Registration document – Up 11% in mainland France – News

NEWS

Published on January 14, 2025

The gray card, or rather the registration certificate as it should be called, is part of the crux of the matter for the regions. It is one of the few resources that directly and completely benefits their finances. Thus, in a rather tense financial context for local authorities and the State, 7 regions out of the 13 in mainland France have decided to increase their prices in 2025.

The largest increase over 1 year can be attributed to Corsica (see table). From €27 in 2024, the tax horse rose to €43 in 2025, or +59.2%. But in addition to Corsica, the Normandy region also reported a significant increase, with an increase from €46 to €60 per horse, which amounts to an increase of 30.4% over 1 year. However, Normandy had already increased its price in 2024; over 2 years, the price of the tax horse has soared by 71.4% in both Rouen and Caen! “This is a resource which is trending in constant decline, and whose product has never returned to its pre-Covid level. In 2019, the region collected €109 million in revenue. In 2023, the income received was €82 million, a drop of almost 25% in 4 years”explains the regional council, which also justifies its choice to increase the price of the horse to its legal maximum of €60 by the desire to contain “the erosion of regional revenues”, since registration documents are more expensive “should make it possible to collect income of €162 million in the 2025 budget, i.e. +€36 million compared to the 2024 budget, and thus counteract the reduction in VAT”. But Normandy also wishes “keep sufficient gross savings to continue investing in ecological transitions, particularly in railway investments”she says.

Free for electric vehicles

The increase in prices for the 7 metropolitan regions is also justified by the fact that the free registration documents granted to electric or hydrogen vehicles represent a real shortfall for local authorities. According to a document presenting the 2025 budget of the Occitanie region, the “loss of earnings on registration documents due to the exemption of electric vehicles decided by the State” was revealed to be €14.4 million in 2023 and €19 million in 2024. The region is still forecasting a gap of €12 million in 2025 due to electric car registrations! Toulouse and its regional executive therefore did not even wait until 2025 to increase the price of the tax horse: on 1^is October 2024, this increased from €47 to €54.5 with relative discretion. It should not be surprising that other regions take an identical decision during the year 2025. Contacted, the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region indicates that it will vote on its annual budget “around March 20” and that its orientations are currently under discussion.

The average price of the metropolitan tax horse is therefore €53 in 2025, compared to €47.8 in 2024 (+ 11%). Note that the department of Reunion has already announced an increase from €51 to €57 per horse for 2025; for the moment it is the only overseas community to have made such a choice.

Delivery fee of €2.76

If motorists will therefore pay more for their registration fees in 2025, the State gets off lightly. By two decrees published respectively on December 13 and 16, 2024, the Administration announced that it would no longer transmit registration documents and driving licenses by registered mail. These precious documents will arrive in mailboxes as simple tracked letters. The will of the State is clear from the first words of the order concerning the registration certificate: “In the context of a constrained budgetary situation…” There remains only one question, however. Why do registration simulations on the state server continue to announce the perception of a “conveyance fee” at €2.76 even though the sending of registered mail has already stopped?