Kibkom North Cyprus Forum

Does anyone know how the amount of car tax is calculated. We have 2 vehicles in our household:
both are described as 11 Salon and are petrol. One is 1215 kg and is 1587 cc car tax is 670tl. The other is 1230 kg and 1580 cc yet the car tax is 5450 tl. A huge difference!

I can't answer your question judyvin but can i ask are those figures correct? 670tl for one car and 5450tl for the other based on current exchange rate works out at £86.55 for one and £704 for t'other. If correct, as you say it's a huge difference but i just wasn't expecting that much.

Yes those figures are correct. I have just compared the 2 tax discs!

It is based on the weight, engine type, engine size, date of registration - not manufacture - and then just add on a nominal figure that they think they can get away with. Multiply the whole thing by an error factor of 100% and reduce the overall cost by a mythical figure based on how you feel on the day and the answer is simple.

Whatever the figure you come up with for last year's road tax I can guarantee that this years will be at least 11 - 30% more - minus the age of the vehicle and plus the increase of course. Don't forget that the registration ages of vehicles used to allow for a reduction in road tax at the 5/10/15/20 points as well but you can never figure that bit out. I had a 92 SWB Pajero 2.5TD with a road tax of 510TL, I now have a 93 SWB Pajero 2.5TD with a road tax of 1750TL - both registered in TRNC in 1999!!! Both weighed the same! The first had reductions due to registration age but the second has not had any - ?????

There is actually a calculation and method to working out the road tax but I have never, ever, got it to work as whatever the actual weight of your vehicle is, it will fall into the next higher band of road tax by a few kilos - regardless of the manufacturers posted kerb weight!

Just a guess, is the tax for the second car the first time registration tax? It tends to be a lot higher. There are also differences depending on fuel type, I think diesel is higher but not that high. Our car is petrol and weighs about 1500kg and tax last year was ₺2295.

Yes 2nd car is first time registration. Apart from that both are petrol, same Salon class, same weight & cc pretty much.

judyvin wrote:Yes 2nd car is first time registration.

You should find that the next time you tax it, it will be a lot less, fingers crossed.

The tax disc value for the first time includes the registration fee. My first tax disc showed a value of about 1500.00 TL but the second year the cost was only 300.00 TL.

Hope this helps

Mike Turner

It's a ridiculous system, developed with only one purpose - to rob citizens. Don't even try to calculate it or find any sense in it. It is absolutely random. I will give you few examples:

Audi 80 from 1990 with 1.8 petrol engine. Weight 1340kg. Road tax for 2019 - 300 TL
Honda CRZ 2012 Hybrid with a 1.5 petrol engine. Weight 1236kg. Road tax for 2019 - 401 TL (a guess a 1.5 hybrid honda pollutes the roads much more than a 30 years old audi)
BMW 116i from 2014 with a 1.6 petrol engine (turbocharged and relatively eco friendly). 1360kg weight. Road tax for 2019 - 1860 TL
Peugeot 3008 from 2019 with a 1.6 petrol turbo engine. A guess the cleanest engine from all examples due to its new technology. Weight is between 1300 and 1400 kg. Road tax for 2019 - around 3000TL

This is what some of my friends (and I) paid for 2019 for our cars' taxes. Don't try to find any logic in it...really...

Do the locals ever try and figure out the complexities of the system or do they just learn to accept it, shut up and give the Cypriot shrug,

don't forget IV-Cyprus that there are discounts for the age of the vehicle.

iv_cyprus wrote:It's a ridiculous system, developed with only one purpose - to rob citizens. Don't even try to calculate it or find any sense in it. It is absolutely random. I will give you few examples:

Audi 80 from 1990 with 1.8 petrol engine. Weight 1340kg. Road tax for 2019 - 300 TL
Honda CRZ 2012 Hybrid with a 1.5 petrol engine. Weight 1236kg. Road tax for 2019 - 401 TL (a guess a 1.5 hybrid honda pollutes the roads much more than a 30 years old audi)
BMW 116i from 2014 with a 1.6 petrol engine (turbocharged and relatively eco friendly). 1360kg weight. Road tax for 2019 - 1860 TL
Peugeot 3008 from 2019 with a 1.6 petrol turbo engine. A guess the cleanest engine from all examples due to its new technology. Weight is between 1300 and 1400 kg. Road tax for 2019 - around 3000TL

This is what some of my friends (and I) paid for 2019 for our cars' taxes. Don't try to find any logic in it...really...

seems like the oldest car is the cheapest to tax at 300 TL and the newest car the most expensive at 3000TL ...…...only logic I can deduce from the 4 cars you mentioned.

Yes, but it should be vice versa, right? I mean a car which is 30 years old with this big engine and weight compared to a few years old car, which weighs less and has a much smaller engine and CO2 emissions.

But this is Cyprus - see Message 11 - that explains the who thing! Don't know how it works in the RoC because they seem to have flash motors to go with proper roads but they are always complaining they are poor? Now the North is catching up with the flash motors, so maybe they are charging more in road tax to try to catch up with the odd proper road? Of course this may all change when we go to electric motor's trailing long lengths of cable behind them due to lack of charging points - lol.

Go back to the donkey and cure the whole thing - lol.

I think the discount sustem was devised many years ago, so if you could afford a new car, you paid full tax and if you were not so well off the tax was less, so if you could only afford a fifteen year old car, then the reduction in tax helped you. I think the reduction years are after 5, then 10 and finally 15 years, after the vehicle ws first registered in TRNC.

The discount system described above sounds fair if compared to the Income Tax system. High earners pay more than lower earners.
Lower earners in general have much older cars than their higher earner counterparts.
However in Europe the car tax is based on more how environmentally / Carbon Emission friendly the car is irrespective of age of car.
The question is there has to be some method of calculation rules. It cant be just a number out of thin air. Also if a calculation method was known then one can work out a good approximation for the car tax.

pc4854 wrote:I think the discount sustem was devised many years ago, so if you could afford a new car, you paid full tax and if you were not so well off the tax was less, so if you could only afford a fifteen year old car, then the reduction in tax helped you. I think the reduction years are after 5, then 10 and finally 15 years, after the vehicle ws first registered in TRNC.

Well, my car, when I bought it, was a 5 years old car. Now it is 8 years old car and all I see is increase in road tax
Funny thing is that the more expensive brands, such as BMW, Mercedes and Audi have rather unusually high taxes, even if they run a 1.4 (audi) or 1.6 motor (Mercedes/BMW), compared to some heavier Volkswagen, Hyundai, etc running 1.6 motor, but having much lower tax
A Porsche panamera 2019 year with a V6 3.0 (petrol) engine's tax at the moment is around 14 000 TL (1800 kg weight)
A mercedes E320 CDI 6 cyllinder 2010-2012 (diesel) is around 4500 TL (around 1700kg weight)
Diesel engine here is bigger in cc, and with more CO2 emissions, hence, more harmful to environment. Has much lower tax.
Logic? A guess you being able to afford such an expensive car as Porsche Panamera, obliges you to pay over 3 times higher tax.
I have thought a lot about the road tax system, and still I can't get the logic behind it.
Would love to see some chart with proper explanation on the road taxing system.

Saddique, your last sentence actually explains the whole thing "Also if a calculation method was known then one can work out a good approximation for the car tax" - it would also mean that you would know as much as the the tax office and that will never do, will it?

iv_cyprus - You asked so here it is - Got lots of money = pay lots of car tax, got an old car = pay less car tax. It is a very simple chart but it seems to be the only one that works. Your car, when you bought it, was 5 years old but when was it first registered in the TRNC? If it received it's first registration (or re-registration) then the age of your vehicle starts from then - no matter how old it actually is! Possibly your 8 year old car will be 5 years old in another 2 years then you should get a reduction in road tax - don't hold your breath because a new Government (or two) will happen before then - lol.

Your car, when you bought it, was 5 years old but when was it first registered in the TRNC? If it received it's first registration (or re-registration) then the age of your vehicle starts from then - no matter how old it actually is! Possibly your 8 year old car will be 5 years old in another 2 years then you should get a reduction in road tax - don't hold your breath because a new Government (or two) will happen before then - lol.[/quote]

So does that mean if anyone imports a 20 year old car from the UK for example , when it is first registered in TRNC, it is classed as a new car for Road Tax purposes? Is this how they see it ? That's criminal !!
grateful for your reply.

Saddique, you got it! I have two motors, one manufactured in 1992 but not registered in TRNC till 1999 - how old is it here? The answer is simple, when I tax it again this year it will be 20 years old! The other one was manufactured in 2007, shipped her from Japan (like most motors) and registered in Oct 2010, that makes it 9 years old today! Sad that because my tax is due on the 1st Oct 2020 but the car was registered here on the 8th of Oct 2010, that means it won't be 10 years old here until Oct next year! Rat's, missed my reduction in road tax by 8 days this year but next year it should go down - before the increases put it back up again - lol.

Also take into account re-registration! Instance, I bought an old banger here that was - from manufacturing date - 15 years old when I got it, BUT because it had run out of tax and been parked under the olive tree for three years before I got it, when I re-registered it I had to start all over again from a new date on the log book. That meant that the car was "New" after re-registration even though it was physically 15 years old - don't figure but that was the way it was!

The second car with the huge tax bill. Is it a penalty ? Ie. did a previous owner not pay keep tax up to date. Or has it ever been allowed to slip off the register. I think around 3 years non payment and it goes off the system.

I have had the same problem this week with a car that some one gave me in lieu of a debt, Virtually identical to to my own car. But almost 3 times the tax.

It had not been taxed since June 2017. Ditto. M.O.T. both affected badly by lack of renewal.

The second car with the huge tax bill. Is it a penalty ? Ie. did a previous owner not pay keep tax up to date. Or has it ever been allowed to slip off the register. I think around 3 years non payment and it goes off the system.

I have had the same problem this week with a car that some one gave me in lieu of a debt, Virtually identical to to my own car. But almost 3 times the tax.

It had not been taxed since June 2017. Ditto. M.O.T. both affected badly by lack of renewal.

Interesting views and experiences shared. All relating to a very complex system of valuing and injustices that's like opening a can of worms!!

Bought a big-engined Totoya LandCruiser 4.2 TD engines (2040KG) SUV many years ago that at the time was 16 years registered in KKTC. Roud tax was 1240TL per annum. Since then some 9 years plus now the vehicle is 25 years old the general theme is that prices only go up no matter what!!

Price paid fluctuated up a little, down a little over these 9 years but most increases happened after the 2018 currency crash with the Lira.

2018 1450TL with 50TL for reduction for age (12 months)
2019 1020TL 6 months with late charge other 2019 would have been 1850TL
2020 March unknown but goona be probably 2000TL plus for 12 months gonna find out soon.

Points to note most if not all monies paid to go to the checks and balances, not the road hence the state of the road and infrastructure and frustration we all experience sadly.