The malus on an imported car, worked out the way the French authorities do it
The malus is where import budgets fall apart, and on a large engine it runs into tens of thousands of euros. It is also the figure most online calculators get wrong, because they apply this year's scale to a car that was first registered years ago. Here is the rule as the French tax authorities apply it, article by article.
Two taxes, not one
What people call the malus is not one tax. It is two separate taxes, added together, and each of them is charged once only, when the vehicle is first registered in France.
The carbon dioxide emissions tax (article L. 421-62 of the code des impositions sur les biens et services, the French code of taxes on goods and services, usually shortened to CIBS) starts in 2026 at 108 g/km and climbs to 80,000 EUR above 191 g/km. The tax on masse en ordre de marche (article L. 421-75) starts in 2026 at 1,500 kg, with a marginal rate per band running from 10 EUR to 30 EUR per kilo. The threshold moves with the year of first registration too: 1,600 kg for a car first registered in 2024 or 2025, 1,800 kg for one first registered in 2022 or 2023, and no weight tax at all for a vehicle first registered before 2022, since the scale in article L. 421-75 opens with that year.
Masse en ordre de marche is the kerb mass of the vehicle ready for the road: fluids topped up, the tank 90 per cent full and a conventional 75 kg driver included. The figure it is charged on is the mass at entry G of the certificat d'immatriculation, the French registration document everyone calls the carte grise. It is not the PTAC, the maximum authorised laden weight shown at entry F.2, and it is not the unladen mass either. Taking the wrong line from the document is enough to put the estimate out by several thousand euros.
| Masse en ordre de marche, 2026 registration | Marginal rate |
|---|---|
| Up to 1,499 kg | 0 EUR |
| 1,500 to 1,699 kg | 10 EUR per kg |
| 1,700 to 1,799 kg | 15 EUR per kg |
| 1,800 to 1,899 kg | 20 EUR per kg |
| 1,900 to 1,999 kg | 25 EUR per kg |
| 2,000 kg and above | 30 EUR per kg |
Only the slice of mass falling inside each band is charged at that band's rate, in the same way as an income tax bracket. A car first registered in 2026 with a masse en ordre de marche of 1,950 kg is charged on 450 kg spread over four bands, which comes to 6,750 EUR, and not on 450 kg at a single rate.
The trap: it is not this year's scale
The scale that applies is the one for the vehicle's year of first registration, including when that first registration took place abroad. Article L. 421-59 of the CIBS provides for this by reference to article L. 421-5, and the tax authorities' published guidance, BOI-AIS-MOB-10-20-40 (BOFiP), confirms it.
In plain terms, a car first registered in Germany in 2021 falls under the 2021 scale, capped at 30,000 EUR, and not under the 2026 scale capped at 80,000 EUR. On a fast saloon the gap between those two readings reaches 50,000 EUR. This is the single most common mistake made by online calculators, and it frightens buyers away from cars that were perfectly affordable all along.
| Year of first registration | CO2 threshold | Cap |
|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 108 g/km | 80,000 EUR |
| 2025 (from 1 March) | 113 g/km | 70,000 EUR |
| 2024, and January and February 2025 | 118 g/km | 60,000 EUR |
| 2023 | 123 g/km | 50,000 EUR |
| 2022 | 128 g/km | 40,000 EUR |
| 2021 | 133 g/km | 30,000 EUR |
| 2020 (from 1 March) | 138 g/km | 20,000 EUR |
The scales do not always change over on 1 January. The loi de finances pour 2025, the 2025 Finance Act, only brought its scale into force on 1 March 2025, so a car first registered in January 2025 still falls under the 2024 scale, whose cap is 10,000 EUR lower. The 2026 scale, by contrast, has applied since 1 January 2026. When a car was registered within a few weeks of a changeover, read the date on the foreign registration document before accepting anyone's estimate.
The age relief changed on 1 March 2025
The old rule, 10 per cent off for each year or part-year, no longer applies. It has been replaced by a banded scale based on the vehicle's age in months, at article L. 421-7-2 of the CIBS, created by article 29 of the loi de finances pour 2025 and in force since 1 March 2025.
Age is counted in whole months from the date of first registration, rounded up. A vehicle of twelve months and one day therefore counts as thirteen months, and lands in the 16 per cent band. The coefficient is then taken off the amount the scale produces, so a 28 per cent coefficient turns a 10,000 EUR malus into 7,200 EUR. It applies to the CO2 tax and to the weight tax alike, and only to vehicles already registered abroad or converted into passenger vehicles: a genuinely new car pays the full amount.
| Age at registration in France | Reduction |
|---|---|
| 1 to 3 months | 3 % |
| 4 to 6 months | 6 % |
| 7 to 9 months | 9 % |
| 10 to 12 months | 12 % |
| 13 to 18 months | 16 % |
| 19 to 24 months | 20 % |
| 25 to 36 months | 28 % |
| 37 to 48 months | 33 % |
| 49 to 60 months | 38 % |
| 61 to 72 months | 43 % |
| 73 to 84 months | 48 % |
| 85 to 96 months | 53 % |
| 97 to 108 months | 58 % |
| 109 to 120 months | 64 % |
| 121 to 132 months | 70 % |
| 133 to 144 months | 76 % |
| 145 to 156 months | 82 % |
| 157 to 168 months | 88 % |
| 169 to 180 months | 94 % |
| 181 months and over | 100 % |
Two practical consequences. A few weeks either side of a band edge can be worth a four-figure sum on a heavily taxed car, so it is sometimes cheaper to register in the following month. And the relief reaches 100 per cent at 181 months, that is fifteen years and one month, which for the moment overlaps with the outright exemption for pre-2015 vehicles set out below.
The two taxes do not stack without limit
Article L. 421-74 cuts back the weight tax so that the two taxes added together cannot exceed the highest amount in the CO2 scale applicable to the vehicle. It is always the weight tax that is reduced, never the CO2 tax.
On a heavy new SUV the total therefore stops at 80,000 EUR in 2026, whatever the mass on the certificate. The ceiling follows the year of first registration in the same way as the scale itself, which matters far more on an import than on a new car: a vehicle first registered in 2021 cannot be taxed more than 30,000 EUR in total, because 30,000 EUR is the top of the 2021 CO2 scale. Any quotation that adds a CO2 figure and a weight figure without testing them against that ceiling is overstating the bill.
When the malus is nil
- First registered before 1 January 2015. Both taxes are nil, with no condition as to emissions or mass (articles L. 421-60 and L. 421-73). That covers the whole classic and youngtimer field, including cars that would otherwise be taxed at the top of the scale.
- Electric, hydrogen and low carbon footprint vehicles. Exempt from both taxes (articles L. 421-67 and L. 421-79). The version of article L. 421-79 in force since 1 March 2026 exempts the véhicule à faible empreinte carbone, the low carbon footprint category, and then hydrogen and electric vehicles not already covered by it.
- Emissions below the year's threshold. The CO2 tax is nil, and the threshold is the one for the year of first registration, not for the current year.
- Mass below the year's threshold. The weight tax is nil, and it does not exist at all for a vehicle first registered before 2022.
Other reliefs depend on the registered keeper rather than on the car: households with three or more dependent children, holders of a carte mobilité inclusion bearing the invalidité mention (the French disability card), wheelchair-accessible vehicles, and vehicles of eight seats or more held by a legal person. They are not built into the online calculator and are dealt with case by case, most of them by claiming a refund after registration.
Cars with no WLTP figure
This is the usual position for cars imported from the United States or Japan, which have no European type approval and therefore no WLTP emissions figure. The malus is then worked out on puissance administrative, the French administrative power rating expressed in chevaux fiscaux (fiscal horsepower, abbreviated to CV), under the scale at article L. 421-64, and not on emissions at all. In 2026 that scale starts at 500 EUR for 3 CV and reaches 80,000 EUR from 15 CV. On an American V8 it is generally heavier than the CO2 scale would have been.
The rest of the mechanism is unchanged: the year of first registration still fixes the scale, and the age coefficient still reduces the result, which is what makes a 1990s or 2000s import viable where a recent one is not.
A car with no European type approval also has to be made road legal in France before it can be registered. That means either the manufacturer's European certificate of conformity, or, where none exists, an individual approval (réception à titre isolé) granted by the DREAL, the regional directorate for the environment, planning and housing that handles vehicle approval. Allow for that step in both time and budget, because it can call for modifications to lighting, glazing or emissions equipment.
Get the figure before you commit
A firm number is available before you commit to anything, because every input is printed on the foreign registration document: the date of first registration, the WLTP CO2 figure and the masse en ordre de marche. Read those three lines correctly and the malus is arithmetic, not guesswork.
The malus is not the whole bill. The registration itself is charged per cheval fiscal at your region's rate, and the application also needs a quitus fiscal (the clearance certificate issued by the French tax office confirming that VAT has been settled on an intra-EU purchase), a valid contrôle technique (the French roadworthiness test, which must be less than six months old for a used car at registration) and the certificate of conformity or the DREAL approval. The two malus are not billed to you separately: they are paid as part of the registration application.
You can run the numbers yourself with our malus and registration calculator (in French): simulateur d'import. If you would rather we did it, send us the advert and we will price the car and the taxes: demande de chiffrage import. The form is in French, but you are welcome to write to us in English.
Three companion guides cover the rest of the file, and are for now published in French only: importing a car from Germany, step by step, what the carte grise of an imported vehicle really costs, and when French VAT is due on an imported vehicle.
Autonero is a French motor trader based in Nogent-le-Phaye, 6 km from Chartres. Send us the link to the advert and we'll come back with the complete price and the tax calculation. We are not a mandataire, the buying agent model where the agent buys in your name and leaves the paperwork and the taxes to you. We buy the vehicle, we bring it over, and you buy it from us: a French invoice, the two-year legal guarantee of conformity, 40 per cent on order and the balance on delivery.
Our premises are at 10 rue du Bois Paris, 28630 Nogent-le-Phaye, Eure-et-Loir, six kilometres from Chartres and two minutes from junction 2 of the A11, open by appointment for viewings and handovers. Telephone +33 9 80 80 15 10, or write to contact@autonero.fr.
Read next
What exactly is the French malus, and when do I pay it?
It is two taxes rather than one, both triggered by the same event. The carbon dioxide emissions tax sits at article L. 421-62 of the code des impositions sur les biens et services (CIBS), and the tax on masse en ordre de marche at article L. 421-75. The chargeable event is the issue of the certificat d'immatriculation, the carte grise, on the vehicle's first registration in France as a véhicule de tourisme, that is as a passenger vehicle. You pay once, at that point, and they are paid as part of the registration application rather than billed to you separately afterwards.
Which year's scale applies to a car that was first registered abroad?
The scale of the year of first registration, wherever in the world that registration took place. Article L. 421-59 of the CIBS provides for this by reference to article L. 421-5, and the published guidance at BOI-AIS-MOB-10-20-40 confirms it. A car first registered in Germany in 2021 is therefore assessed on the 2021 scale, which starts at 133 g/km and is capped at 30,000 EUR, and not on the 2026 scale capped at 80,000 EUR. Watch the changeover dates as well: the 2025 scale only took effect on 1 March 2025, so a car registered in January 2025 is still on the 2024 scale.
Do I pay the malus again when I sell the car?
No. The chargeable event is the first registration in France as a passenger vehicle, so once the malus has been paid on a vehicle it is not asked for again when that vehicle changes hands. The one situation that looks like an exception is not a resale at all: where a vehicle registered in another category, a van for instance, is later converted and registered as a véhicule de tourisme, that registration is a fresh chargeable event and the malus falls due then, on the scale of the year of first registration and reduced by the age coefficient.
Is the malus capped at a percentage of the car's price?
Not since 1 January 2024. The cap at 50 per cent of the acquisition price used to sit at article L. 421-61 of the CIBS, and it was repealed by the loi de finances pour 2024. Nothing has replaced it. On a small but heavily emitting car, or on an inexpensive high-powered import taxed on fiscal horsepower, the malus can therefore exceed what the car itself costs. The only ceiling left is the one at article L. 421-74, which is expressed as a euro amount and not as a share of the price.
How is the age reduction counted?
In whole months from the date of first registration, rounded up, so a vehicle of twelve months and one day counts as thirteen months. The percentage then comes from the banded scale at article L. 421-7-2: 3 per cent from 1 to 3 months, 12 per cent from 10 to 12 months, 16 per cent from 13 to 18 months, 28 per cent from 25 to 36 months, 64 per cent from 109 to 120 months, and 100 per cent from 181 months, which is fifteen years and one month. The coefficient is taken off the amount the scale produces, and it applies to the weight tax as well as to the CO2 tax. It is reserved for vehicles already registered abroad, or converted into passenger vehicles; a new car pays in full.
Does a plug-in hybrid pay the weight tax?
It is not necessarily exempt, but it benefits from an exemption or a mass allowance depending on its date of first registration and its technical characteristics (article L. 421-79-1). A plug-in hybrid first registered in 2022, 2023 or 2024 is exempt from the weight tax. One first registered from 1 January 2025 instead gets an allowance of 200 kg on the masse en ordre de marche, capped at 15 per cent of that mass, where its equivalent all-electric range in urban use exceeds 50 km. Other vehicles whose energy source includes electricity, full hybrids and mild hybrids, get 100 kg. Full exemption from both taxes applies to vehicles running only on electricity or hydrogen, and to vehicles classed as à faible empreinte carbone, under articles L. 421-67 and L. 421-79. None of this touches the CO2 tax, which a plug-in hybrid pays on its WLTP figure like any other car.
My car has no WLTP CO2 figure. How is it taxed?
On the puissance administrative scale at article L. 421-64, in other words on fiscal horsepower (chevaux fiscaux, CV) rather than on emissions. That is the standard treatment for American and Japanese imports with no European type approval. In 2026 the scale starts at 500 EUR for 3 CV and reaches 80,000 EUR from 15 CV, and on a large-capacity petrol engine it usually costs more than the CO2 scale would have. The rest of the mechanism is unchanged: the year of first registration fixes the scale, and the age coefficient reduces the result, which is why an older import can still be affordable.
Are older cars exempt?
Yes, and by a clean rule rather than a discretionary one. Where the first registration, in France or abroad, is earlier than 1 January 2015, both taxes are nil, with no condition as to emissions or mass (articles L. 421-60 and L. 421-73). That covers the entire classic market. Two further points push the same way: the weight tax does not exist for vehicles first registered before 2022, and the age coefficient reaches 100 per cent at 181 months. Note that this is a tax question only, and is separate from the carte grise de collection, the French classic vehicle registration status, which has its own conditions and its own consequences.
Can the weight tax push the total above the CO2 cap?
No. Article L. 421-74 cuts back the weight tax so that the two taxes added together cannot exceed the highest amount in the CO2 scale applicable to the vehicle, and it is always the weight tax that gives way, never the CO2 tax. A car first registered in 2026 therefore cannot be taxed more than 80,000 EUR in total, however heavy it is. Because the applicable scale follows the year of first registration, the ceiling for an import first registered in 2021 is that year's figure, 30,000 EUR, for both taxes combined.
Are there reductions for families or disability?
Yes, several, and most of them work by refund rather than by a reduction at the counter. A household with three or more dependent children gets 20 g/km per child off the CO2 figure, or 1 CV per child on the fiscal horsepower scale, and 200 kg per child off the mass, on a vehicle with at least five seats (articles L. 421-70 and L. 421-81); the malus is paid in full at registration and reclaimed from the tax office afterwards. Wheelchair-accessible vehicles are exempt from the CO2 tax (article L. 421-65) and from the weight tax, as are vehicles acquired by a holder of a carte mobilité inclusion bearing the invalidité mention, or by a household with a child holding one. Vehicles of eight seats or more held by a legal person get an allowance under article L. 421-66, set at 90 g/km or 4 CV for 2026. None of these are built into the online calculator, so tell us if one applies to you and we will factor it into the quotation.
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