Car Registration Taxes and Subsidies: What to Expect When Buying

Grants

The main topics are the pollution tax and the possibility of receiving a subsidy when disposing of an old car or buying a new one.

Let’s start with grants. You could get them by buying an electric scooter, or a normal bicycle (up to € 400), an electric bicycle (up to € 700), a moped or electric motorcycle (up to € 1,000), or an annual public transport ticket (up to € 310). And if you are not interested in two-wheelers, you can also receive a grant of 1,000 euros by buying a newer car.

It is important to know that you can also buy some of the listed vehicles, but the grant can be up to a maximum of 1000 EUR, so the total costs in excess will not be reimbursed. That is, if you buy an electric bicycle and an electric scooter, your total amount of money invested will be 1,100 euros. In this case, the amount of the grant that will be awarded to you will remain only 1000 EUR.

However, not everyone can get them. To avoid fraud, there are certain conditions and requirements that must be met by both a new car (if you choose to compensate) and an old car that is scrapped.

If you want to receive a grant of 1000 euros for an electric scooter, moped, bicycle or annual public transport ticket, the following criteria apply to your recycled vehicle:

• You must have been the owner of the vehicle for at least the last 12 months, and the class of the recycled car must be M1 (light, passenger).
• The technical inspection of the recycled vehicle must be completed no earlier than October 17, 2019.
• The vehicle must be destroyed no earlier than October 17, 2019.
• When you destroy a vehicle, you must obtain a Certificate of Destruction (ENTP).
• The last step is to verify. Also, as with destruction, the vehicle must be deregistered no earlier than October 17, 2019.

If you want to spend this € 1,000 on a newer car instead of a scooter or bicycle, the vehicle you buy must also meet certain requirements:

• The total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions of the purchased vehicle will not exceed 130 g / km.
• The car must be of category M1 (light, passenger).
• The vehicle must only run on gasoline, gas (natural or liquefied), ethanol, electricity. Or gasoline and gas, ethanol or electricity.
• The car must be purchased no earlier than October 17, 2019.
• The first registration of a car in the EU cannot be done before January 1, 2013.
• CO2 and the date of first registration do not apply to electric vehicles.
• IMPORTANT. The subsidies do not apply to diesel cars, regardless of their CO2 emissions.

However, there is also the possibility of receiving an additional subsidy to the previous 1000 euros if you buy an electric car. If you use the electric car (but not before March 13, 2015), you can receive an additional compensation of € 2,000. Well, if you are thinking of buying a new electric car, you can get an additional 4,000 euros, thus reducing the total price of the car you buy by up to 5,000 euros.

To buy a used electric car, you are subject to the same conditions as above, except for one:

• An electric car in the owner’s name must be registered in Lithuania for the first time no earlier than March 13, 2020.

Those who wish to purchase a new electric car and receive an additional grant of 4,000 euros should know that:

• When buying an electric car, it must be registered in the name of the beneficiary. If the lease is purchased and the car is registered in the bank’s name, the beneficiary must be registered as the operator of the electric car.
• This must be the first electric car registered in Lithuania.
• The class of the electric vehicle must be M1 (tourism).
• The vehicle must only run on electric power. This subsidy does not apply to plug-in cars or other types of hybrid vehicles.
• Section P.3 “Type of fuel or energy source” of the registration certificate must ONLY indicate electricity.
• The electric car must be purchased no earlier than March 13, 2020.
• Only one compensatory allowance can be received per vehicle.

This is the main information that you should follow when trying to obtain one of the grants established by the Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania. If you need more information, you can find it by clicking this link.

Registration fee

Well, and from July 1, a slightly different program to the subsidy began – the car registration fee. This tax applies to the registration of passenger cars and light commercial vehicles (M1 and N1), depending on the type of fuel and its combinations. And when CO2 emissions exceed 130g / km.

This fee applies when the car is registered or the owner of an already registered car changes. The tax is paid regardless of whether it is a new car being registered for the first time, imported from abroad, or simply registered in the name of someone else. It is important to remember: if your vehicle is inactive and the registration will simply be canceled, you will have to pay the pollution tax again to re-register it.

The tax does not apply to cars that will take less than a month to register, cars that are issued with historical plates, and when the driver does not change at the time of registering the car: after lease payments, changing the last name or requesting a new registration certificate.

This fee can be paid both when registering the car online and physically at the Regitra branch.

How the fee is calculated

Since the pollution tax is calculated on the basis of carbon dioxide emissions per kilometer, it is worth clarifying this parameter of the car before registration. This can be done in 4 ways:

1. On newer cars, it will be written on the car registration certificate or similar document issued by a foreign state.
2. If the CO2 content is not indicated in the document, it will be determined on the basis of the average emissions of other equivalent registered vehicles. The database used by Regitra is used in the calculation, according to the type of car, variant, version.
3. If it is not possible to determine the emissions on the basis of the CO2 emissions of equivalent vehicles, they will be calculated on the basis of the weight, power, gearbox and fuel type of the vehicle. You can also calculate it yourself using a spreadsheet developed by Regitra.

The amount of the fee can vary greatly. Vehicles emitting up to 130 g / km of carbon dioxide will be registered free of pollution taxes. Gasoline vehicles that exceed the 130 g / km limit of 1 g / km will already have to pay a pollution tax of € 15. Well, if your car’s carbon footprint exceeds 300g / km and you continue to drive diesel, you will have to pay up to € 540 more when registering your car.

In most cases, there is no reason to fear this tax. According to the portal Autoplius.lt, only 36.6 percent. After July 1, registered cars exceeded the tax threshold of € 100. And just over 2.5% of those registered had to pay more than 300 euros.

It is true that this fee can be refunded. However, this would only happen if, within 90 days of its registration, you re-registered the car and transported it abroad. Of course, proof of this will also be needed.

Although it has received many echoes, this tax is also paid in other European countries and cities. We can be happy that this fee is just a fee with us. In countries like Denmark or Finland, this fee is annual.