Vehicle tax for this caravan comes to:
0,00 €A caravan has no engine, so it has no emission class and no CO₂ figure. Only the permitted gross weight is taxed, at €7.46 for every started 200 kg.
For German tax purposes a caravan is a trailer, and trailers are taxed on weight alone. That single sentence answers most of what people want to know. A caravan has no engine, so it has no emission class, no CO₂ figure and no engine size to be taxed on. What remains is the permitted gross weight, charged at €7.46 for every started 200 kg, with a ceiling of €373.24 a year that almost no touring caravan ever reaches.
A caravan is towed and taxed by weight only. A motorhome drives itself, and its tax depends on weight and emission class, which makes it several times more expensive. If your vehicle has its own engine, use the page on motorhome tax instead.
What your caravan costs
The figure the calculation starts from is the permitted gross weight in field F.2 of the registration certificate Part I, sometimes called the technically permissible laden mass. It is not the weight of the caravan as it stands empty on your drive, and it does not change when you pack it.
| Permitted gross weight | Started 200 kg | Annual tax | Charged |
|---|---|---|---|
| 750 kg | 4 | €29.84 | €29 |
| 1,000 kg | 5 | €37.30 | €37 |
| 1,200 kg | 6 | €44.76 | €44 |
| 1,300 kg | 7 | €52.22 | €52 |
| 1,500 kg | 8 | €59.68 | €59 |
| 1,600 kg | 8 | €59.68 | €59 |
| 1,800 kg | 9 | €67.14 | €67 |
| 2,000 kg | 10 | €74.60 | €74 |
| 2,500 kg | 13 | €96.98 | €96 |
A family caravan of 1,500 kg therefore costs €59 a year, comfortably less than the car pulling it. The rounding at the end always goes down, so the cents in the middle column never reach your bank statement.
The 200 kg steps are worth knowing about
Because every started 200 kg counts as a whole one, two caravans can weigh 200 kg apart and cost the same, while 200 g can push you into the next step. The rows for 1,500 kg and 1,600 kg above show this: both sit in the eighth step and both cost €59. Go to 1,601 kg and the ninth step starts, at €67.
This matters when a dealer offers to uprate a caravan, or when you consider having one downrated to keep it towable on a particular driving licence. The tax effect is at most a few euros a year in either direction, so let the licence and the towing capacity of your car decide, not the tax table.
Deductions before the calculation
Two kinds of trailer are not taxed on their full weight. On a semi-trailer, the load resting on the tractor unit is deducted first. On a rigid-drawbar or centre-axle trailer, the nose weight on the coupling is deducted. A classic touring caravan is a rigid-drawbar trailer, so the nose weight comes off before the 200 kg steps are counted. The calculator on this page has a field for that deduction.
Using the caravan for part of the year
Most caravans stand still from October to Easter, and German law has a straightforward answer for that. A seasonal plate (Saisonkennzeichen) carries an operating period of between two and eleven whole months printed on the plate itself. The tax falls to one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of the annual amount for every day inside that period, and outside it the caravan may not be used on public roads, including parking on the street.
Taking the caravan off the road entirely also stops the tax, from the day the plates go back to the registration office, subject to the minimum liability of one month. That is not a tax exemption but simply the end of the taxable event: what is taxed is keeping a registered vehicle. A deregistered caravan on your own land is outside the tax altogether. Bear in mind that re-registering costs a fee each time, which is why owners who use the caravan every summer usually choose a seasonal plate rather than deregistering twice a year.
Buying, selling and bringing one from abroad
The tax follows the registration, not the sale contract. When you sell a caravan, your liability runs until the day it is re-registered to the buyer, so a contract that obliges the buyer to re-register promptly protects you. When you buy one, the twelve-month cycle starts again on the day it is registered to you, whatever the previous owner had paid.
A caravan registered in another country may stay in Germany without German vehicle tax while it is genuinely visiting. Once you register it here, it is treated like any other German-registered caravan from that day, and the weight in field F.2 of the new German papers is what counts. Nothing about the country of origin, the age of the caravan or where it was built changes the rate.
Registration itself is done at the registration office (Zulassungsstelle) of your district, which issues the plates and takes the compulsory SEPA direct debit mandate. It then passes the data to your main customs office (Hauptzollamt), which sends the assessment and collects the money. No tax is paid at the registration office.
What does not work for caravans
- The green plate route is closed. Some trailers can be relieved of tax on application when they are only ever pulled behind vehicles paying the trailer supplement. Caravans are expressly excluded from that arrangement, and so is every trailer towed by a car.
- The exemptions for special trailers do not apply either. They cover trailers for sports equipment, for animals carried to sporting purposes and for rescue boats, used for nothing else. A caravan is none of those.
- There is no discount for age or for little use. Unlike a car, a caravan cannot earn a lower rate by being clean, and a historic plate on a thirty-year-old caravan would cost €191.73 a year, far more than its ordinary weight-based tax.
One genuine exemption exists: caravans above 3,500 kg used in a showman’s business are free of tax as long as they serve that business exclusively.
Frequently asked questions
€7.46 for every started 200 kg of permitted gross weight, with a ceiling of €373.24 a year. A 1,000 kg caravan pays €37, one of 1,500 kg pays €59, and one of 2,000 kg pays €74. Emission class, age and equipment make no difference, because a caravan has no engine of its own.
Not if it is deregistered, and that is not an exemption but simply the absence of a taxable event. German vehicle tax is levied on keeping a registered vehicle. Hand in the plates and the liability stops, subject to the minimum of one month. Put the caravan back on the road and the liability starts again that day.
No. The arrangement that relieves certain trailers of tax and gives them a green plate expressly excludes caravans, and also excludes every trailer towed by a car. For a caravan the weight-based tax always applies.
Usually yes, because most caravans stand still for half the year. The operating period printed on the plate runs for between two and eleven whole months, and the tax falls to one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of the annual amount for each day inside it. Outside the period the caravan may not be used on public roads, and it may not be parked on them either.
Because it has an engine. A caravan is a trailer and is taxed on weight alone. A motorhome is taxed on weight and emission class together, at €16.00, €24.00 or €40.00 per 200 kg for the first two tonnes. At 3,500 kg a caravan would pay €134 and a motorhome between €240 and €480.
Updated 11 September 2026. The rate and the ceiling come from Section 9 (1) no. 5, the basis of assessment from Section 8 no. 2, the exclusion of caravans from the trailer relief from Section 10 (1), the showman exemption from Section 3 no. 8 and the minimum period from Section 5 (1) of the Kraftfahrzeugsteuergesetz; the operating period of a seasonal plate from Section 10 (3) of the FZV, both in German. Amounts are our own calculations and do not replace the assessment of your main customs office.