Classic Car Tax Germany 2026: €191.73 Flat Rate

A registered classic pays one fixed sum a year, whatever the engine. Turning thirty does not make a vehicle tax free, and on a small engine the flat rate can cost more than the ordinary calculation.

A registered classic in Germany pays one fixed amount a year, whatever is under the bonnet: €191.73 for a car, a van or a trailer, €46.02 for a motorcycle, collected as €191 and €46 after the rounding. Engine size, fuel, emission standard and weight are all irrelevant.

The single most common misunderstanding is worth clearing up first. A classic is not tax exempt. Turning thirty does not make a vehicle free of tax, and there is no age at which German vehicle tax stops. What an old vehicle can get is a flat rate instead of the ordinary calculation, which on most classics is cheaper, but on some is not.

When the flat rate is worth having

Compare the flat €191.73 with what the vehicle would otherwise pay. For cars first registered before July 2009 the ordinary tax is engine size times a rate that depends on the emission standard, and old cars sit in the expensive standards. That is why the flat rate usually wins:

A small car from the 1970s in the worst emission class is far better off on the flat rate. A tidy 1,600 cc Euro 2 saloon from the 1990s is not: it pays sixteen steps of €7.36, which is €117.76, and the historic plate would cost it €74 a year more.

For motorcycles the line falls at 626 cc. Below that the ordinary calculation at €1.84 per 25 cc stays under €46.02, above it the flat rate takes over. A 500 cc classic bike pays €36 on its ordinary plate and would pay €46 on a historic one.

What makes a vehicle a classic

Four conditions have to be met at once. The vehicle must have been first put into service at least thirty years ago, be largely in its original condition, be in a good state of preservation, and serve the preservation of motoring heritage. Modifications that were period-typical are usually accepted; a modern engine swap is not.

The flat rate is not automatic. You apply for a historic plate, the H-Kennzeichen, at the registration office and you need an expert report confirming the four conditions. Once granted, the letter H appears after the number on the plate.

The red plate for occasional use

If a classic only comes out a few times a year, a red trade plate for recurring use is the alternative. Its number sequence begins with 07, and it may be used for classic vehicle events and for test, transfer, repair and maintenance runs. One red plate can serve several vehicles, which is what makes it attractive to owners of more than one classic. It is taxed at the same flat rate as the historic plate.

A separate kind of red plate exists solely for test drives, with a number sequence beginning 05. That one is free of vehicle tax. It is worth naming these correctly: none of them is an interchangeable plate (Wechselkennzeichen), which is a different arrangement altogether for swapping one set of plates between two modern vehicles.

Seasonal use, and driving into cities

A historic plate can be combined with a seasonal plate. The operating period is an official addition printed next to the H, and it runs for between two and eleven whole months. The flat rate then falls to one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of €191.73 for each day inside the period, so a classic on the road from April to September pays roughly half. For a vehicle used on twenty sunny weekends a year, this is the largest saving available.

Classics on a historic plate or a red plate are also exempt from the driving bans in German low emission zones, and they do not need an emissions sticker to enter one. That exemption follows from the plate, not from the age of the vehicle.

Trailers, and what the application involves

The flat rate of €191.73 covers trailers as well as cars and vans. A period-correct trailer or a caravan on a historic plate therefore pays €191 a year, which is far more than the weight-based tax any normal trailer would pay. A historic plate on a trailer only makes sense when the trailer itself is part of the exhibit.

Getting the plate is a two-stage process. An expert produces a report confirming the four conditions, and the registration office grants the plate on the strength of it. The report is based on an inspection of the actual vehicle, so a car in poor condition or with modern modifications will not pass, however old it is. Once the plate is granted, the customs administration applies the flat rate automatically; there is no separate tax application.

One limit follows directly from what is being taxed. Because the tax attaches to the issuing of the plate rather than to keeping the vehicle, a towing vehicle on a historic plate cannot pay a trailer supplement, and the reliefs available to keepers with a severe disability do not reach a vehicle on a historic plate either. Owners in that position sometimes find the ordinary plate cheaper overall.

A word about vehicles just under thirty

There is no tax status for a vehicle that is twenty-five or twenty-eight years old. It is taxed by the ordinary rules for its date of first registration, which for anything built before July 2009 means engine size and emission standard. Waiting for the thirtieth birthday is therefore a real financial event for an owner of a large-engined car: it can cut the annual bill by several hundred euros overnight, provided the vehicle still qualifies as largely original.

Frequently asked questions