Two fixed months
April: license tax. Scooter license tax is collected once a year and must be paid within a month from 1 April (Articles 10 and 11 of the License Tax Act). Only petrol scooters over 150 cc pay; up to 150 cc the tax is zero. Local governments exempt electric scooters until 31 December 2030 under the same Act.
July: road fee. Under Article 6 of the fee regulations, private vehicles and scooters are billed once a year in July. Unlike the license tax, even a 50 cc petrol scooter pays it. Electric scooters are currently exempt.
Two on your own dates
Compulsory insurance has no fixed month; it follows the expiry date on your policy. When you renew, make sure the new policy starts where the old one ends.
The emission check follows the original registration month on your vehicle registration certificate (行照). Once a petrol scooter is five years old, it must be checked every year between the 1st of the month before that month and the last day of the month after. A scooter first registered in January has a window starting on 1 December of the year before; one registered in December has until 31 January. The inspection deadline calculator gives you the exact dates.
New and suspended scooters
- Newly registered: license tax is the yearly amount minus the days already passed, so the first year is usually less than a full year.
- Suspended (報停, officially taken off the road): license tax covers only the days of use.
- Road fee: the regulations also set a daily rate, the yearly fee divided by 12 and then by 30, with fractions of a tenth of a dollar dropped.
Paying late
Late license tax attracts a surcharge, and if it is still unpaid after the surcharge period and the scooter is caught on a public road, the fine can be up to the tax due. A late road fee is dealt with under Article 75 of the Highway Act. We have not verified the surcharge rate or the road fee fines line by line, so we give no numbers; the bill and the authority that sent it are the reference.
Bills and notices are in Chinese. The names to look for are 使用牌照稅 (license tax) and 公路使用養護安全管理費, or the older 燃料費 (road fee).
To see what to budget each year, try the yearly cost calculator.