Chicago's Ground Transportation Tax (GTT), Explained: What Taxi, Livery, Bus, and Rideshare Drivers Actually Owe
Afzaal Zeb ·
If you drive a taxi, a livery vehicle, a charter bus, or for a rideshare app in Chicago, you're on the hook for the city's Ground Transportation Tax (GTT) — but how it applies, how much it costs, and whether you personally have to file anything depends entirely on what you drive and how you're licensed. This post breaks down exactly what the current city ordinance says, pulled directly from the Municipal Code of Chicago, so you know what applies to you.
What GTT actually is
GTT is a City of Chicago occupation tax imposed on anyone providing ground transportation vehicles for use in the city — taxis, liveries, black cars, charter buses, pedicabs, and rideshare vehicles are all covered under Chapter 3-46 of the Municipal Code. The legal obligation to pay it sits with the license holder, or with whoever is required to hold a license but doesn't.
The rates, by vehicle type
This is where it gets specific, and where a lot of confusion comes from — the structure is genuinely different depending on your vehicle type and licensing status.
Taxicabs
City-licensed taxicabs (licensed under Municipal Code Chapter 9-112): a flat $98.00 per month, per taxicab, for any month the vehicle is used in the city. This flat rate is not prorated for partial months, and no tax is due for a month the vehicle is entirely out of service with its license surrendered.
Taxicabs not required to be city-licensed (suburban and out-of-state taxis operating in Chicago): $3.50 per day the vehicle is used in the city, capped at no more than $98.00 in any calendar month.
Livery, black car, and other passenger vehicles seating 10 or fewer
City-licensed (under Chapter 9-114): a flat $98.00 per month, same structure as city taxis — no daily counting required.
Not required to be city-licensed (suburban and out-of-state livery): $3.50 per day, capped at $98.00 per month — same structure as non-city taxis.
Rideshare / Transportation Network Provider (TNP) vehicles
This is the one category that doesn't work like the others — it's charged per ride, not per day or month, and it's layered:
Single rides: $1.13 per ride accepted, plus an additional $1.50 if the pickup or drop-off falls in Congestion Zone One or Two between 6:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m., plus an additional $5.00 if the ride starts or ends at O'Hare, Midway, Navy Pier, or McCormick Place.
Shared rides: $0.53 per ride accepted, plus $0.60 for a weekday congestion-zone pickup/drop-off (6 a.m.–10 p.m.), plus the same $5.00 airport/venue add-on where applicable.
Wheelchair-accessible rides: a flat $0.53 per ride, regardless of the above.
Stack every surcharge on a single ride and you can hit roughly $7.63 in GTT on that one trip. In practice, this tax is built into the fare structure and handled at the company level — Uber, Lyft, and other TNPs collect and remit it as part of their own city tax obligations, so individual TNP drivers generally aren't the ones filing a GTT return for this.
Charter buses and larger vehicles
11 to 24 passenger seating capacity: $6.00 per vehicle, per day used in the city.
More than 24 passenger capacity: $9.00 per vehicle, per day used in the city.
Unlike taxis and livery vehicles, this rate doesn't change based on city licensing status — it's a flat daily rate by seating capacity either way.
Pedicabs
$1.00 per pedicab, per day used in the city — the smallest rate on the schedule, included here for completeness if it applies to you.
Who actually has to file a return
This is the part that determines whether you're doing paperwork or not:
If your taxi or livery vehicle is licensed by the City of Chicago, your GTT is the flat $98/month rate, and it's tied to your existing city licensing rather than a separate return you file yourself — you're not counting days or filing Form 7595 for this.
If you're a suburban or out-of-state taxi or livery operator doing pickups or drop-offs in Chicago (including at O'Hare or Midway) without a Chicago public-vehicle license, you're the one who has to register for a GTT/MPEA account with the city and file Form 7595, the Ground Transportation Tax Annual Return, once a year. The filing period runs on the city's fiscal year (July 1 – June 30), and the return asks you to report the number of vehicles you operated and the total number of days across all of them that you did pickups at a Chicago airport.
Charter bus and larger-vehicle operators pay the flat daily rate regardless of licensing status, so check with the Department of Finance on which registration and filing track applies to your specific operation.
Rideshare/TNP drivers don't typically file this themselves — it's built into what the platform charges and remits on your behalf.
Registering for a GTT/MPEA emblem
If you fall into the suburban/out-of-state category and need to register:
Complete a New Account Registration Form (a different version exists for corporations/partnerships/LLCs versus sole proprietors) plus an Affidavit for Initial Taxable Period.
Submit these to the Department of Finance, who will issue you a Chicago IRIS business account number and PIN.
Use that account number and PIN to register through Chicago Business Direct, the city's online portal for filing and paying business taxes, and to generate your GTT/MPEA registration emblem, which must be displayed to access the airports.
GTT/MPEA registration itself is free and renews annually, valid July 1 through June 30 — you need to resubmit before it lapses each year.
How to actually file, step by step, by driver type
The filing process is genuinely different depending on which category you fall into. Here's exactly what to do for each.
If you're a City of Chicago-licensed taxi or livery driver
You don't file an annual return at all — your GTT is tied directly to your city license.
Your $98/month GTT is billed as part of your City of Chicago business/tax account, not through a separate return you fill out.
Log into Chicago Business Direct periodically to confirm your account is in good standing and that your monthly GTT charge is posted and paid — a lapsed account can affect your license status and your ability to renew.
If you operate multiple plates, check whether your account bills annually (accounts with 1–2 plates) or quarterly (accounts with 3 or more plates) — this determines how often you'll see a charge come through.
There's nothing to calculate yourself here — no day-counting, no Form 7595. If you're ever unsure whether your account is current, contact the Department of Finance directly rather than guessing.
If you're a suburban or out-of-state taxi or livery operator
This is the group that actually files Form 7595 every year, and it's a two-part obligation: pay as you go, then reconcile annually.
Register first, if you haven't already. Submit a New Account Registration Form (there's a separate version for corporations/partnerships/LLCs versus sole proprietors) plus an Affidavit for Initial Taxable Period to the Department of Finance. You'll receive a Chicago IRIS business account number and a PIN.
Pay as you go, throughout the year. GTT gets paid either automatically when charged at the airport, or manually online through the GTT website/Chicago Business Direct for each day a vehicle did ground transportation activity in the city. These monthly payments are due by the 15th of the following month — for example, tax on July activity is due August 15.
File the annual return by August 15, covering the fiscal year that just ended June 30. Use Form 7595 (or the shorter 7595EZ, available if you operate 4 cabs or fewer). You still have to file this even if you already paid throughout the year — the annual return is a reconciliation, not a separate charge.
Filling out the return itself:
Line 2a — total number of vehicles that were in service in Chicago during the fiscal year.
Line 2b — total number of days, across all your vehicles combined, that included a pickup at a Chicago airport. (Review your calendar or trip logs to count this — if one vehicle did 25 airport-pickup days and a second did 75, enter 100.)
Line 2c — total number of days your vehicles operated in Chicago that did not include an airport pickup.
Line 2d — leave this at zero. Entering anything else will cause an error for most filers.
Lines 2b and 2c together should capture every day any of your vehicles did ground transportation activity in Chicago that year, airport or not.
Click "Calculate and Continue" to see your calculated tax due.
On the next screen, select Actual Payer and complete the annualization schedule — for each month, multiply the number of days of ground transportation activity that month by $3.50 and enter that total in the corresponding field.
Submit the return and keep your confirmation for your records.
If you run into registration or PIN issues, the Department of Finance can be reached at revenuedatabase@cityofchicago.org (opens in a new tab) or (312) 747-4747, Monday through Friday.
If you operate a charter bus or larger vehicle (11+ passenger capacity)
The daily rate ($6.00 for 11–24 seats, $9.00 for 25+ seats) applies regardless of city licensing status. Registration follows the same suburban/out-of-state process above — a New Account Registration Form and Affidavit, a Chicago IRIS account, and payment/filing through Chicago Business Direct. Because bus operations don't fit neatly into the taxi/livery examples the standard 7595 instructions walk through, it's worth confirming directly with the Department of Finance whether your specific operation reports on the same annual schedule or a different one.
If you drive for a rideshare app (TNP driver)
There's nothing for you to file. The per-ride GTT charges are built into your platform's own city tax obligations, and Uber, Lyft, or whichever TNP you drive for collects and remits this on your behalf as part of operating in Chicago. You don't register separately for GTT and you don't file a 7595 return as an individual TNP driver.
A related but separate tax: the MPEA Airport Departure Tax
Alongside GTT, vehicles doing airport pickups are also subject to the MPEA (Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority) Airport Departure Tax, administered together with GTT through the same registration process even though it's a legally distinct tax. If this applies to your operation, confirm the current per-departure rate directly with the city — rates for this tax have been reported differently across sources, and it's not something worth guessing on.
Why this matters more than it might seem
The rate structure rewards being properly city-licensed if you're doing significant volume — $98 flat per month beats $3.50 a day once you're working more than about 28 days a month, which of course is every month. It's part of why suburban and out-of-state operators who do heavy, regular Chicago volume sometimes look into full City of Chicago licensing rather than staying on the per-day suburban rate indefinitely — though that's a licensing decision with its own trade-offs, not just a tax one.
Bottom line
GTT isn't one flat rule — it's a rate table that changes based on what you drive, whether you're city-licensed, and in the case of rideshare, layered per-ride surcharges that stack based on time and location. If you're a suburban or out-of-state taxi or livery operator, the annual Form 7595 filing is the piece most likely to catch you off guard if you're new to Chicago work — mark your renewal date and don't let the registration lapse before your GTT/MPEA emblem expires.
This post reflects the Chicago Municipal Code as currently published. Ordinances change — verify current rates and filing requirements directly with the Chicago Department of Finance before relying on this for a filing. This is general information, not tax or legal advice.
Sources checked for this article:
Municipal Code of Chicago, Chapter 3-46, Section 3-46-030 (Tax imposed) — codelibrary.amlegal.com (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago, Department of Finance — Ground Transportation Tax (7595) (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago — Suburban Taxi, Livery, and Charter Bus Registration (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago — "How to File the 7595 Ground Transportation Tax Annual Return" (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago, BACP — "Chicago's Guide to Licensing Public Passenger Vehicles" (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago, BACP — GTT/MPEA Registration Industry Notice (opens in a new tab)
City of Chicago — How to File the 7595 Ground Transportation Tax Annual Return (opens in a new tab) (step-by-step Line 2a/2b/2c/2d instructions)
City of Chicago, BACP — Chicago Public Chauffeur Licenses page (opens in a new tab) (confirms 7595 filing deadline and DOF contact details)
City of Chicago, Department of Finance — Pedicab Ground Transportation Tax Notice (opens in a new tab) (confirms monthly payment due the 15th of the following month, annual return due August 15)
