Utah car sales tax: rate, sourcing and what it applies to

• Utah's rate is not a single statewide number — it is resolved from the ZIP code you register in, because local jurisdictions add to the state rate. Across Utah the combined rate runs 6.35% to 8.45%, so where you register genuinely changes what you owe.
• Unusually, the rate here follows the DEALERSHIP's location rather than yours. Two dealers in different towns can quote different tax on the same car.

• Taxed on top of the vehicle price: the dealer doc fee, dealer-installed accessories and extended warranties and service contracts.
• Your trade-in comes off before tax is calculated.

• Utah taxes a car at the rate of the dealership's location, not where you live: 4.85% state tax plus county, city and transit taxes, which comes to 6.35% to 8.45% across Utah ZIP codes in October 2026. The dealer collects it and sends it to the Tax Commission, so you pay no sales tax to the DMV on a dealer purchase. This estimate uses your ZIP's rate; if the dealer is elsewhere, the dealer's rate applies.
• A car is exempt from the resort communities tax, the correctional facility tax and the capital city revitalization tax. The rate used here already leaves them out, so it can be a point or more below the combined rate on the Tax Commission's chart. Salt Lake City's chart rate is 8.45%; a car there is taxed at 7.45%.
• Your trade-in reduces the taxable amount, with no dollar cap, on new and used cars. It has to be part of the same transaction and written into the same contract. Manufacturer rebates reduce it too, if they are separately stated on the contract, and so do dealer discounts.
• The doc fee is taxed. Utah sets no cap on it. The dealer must post a sign saying the fee is not set or required by the state, and list it apart from government fees.
• Service contracts, extended warranties, prepaid maintenance plans and dealer accessories are taxed. GAP coverage is not. The calculator taxes everything entered as F&I products, so it overstates the tax a little if you add GAP.
• At the sale: the dealer normally collects the title, registration, age-based fee and plates, issues a 45-day temporary permit, and files the paperwork with the DMV within 45 days. You can register the car yourself instead. Then the dealer must give you the title within 48 hours and a report of sale showing the tax was collected.
• The age-based uniform fee is Utah's substitute for property tax on a car: $150 in the first three model years, then $110, $80, $50 and $10. Registration does not transfer from the seller, so a used car is registered again, and the fee charged again, in your name.

Source: Utah State Tax Commission — Pub 5, Utah Sales Tax Info for Vehicle & Watercraft Dealers · rules last verified Oct 11, 2026. Methodology.