Truck Tax Germany 2026: Rates by Gross Weight

Weight decides this tax, in steps of 200 kg. Up to 3,500 kg the emission class plays no part at all; above it, the class chooses between four scales with ceilings from €556 to €1,681.

A vehicle built to carry goods is not taxed on engine size or CO₂ at all. It is taxed on its permitted gross weight, in steps of 200 kg, and only above 3,500 kg does the emission and noise class come into it as well. The dividing line at 3,500 kg is the single most important fact on this page, because the two sides of it use completely different rates.

The calculator covers both sides: at or below 3,500 kg it goes by weight alone, above it by weight and class. Below the line the emission class you pick does not change the result, because the law does not use one there.

Vans and light trucks up to 3,500 kg

Below the line, emission class plays no part. Three rates apply, each to the slice of weight it covers, and every started 200 kg counts in full:

• €11.25 per 200 kg for the weight up to 2,000 kg
• €12.02 per 200 kg for the part above 2,000 up to 3,000 kg
• €12.78 per 200 kg for the part above 3,000 up to 3,500 kg

There is no upper limit in this range and no discount for a clean engine. A vehicle of 2,600 kg is therefore ten units at €11.25 plus three units at €12.02, which comes to €148.56 a year and is collected as €148.

Because the steps are 200 kg wide, weights inside one step cost the same. A van rated at 2,500 kg and one rated at 2,600 kg both pay €148. It is worth knowing this before you have a vehicle uprated or downrated.

Above 3,500 kg

From 3,501 kg the law switches to four scales, one per emission and noise class, and each scale has a ceiling that no vehicle can exceed however heavy it is:

The rates climb with weight inside each scale, reaching €14.32 per 200 kg above 12,000 kg in the S 2 scale and €63.40 from 15 tonnes in the worst class. In practice the ceiling arrives quickly. A 7,500 kg truck in class S 2 pays €285 a year. The same class at 18,000 kg is already at the ceiling of €556, and so is a 26-tonne truck and a 40-tonne articulated combination: once the cap is reached, extra weight costs nothing more. A 40-tonne vehicle in the worst class pays the ceiling of €1,681.

This is why a clean engine pays for itself on a heavy vehicle and changes nothing on a light one. Between S 2 and the bottom class the difference at the ceiling is more than €1,100 a year.

Trailers behind a truck

A trailer has its own trailer tax based on weight. There is an alternative: on application, no tax is levied on a trailer that is only ever pulled behind vehicles for which a trailer supplement is paid. That supplement is a fixed €373.24 a year, owed by the keeper of the towing vehicle, and the trailer then needs a green plate. Caravans and trailers behind cars or motorcycles are expressly excluded from this arrangement.

Registering a commercial vehicle

Registration and taxation are two counters at two authorities. The registration office (Zulassungsstelle) records the vehicle, issues the plates and takes your SEPA direct debit mandate, which is compulsory. It then passes the data to your main customs office (Hauptzollamt), which issues the assessment and collects the money. Nothing is paid at the registration office itself, and the tax office is not involved.

Whether your vehicle counts as a truck or as a car is not your choice, and not the choice of your tax adviser. The registration authority classifies the vehicle, and that classification binds the customs administration. Rules of thumb that circulate about load area, seat count or top speed come from old case law and are not the test. If the classification in your papers looks wrong to you, the place to raise it is the registration office, not the customs office.

Which vehicles these rates cover

The weight-based rates are not only for lorries. They apply to every vehicle taxed as a commercial vehicle rather than as a car: vans, buses, tractor units, agricultural and construction tractors and recognised special-purpose vehicles. What they have in common is that the law does not treat them as passenger cars, so neither engine size nor CO₂ appears anywhere in the calculation.

Several groups in this family pay nothing at all. Tractors other than tractor units, recognised special-purpose vehicles and their trailers are exempt as long as they are used exclusively in farming or forestry. Vehicles of the fire service, the ambulance service, civil protection and disaster control are exempt, as are vehicles for street cleaning and road building, provided they are recognisable as such from the outside. Most of these exemptions have to be applied for at the main customs office, and an exempt vehicle normally carries a green plate.

Paying a large bill in instalments

Commercial vehicles are the group most likely to cross the thresholds where German law allows the tax to be spread. Above €500 a year you may pay in two instalments, for a surcharge of 3 %. Above €1,000 a year you may pay in four, for 6 %. Both have to be applied for; the default is one payment twelve months in advance, taken by direct debit from the day of registration.

The surcharge is the price of the delay, and on a fleet it is worth calculating rather than assuming. A vehicle at the €1,681 ceiling pays €100.86 extra for quarterly payment. Whatever the schedule, the amount collected is rounded down to whole euros, and liability always lasts at least one month even if the vehicle is taken off the road sooner.

Seasonal operation

A seasonal plate is available for commercial vehicles too, with an operating period of two to eleven whole months, and the tax falls to one three-hundred-and-sixty-fifth of the annual amount per day inside that period. For a vehicle used only in a building season or a harvest, that is the largest single saving available on this page.

Frequently asked questions