A wheel tax is a vehicle registration fee commonly used on automobiles generally less than 8000 pounds in the United States by some cities and counties.
[3] Proponents have argued that wheel taxes are fair since persons who drive into a community without paying taxes to that specific community contribute to the wear-and-tear of public roadways, and therefore they should pay for the upkeep.
[3] Chicago has a wheel tax, which is actually a registration fee that is imposed on city residents and businesses, rather than outsiders.
[4] Many suburbs of Chicago[5][6] such as Evanston[2] have also adopted residents-only vehicle registration fees (also called a wheel tax by some of the municipalities).
[6] Authorities can search car registration records to identify what city a car's registered owner lives in, and can issue a tax based on that information.