Out-the-Door Price — Maryland

The sticker isn’t the price. Enter your numbers and get an itemized breakdown — tax, title, and fees included — so you can give it a proper side-eye before you ever sit down.

How to use it: enter the agreed price, pick your state, add your trade and financing — the out-the-door total builds line by line in The Math.

Example numbers so you can see how it works — swap in yours.

1 · The vehicle

Agreed vehicle price
State of registration

Maryland: Technically a titling tax, computed on the price including most add-ons, with a book-value floor on low-priced private sales.

2 · Tax & fees

Local tax add-oncity/county
Dealer doc feecapped at $800
Title & registrationestimate

State base rate applied: 6% · no trade-in tax credit in this state

3 · Trade & financing

Trade-in value
Trade payoffwhat you still owe
Cash down
APR
Term

Estimates only. Tax rates, trade-in credit rules, and fee caps are approximations and change by locality and year — verify with your state DMV and dealer paperwork.

How Maryland taxes a car deal

State tax rate
6%
Local add-ons
None typical
Trade-in credit
None — taxed on full price
Doc fee
Capped at $800

Maryland doesn't technically charge sales tax on vehicles — it charges a 6% titling tax, and the distinction costs you money in one specific way: there is no trade-in credit. Tax is calculated on the full purchase price regardless of your trade. On a $32,000 purchase with an $8,000 trade, that's $480 more tax than a credit-state buyer pays. Like Virginia next door, Maryland shifts the trade-in decision: the dealer's allowance has to win on its own merits, so get a private-sale or online-buyer quote before you let the trade fold into the deal.

Maryland caps dealer doc fees at $800 — a cap that was raised from $500 in 2024, and one high enough that it functions more as a target than a limit; most Maryland dealers charge at or near it. Knowing it's the legal maximum at least tells you when a fee has crossed from 'steep' into 'illegal.'

The titling tax is calculated on the price including most add-ons, and Maryland applies a minimum-value floor on older private-party sales (tax on book value if the claimed price is too low). No local add-ons exist, so 6% of the full price plus the fee stack is the whole formula — flat, just not friendly.

Every figure above was last verified against official Maryland sources in August 2026. Tax rules do change — the final word is always your paperwork and the DMV.