Car Stamp Duty Calculator

Four different things, depending on the border

Most countries have one rule. Australia has eight, built on four different ideas about what a car should be taxed on.

Value. New South Wales charges $3 per $100 up to $44,999, then passenger vehicles jump to $1,350 plus $5 per $100 above $45,000. Motorcycles, buses and hearses stay on the $3 rate whatever they cost. The Northern Territory is the simplest in the country: a flat 3% of the purchase price, plus a $22 transfer fee.

Emissions. Victoria treats a green passenger car, meaning 120 grams of CO2 per km or less, which covers every EV, at $8.40 per $200 at any value. Everything else climbs: $8.40 per $200 to $80,809, then $10.40, then $14.00 above $100,000 and $18.00 above $150,000. The ACT grades into six bands from AAA, which is zero emissions or a battery electric or hydrogen vehicle, down to D at 221 grams and up. Under $45,000 those run from $2.50 to $4.53 per $100, with higher tiers from $45,000 and $80,000.

The engine. Queensland counts cylinders and nothing else. Hybrid and electric pay $2 per $100, one to four cylinders $3, five or six $3.50, seven or more $4, each rising by $2 above $100,000. A V8 pays double what an EV pays on the same money.

What it is for. South Australia asks whether the vehicle is commercial. A ute, panel van or van stops at $30 plus $3 per $100 above $2,000, while a car keeps climbing to $60 plus $4 per $100 above $3,000. Western Australia ignores all of it and runs a sliding percentage, and Tasmania uses a value scale with a nasty kink in it.

Buying an EV, or buying a V8

If you are buying electric, three jurisdictions reward you and five do not care at all. Queensland gives EVs its lowest rate at $2 per $100. The ACT puts them in category AAA at $2.50. Victoria's green rate matters most at the top end: on a $120,000 car an EV pays $5,040 while a high emissions petrol car pays $8,400, a saving of $3,360 that exists purely because of the 120 gram threshold.

New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania and the Northern Territory do not grade by emissions at all. An EV there pays exactly what a V8 of the same price pays. If you have been told EVs are cheaper to register everywhere, that is only true in three places.

Run it on real numbers. A $55,000 V8 ute costs $1,650 of duty in the Northern Territory and $3,575 in Western Australia, more than double for the same vehicle. Spend the same $55,000 on an EV and Queensland charges $1,100 while Tasmania still charges $2,200, because Tasmania does not look at what comes out of the exhaust.

Two traps, and what dutiable value really means

The Tasmanian band between $35,000 and $40,000. Below $35,000 you pay $3 per $100. Inside that band the marginal rate is $11 per $100, which is higher than the $4 that applies above it. A $35,001 car costs $1,061 and a $40,000 car costs $1,600, so five thousand dollars of car adds $539 of duty. Cross into $40,001 and the rate drops back to $4 per $100 on the whole value, which is $1,604. If you are shopping in Tasmania around that range, the band is worth knowing about.

The Western Australian sliding scale. Between $25,000 and $50,000 the rate does not step, it slides. At $25,000 it is 2.75%, at $37,500 it is 4.63%, and by $50,000 it has reached 6.5% and stays there. That makes WA the most expensive place in the country to register an expensive car, by a wide margin.

Dutiable value is not simply what you handed over. It is the higher of the price you paid and the market value, and it includes GST and any luxury car tax. So a mate's-rates private sale does not automatically cut your duty: the state revenue office, not the ATO, can assess market value and charge you on that instead. Stamp duty is a state tax, which is why the ATO has nothing to do with it.

When duty is reduced, or not payable at all

Family transfers are the common one. Most states reduce or waive duty on a vehicle passed between certain family members, on a transfer under a will or intestacy, and on transfers following the breakdown of a marriage or de facto relationship. The definitions differ by state and the paperwork is specific, so check before you assume.

Beyond that, the usual exemptions cover vehicles owned by government entities, charities, hospitals and schools, certain vehicles for people with disability, veteran and historic vehicles on club plates, and repossessed vehicles. Some states also have concessional treatment for primary producers, for heavy vehicles, and for new vehicles bought under a manufacturer fleet discount, which in Tasmania is a flat $3.50 per $100. None of those are modelled in the calculator above, so if one applies to you, your real bill will be lower than the estimate.