Motorcycle tax
What does your motorcycle cost in tax?
A motorcycle is not a small car. Half the cantons tax it on a basis the car tariff never uses at all – and the gap between the cheapest and the dearest canton is wider than it is for cars.
Its own tariff, not the car one
About half the cantons tax motorcycles on displacement; the rest use power or weight. Reaching for the car tariff instead is wrong by a factor, in either direction.
No energy label
Cantonal eco discounts are written for “light motor cars” in so many words. No motorcycle qualifies anywhere. Electric machines do get a flat rate in several cantons, or nothing to pay at all.
A wider spread than cars
For the same 650, the cheapest and the dearest canton are nearly a factor of four apart. For a car the spread is tighter.
Why the motorcycle has a tariff of its own
Nearly every cantonal tax act gives motorcycles a clause to themselves, and that clause rarely follows the car tariff’s logic. Zurich works out a base amount from displacement and then adds a flat sum for the exhaust category – a quantity the car tariff does not contain. Lucerne moved from displacement to power in 2025; Aargau and St. Gallen move to weight and power combined from 2026. Two things are deliberately not computed: small motorcycles and mopeds, which most cantons tax far lower, and the sidecar or trike surcharge that at least eight cantons levy. Both are noted next to the amount wherever they apply.