When you deregister a car in Singapore, LTA refunds part of the money you sank into it upfront. That refund has two parts: the PARF rebate (a slice of the Additional Registration Fee you paid) and the COE rebate (the unused months of your Certificate of Entitlement). Added together, they make up your car's deregistration value, also called the paper value. For a typical mid-range car deregistered near the end of its 10-year COE, the paper value is mostly COE rebate, often a few thousand dollars, because the PARF portion is small by then. There is one big change for 2026: cars registered with COEs from the second February 2026 bidding exercise onwards get a far smaller PARF rebate, capped at $30,000 instead of $60,000, with the 10-year rate cut from 50% of ARF to just 5%. This guide shows how each rebate is calculated, what changed, how scrapping differs from exporting, and the exact steps to get your money out.
Deregistering a car is the formal act of taking it off the road permanently in Singapore, whether you scrap it at an LTA-appointed scrapyard or export it overseas. The moment you deregister, LTA calculates your rebates. These are not a payment for the metal or the parts. They are a partial refund of two upfront taxes you already paid when the car was first registered.
The two rebates are the PARF rebate and the COE rebate. PARF stands for Preferential Additional Registration Fee, and it returns a percentage of the Additional Registration Fee (ARF) you paid. The COE rebate returns the value of the months left on your Certificate of Entitlement. Together they are your deregistration value.
A few things to be clear about. The rebate is money from LTA, separate from whatever a dealer or scrapyard pays you for the actual vehicle. When you sell to a dealer, the dealer usually buys the car at the paper value plus or minus a bit, depending on demand for that model. Knowing your own paper value stops you from being lowballed.
The COE rebate is the simpler of the two. A COE runs for 10 years, which is 120 months. LTA refunds you for the months you did not use. The formula is the Quota Premium (QP) or Prevailing Quota Premium (PQP) you paid for the 10-year COE, multiplied by the unused period, divided by 120.
Worked example. Say you paid $50,000 for your COE and you deregister with exactly 5 years (60 months) left. Your COE rebate is $50,000 x 60 / 120 = $25,000. Deregister with 2 years (24 months) left and it drops to $50,000 x 24 / 120 = $10,000. The rebate is strictly pro-rated, so the longer you keep the car, the less COE rebate is left.
Two points trip people up. First, the QP used is what you actually paid, not today's COE price, so if you bid in a cheap quarter your rebate is smaller. Second, every car gets a COE rebate regardless of age, as long as the COE has not expired. Even a 9-year-old car has a small COE rebate for its last few months.
| Months left on COE | COE rebate |
|---|---|
| 120 (deregister immediately) | $50,000 |
| 72 (6 years left) | $30,000 |
| 60 (5 years left) | $25,000 |
| 24 (2 years left) | $10,000 |
| 6 (6 months left) | $2,500 |
The PARF rebate is a percentage of the ARF you paid when the car was registered, and the percentage falls the longer you keep the car. To use it, you need to know your ARF, which is printed on your Vehicle Registration Card and in your OneMotoring vehicle records.
ARF itself is a tax charged on the car's Open Market Value (OMV), the price Singapore Customs assesses before any local taxes. ARF is tiered, and the rate climbs the higher the OMV. A car with an OMV of $30,000 pays $20,000 (first $20,000 at 100%) plus $14,000 (the next $10,000 at 140%) = $34,000 in ARF. The PARF rebate is then a fraction of that ARF figure. The table below shows the full tier structure that applies to cars registered with COEs obtained from 15 February 2023, the rates LTA still uses in 2026.
There are now two PARF schedules, and which one applies depends entirely on when the car was registered. This is the single most important thing to get right for 2026.
If you received a VES emission rebate when you bought the car, that rebate is netted off your ARF first, so your PARF rebate is calculated on the lower net ARF. An emission surcharge, on the other hand, does not increase your PARF base.
| Portion of OMV | ARF rate |
|---|---|
| First $20,000 | 100% |
| Next $20,000 ($20,001 to $40,000) | 140% |
| Next $20,000 ($40,001 to $60,000) | 190% |
| Next $20,000 ($60,001 to $80,000) | 250% |
| Above $80,000 | 320% |
These follow the older, more generous schedule. The PARF rebate starts at 75% of ARF for cars deregistered at 5 years or younger and steps down to 50% at the 10-year mark. Cars registered from 15 February 2023 to 12 February 2026 have these same percentages but capped at $60,000. Cars registered before 15 February 2023 have no cap at all.
Budget 2026 cut the PARF rebate sharply. For cars registered with COEs obtained from the second COE bidding exercise of February 2026 onwards, the rebate starts at just 30% of ARF and falls to 5% at the 10-year mark, capped at $30,000. For vehicles that do not need a COE, the new rules apply from 13 February 2026. That is a halving of the cap and, at the 10-year point, a drop from 50% of ARF to 5%, so a car bought new in 2026 will hand back far less when it is scrapped a decade later.
Paper value is just the two rebates added together. The examples below assume an OMV of $30,000 (so ARF of $34,000) and a COE of $50,000, to show how registration date and age swing the result.
Example A, registered before 13 Feb 2026, deregistered at 9.5 years old. PARF rebate is 50% of $34,000 = $17,000. With 6 months left, COE rebate is $50,000 x 6 / 120 = $2,500. Paper value = $19,500.
Example B, same car but registered in March 2026 under the new schedule, deregistered at 9.5 years old. PARF rebate is 5% of $34,000 = $1,700. COE rebate is still $2,500. Paper value = $4,200. Same car, same age, but the Budget 2026 change wipes out about $15,000 of the refund.
Example C, an early deregistration at 5 years old on the older schedule. PARF rebate is 75% of $34,000 = $25,500. With 60 months left, COE rebate is $25,000. Paper value = $50,500. This is why scrapping early returns a lot more in PARF, though you lose the use of a car with years left in it.
| Scenario | PARF rebate | COE rebate | Paper value |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: old schedule, 9.5 yrs | $17,000 | $2,500 | $19,500 |
| B: new schedule, 9.5 yrs | $1,700 | $2,500 | $4,200 |
| C: old schedule, 5 yrs | $25,500 | $25,000 | $50,500 |
Both scrapping and exporting count as deregistration, so both qualify you for the same PARF and COE rebates. The difference is what happens to the physical car and how much a buyer will pay you for it on top of the rebate.
Scrapping means the car goes to an LTA-appointed scrapyard and is destroyed. You drive or tow it there, deregister it on the spot using your Singpass, and the scrap metal value is small. This route suits older cars with little resale demand. Exporting means the car is shipped overseas and sold there, often for a meaningful sum if the model holds value abroad. Export dealers usually pay you the paper value plus an export premium, which is why a popular model in good condition is worth more exported than scrapped.
One catch for exports: if a car is deregistered for export within the first 2 years of registration, the COE rebate is capped at 80% of the QP paid. This is to stop people gaming the system by importing and quickly re-exporting cars. For a normal owner keeping a car most of its life, this cap never comes into play.
Paper value (your PARF plus COE rebate) is one number; the cheque a scrapyard or dealer hands you is another. The full payout you get is the paper value plus a separate body value for the physical car: its parts, condition and any export demand for the model. Scrapyards call this combined figure the scrap value.
Body value is small for a tired runabout headed to be crushed, but it can be a few thousand dollars for a clean, sought-after model an export dealer wants. That is the swing between two quotes on the same car. Two dealers offering different prices are usually agreeing on your paper value, which is fixed by LTA, and competing on the body value, which is not. Knowing your paper value from your own OneMotoring records is what lets you tell a fair body-value offer from a lowball.
The cleanest way to pin down your exact paper value is LTA's own digital service. Log in to OneMotoring with Singpass and use Enquire PARF/COE rebate; it pulls your ARF and the QP you paid and shows the rebate to the dollar, with no guessing.
Once a car is deregistered, the rebate is not locked into a single payout. LTA lets you do four things with it, all through OneMotoring with Singpass, and the right choice depends on whether you are buying another car next.
Encash takes the rebate out as cash. The money lands in your bank account by GIRO, or by PayNow to your NRIC or FIN, within 14 working days of the application. Offset keeps the rebate inside the system to pay down the upfront cost of your next vehicle. It can be applied against the Registration Fee, ARF, Quota Premium, Used Car Surcharge, CEVS surcharge, or the PQP if you are renewing a COE. Any balance you do not use up is forfeited, so offset only the amount you will actually spend.
Transfer signs the rebate over to someone else, useful for a family member buying a car. The fee is $20 including GST per transfer, and the recipient has to accept it within 5 calendar days or the transfer lapses. Divide splits one rebate into separate portions, for instance to part-encash and part-transfer; that costs $21.80 including GST for each new portion created. Whichever route you pick, the 12-month clock from your deregistration date still applies. If you encash, deciding where that lump sum goes is worth a moment with a monthly budget before it disappears into the next car.
| Option | What it does | Fee / timing |
|---|---|---|
| Encash | Pay the rebate out as cash | Free; paid by GIRO or PayNow within 14 working days |
| Offset | Pay upfront taxes/fees on your next vehicle | Free; unused balance is forfeited |
| Transfer | Sign the rebate over to another person | $20 incl GST; recipient must accept within 5 days |
| Divide | Split the rebate into separate portions | $21.80 incl GST per new portion |
The PARF rebate steps down in whole-year bands, not smoothly day by day. A car deregistered at 7 years and 11 months sits in the same band as one at 7 years and 1 month, so both get the same percentage. Cross into the next band and the rate drops a notch. On the old schedule that is a 5-percentage-point fall of ARF per band; on the 2026 schedule the bands are smaller but the same principle holds.
The practical takeaway: if your car is days away from rolling into a lower PARF band, deregistering just before the anniversary can preserve the higher rate. On a car with $34,000 of ARF, one band is worth $1,700 (5% of ARF) on the old schedule. It is rarely worth scrapping a perfectly good car early just to chase a band, but if you have already decided to let it go, the date you pick can be worth a four-figure sum.
The COE rebate, by contrast, falls smoothly every month, so there is no cliff to time on that side. It simply keeps shrinking the longer you hold the car.
The PARF rebate has hard eligibility rules. The car must be deregistered within its first 10 years, must never have been laid up (taken off the road and put back on later), and the original COE must not have been renewed. The car also has to be PARF-eligible to begin with: a brand-new car registered in Singapore qualifies, and so does an imported used car that was no more than 3 years old when registered here on or after 1 September 2007. An older parallel import will only have a COE rebate, never a PARF one. Renewing a COE at the 10-year mark turns any car into a COE car, and from that point only the COE rebate is left. There is no second round of PARF.
This matters when deciding whether to renew a COE or scrap at year 10. Renewing means paying the PQP (the prevailing quota premium, a moving average of recent COE prices) for another 5 or 10 years, and you permanently give up the PARF rebate. If you are on the old schedule with a large PARF rebate still sitting there, scrapping or selling at year 10 can be the better financial move. On the new 2026 schedule, where the 10-year PARF rebate is only 5% of ARF, there is far less to lose by renewing.
There is also a 12-month deadline. PARF and COE rebates are valid for 12 months from the deregistration date. You must apply to encash them through OneMotoring before that window closes, or the money is forfeited.
The whole process runs through OneMotoring with Singpass. You do not need to visit an LTA counter for a standard deregistration.
If you are scrapping, you bring the car to an LTA-appointed scrapyard and deregister it there using the OneMotoring digital service with Singpass 2FA. If you are selling to a dealer, you can authorise the dealer in OneMotoring to deregister on your behalf; the authorised person must take the car to the scrapyard within 8 days. For exports, you deregister and then upload the export documents online within one month of the deregistration date.
Your paper value is the tail end of a car's cost, not a windfall. The honest way to read it is as depreciation recovered: you paid OMV plus ARF plus COE plus dealer margin upfront, and the rebate hands back a shrinking slice as the years pass. The gap between what you paid and what you get back is your real cost of owning the car, alongside running costs like petrol, insurance, road tax and maintenance.
If you are still weighing whether to own a car at all, run the full picture rather than fixating on the rebate. Our guide to the true cost of a car in Singapore breaks down COE, ARF, depreciation and running costs, and the recurring side is covered in our road tax guide. Money that would otherwise sit in a depreciating car can do more in a low-risk place such as T-bills or a monthly budget you actually stick to.
The Budget 2026 PARF cut nudges the maths further against buying expensive new cars purely for the rebate at the end. With the cap halved to $30,000 and the 10-year rate cut to 5% of ARF, a high-OMV car registered in 2026 returns a much thinner refund a decade on, so the buy-versus-own decision leans more on day-to-day need than on residual paper value.
The PARF rebate is a percentage of the Additional Registration Fee (ARF) you paid, and it is only available if you deregister the car before it turns 10 and never renewed the COE. The COE rebate is the value of the unused months left on your 10-year COE, and you get it at any age while the COE is still valid. Added together they form your deregistration value.
It depends on when the car was registered. Cars registered before 13 February 2026 get 50% of the ARF paid at the 9-to-10-year mark. Cars registered from the second February 2026 COE bidding exercise onwards get only 5% of ARF, capped at $30,000, after the Budget 2026 cut.
COE rebate = Quota Premium paid x unused months / 120. If you paid $50,000 for the COE and deregister with 60 months (5 years) left, the rebate is $50,000 x 60 / 120 = $25,000. It uses the QP you actually paid, not today's COE price.
Both give you the same PARF and COE rebates from LTA. Exporting usually pays more in total because an export dealer adds a premium for a model that sells well overseas, while a scrapyard only adds a small scrap-metal value. One exception: if you export within the first 2 years, the COE rebate is capped at 80% of the QP paid.
Rebates are valid for 12 months from the deregistration date. You must submit your application to encash them through OneMotoring before that window closes, or the rebate is forfeited.
Yes. Renewing the COE at the 10-year mark turns the car into a COE car, and you permanently give up the PARF rebate. After renewal only the COE rebate remains if you later deregister.
Your ARF is printed on the Vehicle Registration Card and shown in your OneMotoring vehicle records, along with the Quota Premium you paid for the COE. Log in to OneMotoring with Singpass to see both, then apply the PARF and COE formulas. The Enquire PARF/COE rebate digital service on OneMotoring will also show the exact rebate figure for you.
If you choose to encash the rebate, LTA pays it to your bank account by GIRO or by PayNow to your NRIC or FIN within 14 working days of your application. You have 12 months from the deregistration date to apply, after which the rebate is forfeited.
Yes. Instead of taking cash, you can offset the rebate against the Registration Fee, ARF, Quota Premium, Used Car Surcharge, CEVS surcharge, or the PQP for a COE renewal on your next vehicle. There is no fee, but any unused balance is forfeited, so offset only what you will actually spend.
Yes. You can transfer the rebate to another person through OneMotoring for a fee of $20 including GST per transfer. The recipient has to accept it within 5 calendar days or the transfer lapses. You can also divide a rebate into portions for $21.80 including GST per new portion if you want to part-transfer and part-encash.
Paper value is your PARF rebate plus COE rebate, a fixed figure LTA calculates from your ARF and the QP you paid. Scrap value is the paper value plus a separate body value for the physical car, which depends on its condition and resale demand. Two dealers quoting different prices are usually competing on body value, since paper value is set by LTA.
This is general financial information for Singapore, not personal financial advice. Figures change — verify current rates against the official sources above before acting. See our full disclaimer.