Total Loss Settlement Calculator
When your own insurer declares your vehicle a total loss, the settlement under a policy that pays actual cash value starts from what a comparable vehicle costs, less your deductible. Whether the sales tax and the title and registration fees you would pay to replace it are added depends on your state's insurance rules.
This page quotes those rules for the 9 states whose official text we have read, and the calculator below applies them to your figures.
Estimate a total loss settlement from your own insurer
Enter the value of a vehicle comparable to yours, your deductible, your state, and the sales tax rate and the title and registration fees where you live. The calculator applies what your state's rule says about taxes and fees, where we have read it, and shows each step.
What a vehicle like yours, in its condition before the loss, costs to buy. The insurer's valuation report shows its figure.
From your policy, for the coverage paying the claim.
As a percent. Your state's revenue department publishes it.
What you would pay to title and register a vehicle like it.
Total loss settlement
Enter the value of a comparable vehicle to see the figure.
This applies your state's rule on taxes and fees, as quoted below, to the figures you enter. It does not value the vehicle, decide that it is a total loss, apply your policy's own terms, or cover a claim against another driver's insurer.
How a total loss settlement is figured
Under a policy that settles a total loss on actual cash value or replacement with a vehicle of like kind and quality, the rules quoted below base a cash settlement on the cost or value of a comparable vehicle. Rhode Island's rule, for one, defines the value as the retail value in a current edition of a nationally recognized compilation of retail values.
Your deductible comes off. Then the state's rule decides the taxes and fees. The rules read here take three approaches: the taxes are part of the cash settlement, and outside Minnesota so are the transfer or registration fees; the sales tax is part of it, though in Florida the insurer may hold it until you incur it; or, in Ohio, the sales tax is reimbursed when you buy a replacement within a set time and document it.
Ask the insurer for the valuation report behind its figure. Washington's rule, quoted below, requires a true copy on request.
Sales tax and fees in a total loss settlement, by state
Each state's rule is quoted with its citation and the date we read it, beside a plain summary. A state not listed is a gap in our research, not a finding that it has no such rule.
Florida
A cash settlement is based on the actual cost to buy a comparable vehicle, including sales tax where it applies. Where sales tax will necessarily be incurred on replacing the vehicle, the insurer may defer paying it until the tax is actually incurred.
“The insurer may elect a cash settlement based upon the actual cost to purchase a comparable motor vehicle, including sales tax, if applicable pursuant to subsection (9).”
“If sales tax will necessarily be incurred by a claimant upon replacement of a total loss or upon repair of a partial loss, the insurer may defer payment of the sales tax unless and until the obligation has actually been incurred.”
Iowa
A cash settlement is based on the actual cost, less the deductible, to buy a comparable automobile, including all applicable taxes, license fees and other fees for transferring ownership.
“(2) The insurer may elect a cash settlement based upon the actual cost, less any deductible provided in the policy, to purchase a comparable automobile including all applicable taxes, license fees and other fees incident to transfer of evidence of ownership of a comparable automobile.”
Kentucky
A cash settlement is based on the actual cost, less the deductible, to buy a comparable motor vehicle, including all applicable taxes, license fees where the Transportation Cabinet cannot refund them, and other fees for transferring ownership.
“(b) The insurer may elect a cash settlement based upon the actual cost, less any deductible provided in the policy, to purchase a comparable motor vehicle, including all applicable taxes, license fees (if these fees cannot be refunded by the Transportation Cabinet), and other fees incident to transfer of evidence of ownership of a comparable motor vehicle.”
Minnesota
It is an unfair settlement practice to settle a claim under actual cash value provisions for less than the value of the property immediately before the loss, including all applicable taxes and license fees, though an insurer never has to pay more than the amount of insurance.
“(7) settling or attempting to settle a claim or part of a claim with an insured under actual cash value provisions for less than the value of the property immediately preceding the loss, including all applicable taxes and license fees. In no case may an insurer be required to pay an amount greater than the amount of insurance;”
Nevada
A cash settlement is based on the cost, less the deductible, to buy a comparable automobile, including all applicable taxes, license fees and other fees for transferring ownership.
“The insurer may elect to make a cash settlement based upon the cost, less any deductible provided in the applicable policy, to purchase a comparable automobile including all applicable taxes, license fees and other fees incident to transfer of evidence of ownership of a comparable automobile.”
Ohio
A cash settlement is based on the actual cost to buy a comparable automobile, less the deductible and any betterment. If the claimant buys a replacement within thirty days of receiving it, the insurer reimburses the sales tax, up to the tax on a vehicle worth the settlement, on documentation submitted within thirty-three days; or the insurer may pay the sales tax with the settlement.
“an insurer which elects to offer a cash settlement to claimant shall base the offer upon the actual cost to purchase a comparable automobile less any applicable deductible amount contained in the policy, and/or deduction for betterment as contained in paragraph (H)(2) of this rule.”
“(f) If within thirty days of receipt by the claimant of a cash settlement for the total loss of an automobile, the claimant purchases a replacement automobile, the insurer shall reimburse the claimant for the applicable sales taxes incurred on account of the claimant's purchase of the automobile, but not to exceed the amount that would have been payable by the claimant for sales taxes on the purchase of an automobile with a market value equal to the amount of the cash settlement. If the claimant purchases an automobile with a market value less than the amount of the cash settlement, the insurer shall reimburse only the actual amount of the applicable sales taxes on the purchased automobile. If the claimant cannot substantiate such purchase and the payment of such sales taxes by submission to the insurer of appropriate documentation within thirty-three days after receipt of the cash settlement, the insurer shall not be required to reimburse the claimant for such sales taxes. In lieu of reimbursement, the insurer may pay directly the applicable sales taxes to the claimant at the time of the cash settlement.”
Pennsylvania
Where repair would cost more than the vehicle's appraised value less salvage, or it cannot be restored, the appraised value of the loss is its replacement value, and applicable sales tax on the replacement cost is part of that value.
“(e) The appraised value of the loss shall be the replacement value of the motor vehicle if the cost of repairing a motor vehicle exceeds its appraised value less salvage value, or the motor vehicle cannot be repaired to its predamaged condition.”
“(4) Applicable sales tax on the replacement cost of a motor vehicle shall be included as part of the replacement value.”
Rhode Island
A cash settlement is based on the vehicle's fair market value less any deductible, including all applicable taxes, title, registration and other fees for transferring ownership of a comparable automobile. Fair market value is the retail value in a current edition of a nationally recognized compilation of retail values.
“2. Fair market value means the retail value of the motor vehicle as set forth in a current edition of a nationally recognized compilation of retail values commonly used by the automotive industry to establish values of motor vehicles.”
“5. Cash Settlements a. A cash settlement shall be based upon the fair market value of the motor vehicle less any deductible provided in the policy, if applicable, including all applicable taxes, title, registration and other fees incident to transfer of evidence of ownership of a comparable automobile.”
Washington
In the rule as in force from October 18, 2026, the settlement must include all applicable government taxes and fees the claimant would have paid to buy the loss vehicle immediately before the loss, whether or not the claimant keeps or transfers it, and the insurer must provide a true copy of any valuation report on request.
“"valuation report," as described in WAC 284-30-392, if requested. (e) As part of the settlement amount, include all applicable government taxes and fees that would have been incurred by the claimant if the claimant had purchased the loss vehicle immediately prior to the loss. These taxes and fees must be included in the settlement amount whether or not the claimant retains or subsequently transfers ownership of the loss vehicle.”
How to check a total loss settlement offer
Start with the comparable vehicles. Each one in the valuation should match yours on make, model, year and body style, and come close on trim, options, mileage and condition. A comparable with fewer options or more miles than yours pulls the figure down, and a dealer listing for the same model in better shape pulls it up.
Then the adjustments. Write down what the insurer added or took off for condition, mileage and equipment, and ask what each one rests on. Repair records, receipts for new tires or recent work, and photographs from before the loss are what you would show to argue a deduction.
Then the taxes and fees. Check that the offer uses the sales tax rate where you live, and, where your state's rule includes them, the title and registration fees. If the offer leaves them out and your state's rule below puts them in, point to the rule.
Last, the deductible: the one in your policy for the coverage paying the claim, taken off once.
A total loss settlement calculator example
Say a comparable vehicle costs $18,000, your deductible is $500, the sales tax rate is 5 percent and the title and registration fees come to $150, in Iowa. The vehicle less the deductible is $17,500. Iowa's rule puts the taxes and transfer fees in the cash settlement, so the calculator adds $900 in sales tax and $150 in fees, for $18,550.
That is the rule applied to those figures, not a valuation of your vehicle or a prediction of an offer.
What this total loss settlement calculator does not do
It covers a claim under your own policy. A claim against another driver's insurer runs on that state's law of damages, which this page does not state.
It does not value your vehicle, decide whether it is a total loss, or apply your policy's own terms, a salvage you keep, a betterment deduction or an appraisal clause. Those can all change the figure.
Where your state is not listed, this page does not say what rule applies there: that is a gap in our research, not a finding that your state has no such rule. The state's insurance department can tell you, and so can an attorney.
The rules are as each state's official site printed them on October 16, 2026.
Total loss settlement questions
Every document behind our vehicles and roads figures, each linked with the date we last read it, is listed on our Vehicles and Roads research sources page.