Free calculator · Indiana
Indiana Car Tax, Title and License Calculator
Tax, title and license on a $40,000 new car in Indiana comes to about $3,320 — $2,800 of that sales tax and $520 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.
Indiana 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.
In Indiana, a fully electric car owes $242 a year, plug-in hybrids $81 a year and regular hybrids $81 a year to replace the fuel tax they do not pay.
Financing adds a small fee to record the lender’s lien on your title.
Tax, title and license in Indiana
$3,320
on top of the $40,000 price, so you drive away having paid $43,320.
Sales tax
$2,800
7% state rate
Title + registration
$520
One-time and first-year charges
Then every year
$505
To keep it registered
See every charge, itemized
| Charge | When | At signing |
|---|---|---|
| State sales tax (7.00%) | Once, at signing | $2,800.00 |
| Certificate of title | Once, at signing | $15.00 |
| BMV registration feeThe flat BMV base fee. It is the smallest line on an Indiana renewal notice — the vehicle excise tax below is usually the largest. | Every year | $21.35 |
| Vehicle excise taxIndiana’s real annual vehicle tax, priced here at the manufacturer’s original MSRP for a new (age-0) car. The BMV’s own table shows this amount declining as the car ages within its price class in later years — this page prices only the first year, the one due at purchase. | Every year | $469.00 |
| Transportation infrastructure improvement feeA flat annual road-funding fee added to every Indiana vehicle registration since 2017. | Every year | $15.00 |
| Total due at signing | $3,320.35 |
What most calculators get wrong here: The $21.35 registration fee everyone quotes is the smallest line on an Indiana bill. A separate excise tax, billed every year and set by your car’s original price, runs to $532 on a $45,000 vehicle.
What each charge on a Indiana 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 | Indiana law — 7% 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 | Indiana, to put the car in your name | No. It is the same figure for everyone. |
| Registration and plates | Indiana, 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 $3,320 in Indiana 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.
The other cost due before you can drive it
Nothing above is insurance. Indiana will not let you put the car on the road without at least liability coverage, and over five years it usually costs more than the tax, title and registration on this page combined — but it is the one number here that depends on you rather than the vehicle, so there is no published figure to cite.
Want the whole picture instead of one line of it? What a car costs to own in Indiana puts insurance, fuel, maintenance and depreciation over five years next to the figures above.
What this calculator leaves out, and why
Everything above is a charge Indiana 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 county vehicle excise surtax and wheel tax. Many Indiana counties add their own annual charges on top of the state numbers here, billed together with the registration renewal. By statute (IC 6-3.5-4-2), a county may set the surtax at 2%–10% of your vehicle excise tax (or a flat $7.50–$25), rising to as much as 20% or $50 for a county using an approved transportation asset management plan; the wheel tax is a separate, additional flat annual charge a county sets on its own alongside it. Not every county levies either one, and there is no single statewide table to cite — check your own county’s rate with the BMV before you budget a registration renewal.
- How the vehicle excise tax changes after the first year. The BMV’s own published table shows the amount declining as the car ages within its price class; this page prices only the first year (age 0), the one due at purchase, and does not project future years.
- The dealer documentation fee, consistent with every other state in this tool.
- Used, private-party and lease transactions.
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.
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 Indiana?
- On a $40,000 new car it comes to about $3,320 — $2,800 of sales tax and $520 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 Indiana?
- 7% statewide. Indiana only credits a trade-in against sales tax when it is a "like-kind exchange" — a vehicle traded for a vehicle (or a trailer for a trailer), owned and titled in your own name before the trade. A trade-in owned by someone else, or a trade of unlike property, does not reduce the taxable price.
- Does a trade-in lower the sales tax in Indiana?
- Yes. Indiana charges sales 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 7% of $10,000. 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 Indiana?
- $15. 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 Indiana each year?
- About $520 is due at signing for the title and first registration, and roughly $505 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 Indiana 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. 22 states are live so far — the national calculator compares all of them side by side on the same car, and tells you how to work yours out if it is not here yet.
Each link opens that state's own tax, title and license calculator.