New Jersey vehicle taxes & fees

In short

The luxury surcharge is a second tax with its own trigger

The Luxury and Fuel-Inefficient Vehicle Surcharge is 0.4% collected by the dealer at titling on the gross sales or lease price, before trade-in and before rebates. A trade-in that cuts your 6.625% bill therefore does nothing to this one. Either of two conditions triggers it: a price of $45,000 or more, or an EPA rating under 19 combined mpg. Used vehicles sit outside it entirely, so an SUV at $46,000 new owes $184 while the same SUV at $46,000 two years later owes nothing. Certified zero-emission vehicles and anything rated above 40 mpg are exempt, so a $50,000 EV owes $0 and a $50,000 gas SUV owes $200. Motorcycles are in none of the covered categories.

Four years of registration are paid before you drive away

The annual rate is a two-axis chart. A passenger vehicle at 3,500 pounds or less pays $59.00 a year while within two model years of current and $46.50 once older; over 3,500 pounds the same age split runs $84.00 and $71.50. Drivers 65 and over and people with a qualifying disability take $7.00 a year off any of those. On a first titling the annual figure is multiplied by four and paid in one go, so a new light car owes $236 and a new full-size truck $336. After that opening term the vehicle drops onto an ordinary one-year renewal cycle at the same rate. Motorcycles ignore the chart completely at a flat $65.00 a year.

The EV sales-tax exemption is gone and a $270 annual fee replaced it

New Jersey once exempted zero-emission vehicles from sales tax outright. P.L. 2024, c.19 unwound that in two steps: full exemption through September 2024, a halved 3.3125% from October 2024 through June 2025, and the standard 6.625% from July 1, 2025 onward. What arrived instead is an annual zero-emission vehicle fee, $250 for the year beginning July 1, 2024 and rising $10 every July 1 until it stops at $290. The current rate is $270, and a new EV pays four years of it upfront alongside the four-year registration. Eligibility tracks California Air Resources Board zero-emission certification, so plug-in hybrids and conventional hybrids owe nothing.

A gift is tax-free to anyone, not only to relatives

Writing GIFT on the title's price line and filing the Vehicle Gift Affidavit, Form BA-62, removes the 6.625% completely, and New Jersey attaches no relationship test to it. A friend, a cousin or an unmarried partner qualifies on exactly the terms a child would. Without the affidavit the MVC defaults to treating the transfer as a sale and assesses use tax on a value it determines, even where no money changed hands, and its Casual Sales section can challenge a $0 gift that reads as a disguised purchase. Any lien has to be released first, and the $60 title fee applies either way. Boats escape the flat rate on different grounds: they are taxed at half, 3.3125%, with tax on one sale capped at $20,000.

Ten working days to title, and emissions every two years rather than every one

Buyers get 10 working days from the sale date to transfer the title at an MVC agency. Working days means weekends and state holidays do not count against you, but the window is still far shorter than the 30 calendar days common elsewhere. The penalty is a flat $25 added to the title fee, with no monthly escalation, and the statute states plainly that a late filing neither voids a lien on the vehicle nor amounts to a criminal offense. Inspection runs on its own rhythm: emissions only, every two years, free at state-run stations, with safety inspections for brakes, lights and tires abolished in 2010. A new vehicle carries a New Car Dealer decal that exempts it from testing until it turns five model years old.