Utah lawmakers advance proposal to open door to partial car registration refunds
Nov 20, 2025, 3:10 PM | Updated: 3:31 pm
Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, speaks about HB261 at the Capitol in Salt Lake City on Friday, Jan. 26, 2024. (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
(Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — A committee of Utah lawmakers voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would open the door to partial car registration refunds.
Rep. Katy Hall, R-South Ogden, has been promoting ways for Utahns to save on car registration fees for years. She’s sponsoring a new bill that would allow Utahns who don’t use their car for the full duration of its registration period to request a refund for the time it wasn’t used.
For example, if someone registers their car in January, but sells it, retitles it or gets in an accident that totals it in May, they could request the state to refund them for the seven months they didn’t use the car.
Under the current bill text, those who request a refund would have to pay a $5 fee for the state to process the claim and those who would be owed less than $40 would not qualify for a refund.
Hall presented the bill to the Utah Transportation Interim Committee on Thursday.
“All of our bordering states have some sort of registration refund or transferability type of policy,” Hall told the committee. “I know there’s been a lot of concern about people registering in other states, so let’s make our state a place where people want to register.”
Hall also spoke with KSL NewsRadio about her proposal.
“This does feel like a breath of fresh air where we’re saying ‘we’re not going to double tax you, we’re going to give you that money back,'” Hall said. “In the economy that we have today, people are going to need every penny they can get.”
Hall ran the same type of bill in the last General Legislative Session. It was approved by the full House but failed in the Senate. She also ran it the year before, though she said it looked a lot different back then.
Hall said she’s hopeful it will become law this year.
“I think third time’s the charm,” Hall said.
The committee unanimously passed the bill on Thursday, but it will still require the approval of both the full House and Senate, as well as the governor, after the 2026 General Legislative Session begins in January.
Hall also encouraged anyone with questions about the bill to reach out to her.
