Can you argue with it? |
|---|---|---|
| Sales tax | Illinois law — 6.25% statewide | No. The rate is fixed. What you can change is the taxable amount, by negotiating the price down or the trade-in up. |
| Title fee | Illinois, to put the car in your name | No. It is the same figure for everyone. |
| Registration and plates | Illinois, to put it on the road | No, though the amount depends on the vehicle and where you live. |
| Dealer documentation fee | The dealership | Yes — this one is the dealer's, not the state's. It is not in the total above. |
First time buying? The short version: the price you agree on is not the money you hand over. Add roughly $2,816 in Illinois on a $40,000 car before the dealer adds anything of their own. Budget for it up front, because it is due at signing and it cannot be talked down.
What this calculator leaves out, and why
Everything above is a charge Illinois publishes. These are the ones it does not, so we do not guess at them — an invented number would be worse than a missing one.
- The dealer documentation fee. Illinois caps it and adjusts the cap for inflation each year; we do not yet carry a cited figure for the current year.
- The City of Chicago vehicle sticker, which the city bills separately from state registration.
- The exact local rate at a given dealership — Illinois publishes a lookup rather than a table, so the estimate reports the state floor and says the dealer’s rate adds to it.
- Used, private-party (Form RUT-50) and lease transactions, which are taxed differently.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page is published by the agency that charges it. Nothing is estimated, averaged or copied from another calculator. Here is each document and the date we last read it.
| Document | Published by | Last verified |
|---|---|---|
| Vehicle Services — Fees | Illinois Secretary of State | 2026-07-28 |
| Form ST-556 Sales Tax Transaction Return, Instructions (R-12/24) | Illinois Department of Revenue | 2026-07-28 |
| Illinois Vehicle Code, 625 ILCS 5/3-805 | Illinois General Assembly | 2026-07-28 |
We re-check every state once a year and show the date here rather than quietly serving an old figure. Fee schedules move with legislative sessions, so if you are reading this well after the date above, confirm the total with your county tax office before you sign.
Frequently asked questions
- How much is tax, title and license in Illinois?
- On a $40,000 new car it comes to about $2,816 — $2,500 of sales tax and $316 of title and registration fees. The tax scales with the price, the fees mostly do not, so a cheaper car pays much less tax but roughly the same fees.
- What is the car sales tax rate in Illinois?
- 6.25% statewide. The rate an Illinois dealer charges is the rate at the dealership’s location, not yours. 6.25% is the state floor; the dealer’s local rate is added to it.
- Does a trade-in lower the sales tax in Illinois?
- Yes. Illinois charges tax on the price after the dealer's trade-in allowance is deducted, so a $10,000 trade-in on a $40,000 car saves you 6.25% of $10,000 in tax. This only works when the dealer takes the trade in the same transaction — selling your old car privately first does not count.
- What is the title fee in Illinois?
- $165. It is charged once, to put the car in your name, and it is the same for everyone — it is not a dealer charge and it is not negotiable.
- How much is car registration in Illinois each year?
- About $316 is due at signing for the title and first registration, and roughly $151 a year after that for a gas car. Electric cars pay more in most states because of road-use fees that replace fuel tax.
- Is the dealer documentation fee included in this?
- No, and that is deliberate. The documentation fee is the dealership's charge, not the state's, and Illinois does not publish it — so there is no figure we could cite. It is also the one line on the paperwork worth questioning. Everything in the total above is fixed by law.
The same calculator for other states
We build these one state at a time, because each one is a different fee architecture rather than the same table with different numbers. 4 states are live so far.