Carlarity does not assert a documentation-fee rule for Illinois: the finding on file rests on a secondary source or an operator estimate. Verify with the state before relying on it.
Not asserted — verify with the state. Checked 2026-09-07.
Base $300 (2020) indexed to CPI each January; the 2026 maximum is $377.63 per the Illinois Automobile Dealers Association (secondary source — the statute does not name the CPI series, so the figure is NOT asserted as law here). Verify against the Attorney General's annual notice before relying on it.
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
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.
Figures come from Carlarity’s documentation-fee regulation table and state tax table, verified on the dates shown. 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.