How to fill out Connecticut AU-463

The form that turns a transfer with no money in it into a transfer with no tax on it. Connecticut charges sales and use tax on the higher of your price and the book value, which means a nominal dollar on a bill of sale achieves nothing at all - the tax is charged on the book. A genuine gift is different, and this is the document that says so, signed by the person giving the car away and warning them what a false one costs.

Written against AU-463 (Rev 10/21), issued under Issued by the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services and accepted by the DMV as tax exemption code 5A on the H-13B. This is the AU-463 at revision 10/21, which prints its own revision at the foot rather than the head. It covers vessels, trailers and aircraft as well as cars, so four of the five ticks on the transfer line will be wrong for you.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank AU-463 from the portal.ct.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank AU-463 — Motor Vehicle or Vessel Gift Declaration PDF at portal.ct.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual AU-463, rendered from the PDF the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles 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

A completed Connecticut Gift Declaration, form AU-463, with the Motor Vehicle box ticked. The donor is Ignatius R. Colavolpe, the transfer date is 08 August 2026, the identification number is 1FMCU9DG3BKB47512 for a 2011 Ford Escape, and the donee is Serafina M. Colavolpe. Both the donor and donee blocks are completed with printed names, dates, street addresses in Middletown and Cromwell, email addresses and telephone numbers. — Filled in as a real gift between family, on a car with no loan on it. The four ticks for Vessel, Trailer, Aircraft and Other Vehicle are greyed because none of them applies. Every name, address and number here is invented for the sample.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Print the donor's name
The person giving the vehicle away. This whole document is their statement.
Watch out: The donor is the one exposed to the $5,000 penalty clause, which is a reason not to sign one as a favour to somebody else's transaction.
2
You fill this in
The transfer date, and the Motor Vehicle tick
The date ownership actually passed, and one of five ticks for what kind of thing it was.
Watch out: Use the same date that goes on the title assignment. A gift dated after the recipient has already registered the car is a question waiting to be asked.
3
You fill this in
Identification number, Year, Make, Model
The VIN on its own line, then the three description boxes beneath it.
Watch out: Copy the VIN from the certificate rather than the vehicle. This form travels to a different department from the one that holds the title record.
4
You fill this in
Print the donee's name
The recipient. Written by the donor, in the donor's declaration.
Watch out: It has to be the same person who will appear as owner on the H-13B. A gift to one family member registered by another is not what the declaration says happened.
5
You fill this in
The donor block
Printed name, signature, date, address, an FEIN if the donor is a business, email and daytime telephone.
Watch out: The telephone number is not decorative. Where the Department of Revenue Services queries a declaration it queries the donor, not the recipient.
6
The buyer fills this in
The donee block
The same six items again, signed by the person receiving the vehicle.
Watch out: Both signatures also carry the affirmation printed above them that the gift is not in whole or in part a barter exchange of any kind - which is the limb that catches "I gave him the car and he redid my roof".

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
I, [print donor's name], the undersigned (donor), state that	The opening line. The donor is the person giving the vehicle away, and this is their declaration rather than the recipient's.
on or about [date], I transferred ownership and title of a	The transfer date, followed by a row of five ticks - Motor Vehicle, Vessel, Trailer, Aircraft, Other Vehicle.
Identification number of vehicle, vessel, trailer, or aircraft	The VIN, on its own line.
Year, Make, Model	Three boxes describing the vehicle.
to [print donee's name] (donee)	The person receiving it.
receiving no compensation in return	The substance of the declaration: no cash, property, personal services, or cancellation, assumption, or payment of any debt in whole or in part.
neither a promise to pay nor any expectation of future compensation	The second limb, which reaches arrangements that are not payment today but are payment eventually.
The donee has not assumed payment of any chattel mortgage, loan obligation, or conditional bill of sale	The third limb. A car with a loan still on it cannot be given away under this declaration if the recipient is taking the loan over.
Declaration, with the penalty printed	I declare under penalty of law that I have examined this document... I understand the penalty for willfully delivering a false document to the Department of Revenue Services is a fine of not more than $5,000, or imprisonment for not more than five years, or both.
Donor block and Donee block	Both sign. Printed name, signature and date, number and street or PO box, city, town or post office, state and ZIP, an FEIN where applicable, an email address and a daytime telephone number - twice over.
The barter affirmation	One line above the signatures that both parties affirm: this gift is not in whole or in part a barter exchange of any kind.

What gets this one rejected

•A gift where the recipient takes over the loan. That is consideration, and the third limb of the declaration says so.
•Only the donor signing. Both blocks are signature blocks and the barter affirmation is made by both parties.
•Using it to dress up a cheap sale. A nominal price on a car the guide values at several thousand is a taxable sale at the guide value, not a gift, and the declaration is a sworn statement to the Department of Revenue Services.
•Forgetting the H-13B side of it. The exemption is claimed with code 5, letter A, in Section 5 of the buyer's application - the AU-463 on its own does not tell the DMV anything.
•A gift of a car with delinquent property tax on it. The department's rule is flat: any vehicle exempt from the sales tax can't be transferred if you owe delinquent tax on the vehicle.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Sales tax and gift tax are two different taxes. No sales and use tax is due on a gift. The department's own note adds the other half: the donor of a vehicle or vessel may be subject to Connecticut gift tax, measured by taxable gifts as defined for federal gift tax purposes.
•The family exemption is a different route. A transfer between a spouse or civil union partner, a parent and child or a brother and sister is exempt as code 1 without any gift declaration - provided the car has been registered in that family member's name for at least sixty days.
•A suspended registration blocks it. If the registration is suspended, the vehicle can't be transferred to an immediate family member - even as a gift.
•It is a DRS form, not a DMV one. The footer points at portal.ct.gov/DRS and the penalty clause names the Department of Revenue Services. The DMV simply accepts it as evidence at registration.

Every line here was read off AU-463 (Rev 10/21) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Connecticut Department of Motor Vehicles 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 Connecticut seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Connecticut involves.

How to fill out Connecticut AU-463

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Print the donor's name

The transfer date, and the Motor Vehicle tick

Identification number, Year, Make, Model

Print the donee's name

The donor block

The donee block

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

Want the paperwork handled instead?

Or send the details — we'll come to you