German road tax on export plates: how much and how it is paid

Export plates make you liable to German road tax (Kfz-Steuer) for as long as they are valid, but for at least one month; it is paid by SEPA direct debit or at a customs cash office. The yearly amount depends on the date of first registration, the engine size and the CO₂ figure: a car first registered from 2021 pays €2.00 (petrol) or €9.50 (diesel) for each started 100 cm³, plus €2.00 to €4.00 for each g/km above 95. One month costs about a twelfth of the yearly amount, for example about €12 for a 2.0-litre petrol car first registered in 2019 at 150 g/km and about €28 for a 2.0-litre diesel car first registered in 2021 at 161 g/km. Fully electric cars are exempt for ten years from first registration, but not beyond the end of 2035.

When the tax is owed, and for how long

When the registration office issues export plates, you become liable to German road tax (Kraftfahrzeugsteuer), which German customs (Zoll) collect. The liability lasts as long as the plates may be used, but at least one month (KraftStG section 5): on 9-day and 15-day plates you pay for a full month, and on plates valid for three months, for three months. The tax for the whole period is paid in advance, and no VAT is added to it.

Whether part of it is refunded if the car is registered at home before the plates expire is not confirmed, so count on paying for the whole period.

How the yearly amount is worked out

The yearly amount depends on three entries in Part I of the registration certificate (Zulassungsbescheinigung Teil I): the date of first registration in field B, the engine size in field P.1 and the CO₂ figure in field V.7. Field B holds the day the car first got plates anywhere, in Germany or abroad, not its model year, and that date decides which scale applies. A car first registered from 1 January 2021 pays each year (KraftStG section 9):

for each started 100 cm³: €2.00 for petrol, €9.50 for diesel;
for each g/km above 95: €2.00 from 95 to 115 g/km, €2.20 from 115 to 135, €2.50 from 135 to 155, €2.90 from 155 to 175, €3.40 from 175 to 195 and €4.00 above 195; the amounts for each step are added together.

For the plates you pay the yearly amount divided by 365 (366 in a leap year) for each day, with the total rounded down to whole euros (KraftStG section 11), so one month costs about a twelfth of the yearly amount. How many days customs count for the one-month minimum is not confirmed by any official text; for most cars the difference is a few euros at most.

Cars first registered before 2021

First registered from 1 July 2009 to 31 December 2020: the same €2.00 or €9.50 for each started 100 cm³, plus a flat €2.00 for each g/km above 120 (up to the end of 2011), above 110 (2012 and 2013) or above 95 (2014 to 2020). With the same CO₂ figure such a car never pays more than one first registered from 2021.
First registered up to 30 June 2009: no CO₂ charge, only a rate for each started 100 cm³ by emission class, read from the last two digits of the emission key in field 14.1. For Euro 3 or better, the minimum for import into Serbia (BiH requires at least Euro 5), the rate is €6.75 for petrol and €15.44 for diesel, so a 1,598 cm³ petrol car pays 16 × €6.75 = €108 a year; for older classes the rate is up to €25.36 (petrol) and €37.58 (diesel).
First registered from 5 November 2008 to 30 June 2009: the lower of two amounts, by the emission-class rate or by the CO₂ scale for cars first registered from July 2009.

Which CO₂ figure counts

The figure that counts is the one the registration office entered in field V.7 of Part I. For a car first registered from 1 September 2018 it is a WLTP value, for one registered earlier an NEDC value, and at later registrations it is copied from the earlier papers.

For a plug-in hybrid, V.7 holds the weighted combined value, usually far below its ordinary combined value. The CoC lists both under item 49: if you work from the CoC, take the line "Weighted, combined" in the WLTP block. An electric car has a dash in V.7.

Worked examples

A petrol car first registered in 2019, 1,984 cm³, 150 g/km: 20 × €2.00 = €40 plus 55 × €2.00 = €110, so €150 a year and about €12 for one month. First registered in 2021 or later, the same car would pay €161 a year.
A diesel car first registered in 2021 or later, 1,968 cm³, 161 g/km, German customs' own example: €190 for the engine size plus €151.40 for the CO₂, so €341 a year and about €28 for one month.
A petrol plug-in hybrid first registered in 2023, 1,984 cm³, weighted 35 g/km: €40 a year and €3 for one month; at an ordinary combined value of 150 g/km it would pay €161 a year.

The CO₂ figures are only examples; take yours from V.7.

Electric cars and hybrids

A fully electric car first registered from 18 May 2011 to 31 December 2030 is exempt for ten years from its first registration, but not beyond 31 December 2035 (KraftStG section 3d). The exemption stays with the car when it changes hands, and instead of a SEPA mandate the registration office needs only proof of the exemption (KraftStG section 13).

Once the ten years are over, the car pays half the weight-based tax on its permitted gross mass in field F.2, as every electric car first registered before September 2016 already does: for each started 200 kg, €11.25 for the first 2,000 kg, €12.02 for the part from 2,000 to 3,000 kg and €12.78 from 3,000 to 3,500 kg, then halved (KraftStG section 9). At 2,000 kg that is €56 a year and €4 for one month.

Hybrids, including plug-in hybrids and cars with a range extender, are not electric cars under this law and pay like petrol or diesel cars.

How the tax is paid

As a rule, a car is registered only once a written mandate lets the tax be collected by direct debit from the holder's account or a third party's (KraftStG section 13), so you sign a SEPA direct debit mandate at the registration office. A foreign account is accepted (Hamburg's office has allowed it since 1 February 2014), but its bank must take part in SEPA direct debits. The European Payments Council's register of 11 September 2026 listed no bank in Serbia or BiH for them: the Serbian banks that joined SEPA in May 2026 joined only its credit transfers. So give an account in a country whose banks take SEPA direct debits, your own or, for example, a relative's.

With no German residence and no SEPA account, German customs let you pay the tax at any customs cash office (Zollzahlstelle) before the plates are issued. Registration offices differ: Hamburg registers nothing without a mandate, and in Wolfsburg the tax can be paid in cash only at the Braunschweig customs office, including its Wolfsburg branch, so ask your registration office first.

What the calculator shows

The calculator's row "German road tax for the plate period" shows one month: a twelfth of the yearly tax, rounded down to whole euros, on the scale for the year you enter, which it takes as the year of first registration. For a year before 2009 it uses the Euro 3 rate, and for 2009 the CO₂ scale, which the law applies only from 1 July 2009. For an electric car it shows no tax, although one past its ten years pays €4 a month at 2,000 kg. If your plates are valid for longer than a month, the tax is owed for every day they are valid, and the calculator does not add the extra days.

Common mistakes

"Export plates cost only the office fee, the plates and the insurance." At least one month of German road tax always comes on top, unless the car is exempt, such as an electric car within its ten years.
"The tax on 15-day plates is €15 to €30." On 15-day plates you pay for a full month, and the amount depends on the car: for cars first registered from 2021, about €3 for a petrol plug-in hybrid at 35 g/km, €13 for a 2.0-litre petrol car at 150 g/km and €25 for a 2.0-litre diesel car at 150 g/km.
"A petrol car pays €2 per 100 cm³ and €2 for each gram of CO₂ above 95 g/km." That holds only for cars first registered from 2014 to 2020; from 2021 a gram costs €2.00 to €4.00, and cars first registered before July 2009 pay no CO₂ charge.
"The tax depends on engine power and the year of manufacture." It depends on engine size and CO₂ (for cars first registered before July 2009, on the emission class), and the date of first registration decides the scale.
"Electric cars pay nothing until 2030, then €50 to €80 by power." The exemption lasts ten years from first registration, never beyond the end of 2035; after it the tax is worked out by weight: €56 a year at 2,000 kg.
"Without residence in Germany you must open a German account or use a friend's account." An account in any country whose banks take SEPA direct debits will do, and with no German residence and no SEPA account you can pay at a customs cash office, unless the registration office insists on a mandate, as Hamburg does.

This step of the import

Work out the whole cost

Sources

The official laws, decisions and pages this guide rests on, read on 23/09/2026. Rules and amounts change, so check the ones that matter to you before you buy.