Indiana car registration and title fees

• Title fee — $15.00. Certificate of title, handled by the dealer, who must deliver it to you within 31 days. If you finance, the lienholder is noted on this same title u2014 Indiana has no separate state lien fee. (IC 9-17-2-14.5(c))
• Interim license plate — $3.00. The dealer's 45-day temporary plate, which covers you until you register the car at the BMV yourself. (IC 9-32-6-11)

• Indiana plates and registration are NOT handled by the dealer u2014 you take the title to a BMV branch yourself, and the dealer's 45-day interim plate covers you until you do. What the BMV collects at that visit: a $21.35 registration fee, a $15 Transportation Infrastructure Improvement Fee, the annual vehicle excise tax, and your county's excise surtax. All of it recurs every year.
• The vehicle excise tax is the big one, and it is based on the manufacturer's original retail price and the car's age rather than what you paid. A new car runs from about $250 on a $20,000 vehicle to $532, which is a hard ceiling u2014 a $120,000 car pays the same $532 as a $42,500 one. Your first year is prorated down based on how many months remain until your own registration date, so the figure you actually pay is usually lower. Indiana's BMV QuickQuote tool will give you an exact number for your car and county.
• Your county adds an excise surtax on top, and some cities add their own. Some counties charge a flat amount of $7.50 to $50, but others charge a percentage u2014 and the percentage is applied to a separate, higher schedule, so on a new car it can reach roughly $106, or about $213 in a county using the higher band. Counties set these by local ordinance and Indiana publishes no single table of them, so the BMV's QuickQuote tool is the only reliable way to get your figure.

• Battery-electric vehicles pay an extra $242 per year at registration in Indiana. The amount is re-indexed every January 1, so expect it to drift upward.
• Plug-in hybrids pay Indiana's $81 hybrid supplemental fee per year at registration. The amount is re-indexed every January 1.
• Hybrids pay an extra $81 per year at registration in Indiana. The amount is re-indexed every January 1.

• Indiana sales tax is 7%, flat statewide. No county or city adds to it u2014 the county taxes you may be thinking of are income taxes, and the local vehicle charges are separate registration surtaxes rather than sales tax.
• Your trade-in reduces the taxable amount with no dollar cap, on new and used purchases alike. It has to be a like-for-like swap though: a vehicle for a vehicle. Trading a motorcycle toward a car does not qualify, and the trade has to be titled in your own name.
• Registration and plates are not included in the total above. In Indiana the dealer handles the sales tax and your title, but you register at the BMV yourself u2014 see the ownership notes for what to budget.

Source: Indiana DOR Sales Tax Information Bulletin #28S; IC 6-2.5; BMV Fee Chart · rules last verified Oct 1, 2026. Methodology.