ARF Calculator

How to use this calculator

1. Find the Open Market ValueOMV is assessed by Singapore Customs and appears on the vehicle registration documents. It is the purchase price plus freight, insurance and handling before any duties or taxes — not the showroom price.
2. Check the tiers against LTAThe tier structure is revised at Budgets and higher tiers have been added over time. Every threshold and rate here is editable, so current figures can be entered directly.
3. Read the effective rateBecause the tiers are progressive by slice, the effective rate is always lower than the top tier reached — though on an expensive car it still comfortably exceeds 100 per cent.
4. Remember what is not hereARF is one component. COE, excise duty, GST and the dealer's margin all sit on top, and COE is usually the largest single item.

How the calculation works

ARF is a registration tax charged as a percentage of Open Market Value, and it is tiered in the same way an income tax is — each rate applies only to the portion of OMV that falls inside its band.

That structure means crossing a tier threshold does not reprice the whole vehicle. An OMV one dollar above a threshold pays the higher rate on that one dollar, not on everything below it.

What makes ARF distinctive is that the rates exceed 100 per cent. The base tier is charged at the full OMV, and the upper tiers considerably more. On a car with an OMV of S$80,000, the ARF alone can approach or exceed the OMV itself — which is a deliberate policy choice to make vehicle ownership expensive in a land-constrained city.

OMV itself is assessed by Singapore Customs and covers the price actually paid for the vehicle plus freight, insurance and handling charges incurred in bringing it to Singapore. It excludes excise duty, GST, ARF, COE, registration fees and the dealer's margin — all of which are added afterwards.

That is why the OMV of a car is so much lower than its showroom price, and why the multiple between the two is the thing people find startling.

Worked example

A vehicle with an Open Market Value of S$40,000, on the tiers loaded above.

The first S$20,000 is charged at 100 per cent — S$20,000. The next S$20,000, taking it to S$40,000, is charged at 140 per cent — S$28,000.

Total ARF is S$48,000 on a S$40,000 OMV, an effective rate of 120 per cent.

Now raise the OMV to S$80,000. The first two tiers contribute S$48,000 as before, the S$40,000 to S$60,000 slice at 190 per cent adds S$38,000, and the S$60,000 to S$80,000 slice at 250 per cent adds S$50,000. Total ARF S$136,000 on an S$80,000 OMV — an effective rate of 170 per cent.

Doubling the OMV nearly tripled the ARF. That escalation is the entire design of the system, and it is why the gap between a modest car and an expensive one in Singapore is far wider than the gap between their manufacturing costs.

What ARF sits alongside

COE is usually the largest single component and the most volatile, since it is set by twice-monthly open bidding rather than by a published rate. That is why the same car can differ in price by tens of thousands of dollars between quarters with no change to any of the taxes.

PARF, deregistration and why ARF is partly refundable

ARF is not entirely a sunk cost, and that is the part most people miss. When a vehicle is deregistered within ten years of registration, a proportion of the ARF paid is refunded as the Preferential Additional Registration Fee, or PARF.

The PARF proportion falls with the vehicle's age at deregistration, from a substantial share in the early years down to nothing at ten years. That declining rebate is a major component of a car's residual value in Singapore, and it is why the depreciation figure quoted in car advertisements is calculated the way it is.

The practical consequence is that ARF should be thought of partly as a deposit rather than purely as a tax. A car with a high ARF carries a correspondingly high PARF rebate in its early years, which offsets some of the initial cost when the vehicle is sold or scrapped.

At exactly ten years the PARF entitlement disappears. Vehicles deregistered after that point qualify only for any remaining COE rebate, which is why so many Singapore cars are deregistered at or just before the ten-year mark rather than run on.

Renewing a COE at ten years also forfeits the PARF entitlement permanently, which is a significant part of the arithmetic when deciding whether to renew or replace. A calculator that ignores PARF substantially overstates the true cost of a newer car.

Assumptions and limitations

• Tiers loaded are a starting structure and must be checked against the current LTA schedule
• Calculates ARF only — COE, excise duty, GST and registration fees are separate
• Does not calculate the PARF rebate, which materially affects total cost of ownership
• Assumes a standard passenger vehicle; motorcycles and commercial vehicles use different schedules
• Takes no account of any electric vehicle or emissions-based rebate or surcharge scheme
• Not tax advice — LTA's own assessment is the authoritative figure

Questions people ask about this in Singapore