How to fill out Arkansas 10-381

The application behind every Arkansas title - the buyer's form after your sale, and yours again the day you need a replacement title, which is why DFA's forms page files it under the double name Application for Title or Replacement Title. It is built as a working document for a Revenue Office counter: a dense vehicle grid across the top, owner and address blocks in the middle, lienholder blocks below, and a whole right-hand column of fee boxes - registration, credit, transfer, title, lien, penalty, postage - that the Arkansas Revenue Agent completes, not the applicant.

Written against 10-381 (12-30-2019), issued under Ark. Code Ann. Title 27, Chapter 14. This is a seller's page about a buyer's form for one reason: four of its answers are yours. The OD reading is your disclosure, the Previous Title No. is your certificate, the damage flags are your history to have told the truth about, and the Credit box may be carrying your buyer's own sixty-day claim. A seller who papers the sale cleanly has filled in most of this application without ever touching it.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 10-381 from the dfa.arkansas.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 10-381 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank 10-381 — Vehicle Registration Application (Application for Title or Replacement Title) PDF at dfa.arkansas.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in 10-381 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual 10-381, rendered from the PDF the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Motor Vehicle publishes and completed end to end: letterhead, every field, and the blocks at the foot.

Amber — you write it
Grey — not yours to fill
Numbered — explained below

Arkansas Form 10-381, Vehicle Registration Application, filled in by buyer Terrell J. Duvane for the 2016 Ford Fusion SE, vehicle identification number 3FA6P0H79GR305214, purchase date 9 July 2026, odometer reading 84317, previous title number 21873304, with the owner's Arkansas address in Benton and the entire fee column left to the Arkansas Revenue Agent. — A cash purchase, so both lienholder blocks are washed grey along with the truck-conversion row, the drive-out validation period and every fee box - the right-hand column is the agent's arithmetic, not the applicant's. The owner signature rule is the one line the buyer must not leave the counter without signing.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
The vehicle grid, from the title
VIN, year, make, model, body and colour, plus the Previous Title No. - all copied from the certificate the seller just assigned.
Watch out: The previous title number is on the front of the certificate. Bringing the assigned title makes this row transcription rather than research.
2
The buyer fills this in
Purchase row and OD reading
Purchase date, purchase type, and the odometer reading from the seller's disclosure.
Watch out: Copy the reading from the 10-313, digit for digit. This box is the third place the same figure appears in one transaction, and third is where discrepancies get noticed.
3
The buyer fills this in
Owner names and the REL box
Last name first, each owner on a row, with the relationship code joining them.
Watch out: AND means every future transaction needs both signatures; OR means either alone. Decide it now, deliberately - it is the difference between one trip and two for the rest of the car's life.
4
The buyer fills this in
The three address blocks
Arkansas address, title mailing address, renewal mailing address, each with its county code.
Watch out: The county code drives where assessment is checked. A buyer who just moved counties should assess in the new county before this application, not after.
5
The buyer fills this in
Lienholders, or nothing
The lender and contract date where the purchase is financed; both blocks empty in a cash sale.
Watch out: A recorded lien means the title is mailed to the lienholder, not to you - and it will take that lender's signed release to sell the car later, as every seller stuck chasing one can testify.
6
The buyer fills this in
Sign, and let the agent have the rest
Signature of owner(s) at the foot - all of them if joined by AND - while the agent completes the fee column, the sales tax receipt number and the office boxes.
Watch out: Bring the sales tax money, the title fee and the registration fee for the weight class. Presenting a credit bill of sale from a vehicle you sold within sixty days is what turns the Credit box from empty into arithmetic in your favour.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The vehicle grid	License number, decal, expiration, VIN, then year, make, model, body, cylinders, color, fuel, unladen and gross weight, axles and Previous Title No. - the record the examiner builds the new title from.
Title code, purchase type, purchase date, dealer, OD code and OD reading	The transaction row: how the vehicle was acquired, when, and what the odometer said - the reading that should match the seller's disclosure exactly.
Check if applicable: Damage, Prev. Damage, Lease, Prorate, Penalty, Mail	Six flags. The damage boxes are how a branded history follows the vehicle onto its next title.
The truck-conversion and drive-out rows	Class 2-8 truck license conversion with overload and summons boxes, and a validation period for drive out or intransit - commercial rows an ordinary application leaves empty.
Owner Name: Last, First, REL, and Company	Two personal name rows with a relationship code between joint owners - the AND or OR that decides future signatures - and a company row used instead when a business is titling.
Arkansas Address, Title Mailing Address, Renewal Mailing Address	Three address blocks with county code boxes: where the owner lives, where the title should be posted, where renewal notices go.
First Lienholder and Second Lienholder, each with Contract Date	The lender blocks. A title with a live lien is mailed to the lienholder, and the 50-cent lien filing fee appears in the fee column.
The fee column	Registration fee, replacement fee, credit, transfer fee, additional fee, title fee, prorated fee, lien fee, special fees, penalty, postage, total - and a Sales Tax Receipt Number box tying the application to the tax paid.
Revenue office city, office number, county, Arkansas Revenue Agent, date	The counter's own identification of who processed the application.
Signature of Lienholder (if applicable) and Signature of Owner(s)	The two signature rules at the foot. DFA's instruction for joint owners is printed policy: connected by AND, all must sign.

What gets this one rejected

•A missing co-owner signature. DFA's own warning on the tag renewal page: the signatures of all owners are required when joint ownership is connected by AND - and failure to have all signatures will result in rejection of the application.
•Registering outside sixty days. The FAQ prices the miss with a penalty on the sales tax due plus a further charge for every ten days the vehicle stays unregistered - the figures are on the hub page, cited to the FAQ.
•Arriving without the county squared away. Assessment and personal property taxes are checked by computer at the counter, and a buyer who has not assessed cannot finish.
•An odometer reading that disagrees with the seller's disclosure. The OD reading box is matched against the 10-313 and the title assignment.
•Writing in the fee column. Every box on the right side belongs to the Arkansas Revenue Agent, down to the postage.
•Using it to change a name mid-transfer. The application titles the vehicle to the owner the ownership documents establish; name changes ride on their own legal documents, not on this grid.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is also the replacement-title form. The last titled owner of record signs it to replace a lost certificate at any State Revenue Office - a minimum of three weeks by mail, or expedited over the counter at the Central Revenue Office in Little Rock and ready in three business days.
•The Credit box is the sixty-day credit landing. When a buyer presents a credit bill of sale for a vehicle they sold, the trade-in-style reduction is worked right here in the fee column - which is why the sheet a seller signs ends up shaping a box on the buyer's application.

Every line here was read off 10-381 (12-30-2019) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration, Office of Motor Vehicle pages. This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ, theirs governs.

Back to all Arkansas seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Arkansas involves.

How to fill out Arkansas 10-381

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The vehicle grid, from the title

Purchase row and OD reading

Owner names and the REL box

The three address blocks

Lienholders, or nothing

Sign, and let the agent have the rest

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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