Washington Tax, Title and License Calculator

How much is tax, title and license (TTL) in Washington?

On a $25,000 car, tax, title and license in Washington is about $1,947.75: $197.75 in fees and $1,750 in tax. The fixed fees stay about the same at any price; the tax is what moves with what you pay.

Use the full Washington calculator to enter your own price, trade-in and vehicle details. The table below shows the total at common prices.

Tax, title and license in Washington by price

Used vehicle, first registration in Washington, at the state tax rate. Not included: local transportation benefit district fee, local sales tax.

Where the money goes

On a $25,000 car in Washington, tax is $1,750 of the $1,947.75 total and the fixed fees are $197.75. The tax scales with the price of the car. The fees do not, which is why tax, title and license is a much bigger number on an expensive car and barely noticeable on a cheap one.

Sales tax on a car in Washington

The Washington rate is 7% plus local rates of 0.6% to 3.55%. source 5 It is the biggest part of the bill on an expensive car, and the calculator above works it into your total. How a trade-in changes it is covered in trade-ins below, and every state's rate is on the car sales tax by state page.

Does a trade-in reduce your tax in Washington?

Yes. Washington subtracts the trade-in allowance from the price before the tax is worked out. The bigger the trade-in, the smaller the tax bill.

Buy a $28,000 car and hand over a trade-in worth $8,000 and you are taxed on $20,000, not $28,000. That is $560 you do not pay.

One catch worth knowing. The credit usually only applies when the trade and the purchase happen as a single deal with the same dealer. Sell your old car privately first and you get the cash but you lose the tax break.

Buying from a dealer? Put the doc fee and any add-ons on top of these figures with the out-the-door price calculator, set to Washington.

The Washington documentation fee, and what else is not TTL

Once you strip out the tax, title and registration, what is left on the sheet is the dealer's, and the biggest of those is usually the documentation fee.

Washington is one of the few states that puts a number on it: the documentary service fee is capped at $200. The fee is optional and can be negotiated down, and a dealer that charges it has to state in its advertising that a fee of up to $200 may be added. It cannot be presented as a charge the law requires you to pay. source 8

This is the rare dealer fee with a legal ceiling, and also the one most likely to be quietly above it, so check it against the figure the dealer gives you.

For the full list of what belongs to the state and what belongs to the dealer, see what dealers add that is not tax, title and license, and how Washington's doc fee rule compares with the rest.

Motorcycles, leases and other cases

Three situations where the figure above does not apply:

• Motorcycles. Washington DOL registers them on a different and much cheaper schedule. The tax works the same way, on the purchase price.
• Leases. A lease is not a purchase, and several states tax the monthly payment rather than the value of the car. If you are leasing, the number on this page is not your number.
• Gifts and family transfers. No sale means no sales tax in most states, though the title fee still applies. The Washington title transfer page has the rule and the form.

Questions about Washington TTL

Work out the rest of the Washington bill

The generic explainers, on what tax, title and license means, how to check a dealer's quote, and whether to finance the tax, live on the tax, title and license hub. For Washington specifically, these are the pages worth having open:

How Washington compares at one price

The table above runs Washington at prices from $3,000 to $40,000. To see the same bill in every state side by side, there is tax, title and license on a $30,000 car, state by state.

Nearby states

Or compare all 51 on the tax, title and license by state page.

Where these numbers come from