North Dakota Auto Loan Calculator (with 5% Motor Vehicle Excise Tax)

North Dakota does not charge sales tax on a car. N.D.C.C. § 57-40.3-02 imposes "an excise tax at the rate of five percent on the purchase price" of a motor vehicle required to be registered in the state. Chapter 57-40.3 is a separate excise chapter, and it stands in place of state and local sales and use tax on the vehicle.

The practical consequence is that city and county sales taxes do not stack. Fargo's general retail rate is higher than the state's 5%, and Bismarck's and Minot's are too, but none of that reaches a vehicle purchase. Whatever your ZIP code, the number is 5%. There is one rate in this state and no address to look up.

That makes North Dakota one of the simpler states to estimate, and it removes the single biggest source of error in most state auto tax calculations. What is left to get right is the base: the trade-in comes out of it, and the dealer documentation fee never goes into it.

Where North Dakota is not simple is registration. The annual fee depends on the vehicle's weight bracket and on the year the vehicle was first registered, which is not the same as its model year. That is a genuine two-axis lookup, and this calculator uses one representative figure rather than pretending otherwise.

The APR columns below are national averages, not North Dakota figures. No primary source publishes average auto loan APR by state: Experian's report has no geographic cut, the CFPB publishes state origination volume but no rates, and the New York Fed publishes state delinquency only. The payment column is the part that is specific to North Dakota, because it runs this calculator's own North Dakota tax and fee rules at each tier's rate.

Payment assumptions: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $299 dealer documentation fee, 60-month term, new-vehicle APR applied to the North Dakota delivered price including tax and statutory fees. At the 6.39% overall new-car average the same purchase costs $627.34 a month.

The score bands are VantageScore 4.0, not FICO. The same borrower can land in a different tier under each model, so a FICO score pulled from a card issuer will not always match the band here. Source: Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45.

Each row changes one input and leaves the rest at the baseline below. The dollar effects are this calculator's own output for North Dakota, not a rule of thumb.

Baseline: $35,000 vehicle price, $0 trade-in, $5,000 cash down, $299 documentation fee, 60 months at 7.25% APR, giving a $640.35 payment and $6,273.84 of total interest.

North Dakota's 5% motor vehicle excise tax replaces sales tax, and its base is the purchase price of the vehicle alone. Five steps.

1. Net taxable purchase price. N.D.C.C. § 57-40.3-01(6) deducts the trade-in allowance from the sale price to establish the purchase price, and separately makes that allowance the purchase price of the traded vehicle. The excise base is the purchase price of the vehicle itself, so a dealer service charge is not in it.

The allowance is capped at the price of the vehicle you are buying, so a large trade can drive the base to zero but not below it.

2. Excise tax. A single statewide rate with nothing stacked on it.

3. Title and registration. A fixed $98.00, being the $5 certificate of title and a $93 twelve-month registration fee. The $93 is the NDDOT schedule MVD-2 figure effective 1 January 2026 for a 3,200 to 4,499 lb passenger car first registered in 2021 or later. Your bracket may differ, and the section below explains how.

4. Amount financed. The trade-in works twice. It lowered the tax base in step one, and it also reduces the balance you borrow.

5. Amortization. The financed amount amortizes as a fixed-rate installment loan:

where $P$ is the financed amount, $i$ is the monthly rate (APR ÷ 12), and $n$ is the term in months. Each period's interest is the outstanding balance times $i$, the remainder reduces principal, and the schedule reconciles to zero at maturity.

North Dakota's 5% motor vehicle excise tax replaces sales tax on a car, applies statewide with no local add-on, and does not reach the dealer doc fee. That makes this one of the shortest tax computations in the country.

• Vehicle price: $35,000
• Trade-in allowance: $0
• Cash down: $5,000
• Dealer doc fee: $299
• Term: 60 months at 7.25% APR

Step 1 -- The taxable purchase price. Sale price less the trade-in allowance, doc fee excluded: $35,000 - $0 = $35,000.00

Step 2 -- Motor vehicle excise tax at 5%. $35,000.00 x 5% = $1,750.00

Step 3 -- Title and registration, outside the base. $5.00 title + $93.00 registration = $98.00

Step 4 -- Total delivered price. $35,000 + $299.00 doc fee + $1,750.00 + $98.00 = $37,147.00

Step 5 -- Amount financed. $37,147.00 - $0 trade-in - $5,000 cash down = $32,147.00

Step 6 -- The monthly payment. $32,147.00 at 7.25% over 60 months = $640.35

Step 7 -- Month 1. $32,147.00 x (7.25% / 12) = $194.22 interest, $446.13 principal, balance $31,700.87

Step 8 -- Month 2. $31,700.87 x (7.25% / 12) = $191.53 interest, $448.82 principal, balance $31,252.05. Cumulative interest: $385.75

Step 9 -- The accumulation. Interest through month 12 is $2,149.13 with $26,611.93 still owed. Over 60 months, $6,273.84

Add a $10,000 trade-in and change nothing else. The base drops to $25,000, the tax falls to $1,250.00, and the payment drops to $431.19. The trade-in saved $500 in tax on its own, and that figure is the reason to take a dealer's trade offer seriously even when a private sale would fetch more. A private buyer has to beat the trade offer by more than $500 before you come out ahead.

Negotiating the $299 doc fee to zero drops the payment to $634.39. The fee is untaxed, so it costs its face value plus five years of interest and nothing more.

• Your actual registration bracket. NDDOT schedule MVD-2 sets the annual fee by weight and by the year the vehicle was first registered. For the 2021-or-newer cohort the twelve-month fees run $73 (3,199 lbs or less), $93 (3,200 to 4,499), $111 (4,500 to 4,999), $142 (5,000 to 5,999), up to $274 at 9,000 lbs and above. Older first-registration cohorts pay less; the 2018 to 2020 cohort runs $65, $81, $94, $120 across the same brackets. The $93 used here is a representative mid-size figure, not your figure.
• The $1.50 abandoned motor vehicle disposal fee, charged on vehicles first titled in North Dakota, which is not included in the $98.
• Electric and plug-in hybrid road use fees. North Dakota adds $120 a year for an electric vehicle and $50 a year for a plug-in hybrid. Neither is modeled here.
• The destroyed or stolen vehicle credit. Section 57-40.3-01(6) also provides a credit where a vehicle is destroyed or stolen and replaced. This calculator models only an ordinary trade-in.
• The preemption reading. The conclusion that local sales taxes do not stack is drawn from the structure of Chapter 57-40.3 as a standalone excise chapter and the Tax Commissioner's motor vehicle excise guideline. The exact preemption sentence was not extracted verbatim from the statute. It is the near-universal treatment in practice, but confirm it if a dealer quotes you something different.
• Doc fee taxability is treated as excluded, not confirmed. The excise base is the purchase price of the vehicle, and dealer service fees are generally outside it. If that were wrong, a $299 fee would add $14.95 of tax.
• GAP insurance, extended warranties, and aftermarket add-ons, unless you fold them into the vehicle price yourself.

• Adding a city or county rate. Fargo, Bismarck, Grand Forks, and Minot all levy local sales taxes on general retail. None of them apply to a vehicle purchase. Adding one to the 5% overstates the tax on a $35,000 car by hundreds of dollars.
• Calling it a sales tax. It is an excise tax under a different chapter of the code, with a different base and different exemptions. The distinction matters when you are reading exemption rules or claiming a credit for tax paid to another state.
• Using the model year to find your registration fee. The schedule keys on the year the vehicle was first registered. A three-year-old car bought used sits in the cohort of its original registration, not the current year.
• Assuming the doc fee is capped. North Dakota sets no statutory limit. The $299 default is a market average, and dealers vary.
• Rolling negative equity forward. If you owe more than the trade is worth, the shortfall is added to the new loan. It raises the principal and the total interest, and it does not increase the tax deduction, which follows the allowance rather than your equity.
• Judging a loan by the payment alone. Stretching this $32,147.00 balance from 60 to 72 months drops the payment to $551.94 and raises total finance charges to $7,592.86, an extra $1,318.93 in interest for $88.41 a month.

• North Dakota Office of State Tax Commissioner, Motor Vehicle Excise Tax guideline (guideline 21963) tax.nd.gov
• Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Truth in Lending Act (Regulation Z, 12 CFR § 1026.22) disclosure requirements for installment credit. ecfr.gov/current/title-12/chapter-X/part-1026

Also consulted: N.D.C.C. § 57-40.3-02 (5% motor vehicle excise tax on the purchase price); N.D.C.C. § 57-40.3-01(6) (trade-in allowance deducted to establish purchase price; destroyed or stolen vehicle credit); NDDOT Motor Vehicle Division, schedule MVD-2, passenger vehicle registration fees, revised October 2025, effective 1 January 2026 through 31 December 2026; NDDOT Motor Vehicle Division fee schedule ($5 certificate of title; $1.50 abandoned motor vehicle disposal fee); Experian, State of the Automotive Finance Market, Q1 2026, slide 45 (average new and used auto loan APR by VantageScore 4.0 credit tier; national, no state level cut published).