New Hampshire car-buying rules
These are the rules the Before the Lot planner uses for New Hampshire, with the source and date for each. They describe the rules and the planner's estimate; they are not legal or tax advice, and the dealer's quote and your state's documents are what count.
Dealer doc fee in New Hampshire
No dollar cap, with rules on how the fee is shown.
No cap on the dealer's own administrative fee. 'Documentary fees' in an installment contract are limited to actual government filing costs (RSA 361-A:1), which is where old '$27 cap' reports come from.
Sales tax in New Hampshire
- Tax: None (no sales tax).
- State rate used: 0%.
- Local add-ons: None on cars.
- Dollar cap on the tax: none in the data.
No sales tax on cars. Your town charges a yearly permit fee at registration based on list price and model year.
Trade-in tax credit
No. New Hampshire does not take the trade-in value off the taxed price.
Does a maker's rebate lower the taxed price?
Not confirmed. No sales tax; town permit fee based on the maker's list price.
Cancellation and return rights
No New Hampshire-specific right to cancel or return a dealership purchase is in the planner's data.
There is no federal cooling-off period for buying a car at a dealership; the FTC's door-to-door Cooling-Off Rule excludes dealers with a permanent place of business (16 CFR 429.3(a)). The FTC CARS Rule was vacated by the Fifth Circuit in January 2025 and formally withdrawn effective Feb 12, 2026 (91 FR 6507). No other state with a general used-car cooling-off right was found; NCLC calls California's the first in the nation.
Worked out-the-door example: a $35,000 vehicle
Built with the planner's own out-the-door formula: the tax is the state base rate times the vehicle price plus the doc fee, with no trade-in, rounded to the cent. Local taxes are not included.
| Line | Amount |
|---|---|
| Vehicle price (example) | $35,000 |
| Doc fee (the planner's default, an example amount only; there is no cap) | $450 |
| Sales tax at 0% on $35,450 | $0 |
| Title and registration (the planner's default estimate) | $250 |
| Out-the-door total | $35,700 |
Title and registration fees differ by state and vehicle; $250 is a placeholder, not a New Hampshire figure.
Plan a purchase in New Hampshire
Plan a purchase in New Hampshire opens the free planner with New Hampshire already chosen. Nothing is sent to a server; the choice rides in the link's fragment.
These rules feed two steps of the method: set your numbers and let dealers compete. To read a dealer's quote line by line, see reading an out-the-door quote. All states.