Illinois caps the dealer documentation fee by statute — a $300 base from 2020, adjusted each year by the change in the Consumer Price Index (815 ILCS 375/11.1(b) (Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act): base documentary fee $300 from 1 January 2020, subject to an annual adjustment equal to the change in the BLS Consumer Price Index) — but no state agency publishes the adjusted figure, so the current maximum cannot be stated. Ask the dealer to show the CPI computation behind the fee it charges.
Doc-fee rule: Capped, current figure unpublished
The rule
Standing
Capped, current figure unpublished
Statutory maximum
$300 base (2020), adjusted each year by the CPI — no state agency publishes the current figure
Statute
815 ILCS 375/11.1(b) (Motor Vehicle Retail Installment Sales Act): base documentary fee $300 from 1 January 2020, subject to an annual adjustment equal to the change in the BLS Consumer Price Index · statute text
Disclosure
The fee must be disclosed to the buyer.
Verification
Checked against the statute text; our last review was 2026-09-14. Statutes change — confirm with the state before you rely on it.
Capped by statute, current figure unpublished (operator ruling 2026-09-14). The statute sets a $300 base (2020) adjusted each year by the change in the CPI, and requires the contract to carry a notice saying so — but it names no agency to publish the adjusted maximum and no CPI series, so no primary source states the current figure. $377.63 for 2026 is the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association's computation and is NOT asserted. Ask the dealer to show the CPI computation behind the fee it charges, and check it against the statute's $300 base.
8.82% (state 6.25% + average local 2.57%)state rate verified against a primary source; local average approximation from an aggregator — verify with the state · source
Trade-in tax credit
yes — a trade-in reduces the taxable amountverified against a primary source · source
State table checked 2026-07-14
Illinois caps the documentation fee by statute — a $300 base (2020) adjusted each year by the CPI — but no state agency publishes the current figure. The limit is law; the number is not on file, so ask the dealer to show the CPI computation behind the fee it charges.
Reading this page
Legal and expensive are two different questions.
The documentation fee is the dealership’s charge for preparing the paperwork. It sits next to the government fees on the buyer’s order and is easily mistaken for one. It is not: it is dealer revenue, not a tax. Where the state sets a cap, a fee above it is a question for the dealer and the statute. Where the state sets none, the fee can be entirely legal and still worth negotiating. This page answers only the first question; your report answers the second against your actual quote.
Where the rule is unverified
When a jurisdiction’s rule on file rests on a secondary source or an internal estimate, this page says so and points you at the state agency instead of asserting a figure. That is the same posture the report takes: a cap is never fabricated, and neither is its absence.
What Carlarity checks
Your quoted documentation fee against this rule — and, where a verified cap exists, whether the quote exceeds it.
Title, registration and sales tax on your deal, computed from the same state table shown here.
Every dealer add-on on the order, classified and benchmarked, with the government and lender lines kept out of the negotiable total by construction.
The out-the-door price, so the doc fee is judged as part of the whole and not as a line on its own.
Nearby states
Doc-fee rules stop at the state line, and a dealership an hour away may be operating under a different one. Illinois borders:
Figures come from Carlarity’s documentation-fee regulation table and state tax table; each shows the date we last reviewed it, and statutes change after we look. Nothing on this page is legal advice. Verify with the state agency before relying on a cap, and check the quoted fee against your own buyer’s order.
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