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Vehicle Weight Tax — One Car Exempt While You Serve

One noncommercial vehicle registered to a Guard, reserve or armed service member assigned to a unit in the State is exempt from the vehicle weight tax. The state tax alone runs at 1.75 cents a pound, so a mid-size car carries about $60 a year of it.

Verified August 23, 2026

What this benefit is

One noncommercial vehicle registered to a Guard, reserve or armed service member assigned to a unit in the State is exempt from the vehicle weight tax. The state tax alone runs at 1.75 cents a pound, so a mid-size car carries about $60 a year of it.

What it's worth: The weight tax on one noncommercial vehicle, removed each year

  • The figure shown is the state vehicle weight tax on a 3,500 pound car: §249-33 levies 1.75 cents a pound up to and including four thousand pounds net weight, which is $61.25.
  • The rate steps up with weight: 2.00 cents a pound over four thousand and up to seven thousand pounds, 2.25 cents over seven thousand and up to ten thousand, and a flat $300 above ten thousand.
  • §249-33(a) names §249-6.5 in its own list of exceptions, so the state weight tax is plainly one of the taxes this exemption removes.
  • Two conditions must both hold: the member is assigned to a unit in the State, and the member is in good standing.
  • The exemption is for ONE noncommercial motor vehicle registered to the member.

Who is entitled to it

  • The section covers the National Guard, the military reserve and the armed service alike.
  • The section reaches a member of the armed service, including the Coast Guard.
  • The section names the National Guard and the military reserve first.
  • Your home is in this state.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

Deadline: At registration renewal
  1. 1Raise it at the county motor vehicle counter when you register or renew — the weight tax is collected by the county director of finance together with the registration fee, so that is where it comes off.
  2. 2Be ready to show that you are assigned to a unit in the State and in good standing. Those are the two things the section conditions the exemption on, and no form is prescribed in the statute itself.
  3. 3Nominate one vehicle. If two are registered to you, only one can carry the exemption.
  4. 4Check the itemised bill afterwards. Registration in this state is several separate charges stacked together, and only the weight tax line should have changed.
File with
The county director of finance, at vehicle registration
Annual
Claimed once a year.
CorrectionThe section’s heading says "claiming Hawaii as their residence of record". Its text says no such thing — the two conditions are assignment to a unit in the State and good standing. A member stationed here who kept another state as their residence of record still meets what the section actually requires.
Worth knowingThis is a different exemption from the one a totally disabled veteran claims. That one removes a $45 state registration fee and leaves the weight tax alone; this one removes the weight tax and turns on serving rather than on a rating. A veteran who has separated has the first and not the second.
Known gapThe section exempts "the vehicle weight tax provided for in this chapter". The state tax under §249-33 is clearly included, because that section names §249-6.5 as an exception. Whether the separate county weight tax, whose rate each county council fixes by ordinance under §249-13, comes off as well is not settled by the text read here. Ask the county counter for both lines.
Known gapNo form, no proof standard and no renewal mechanism is prescribed in the statute. County practice on all three was not read.

Sources

Why only one source type: All three sources are the statute. The counties administer this at their finance counters and publish their own registration pages, but every county host in this jurisdiction refuses automated fetching and none was read this session. The section itself states the class, the two conditions and the one-vehicle limit.

This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.