How to fill out Indiana State Form 205

The document the buyer hands over the counter with your signed certificate, and the one Indiana keys its title record from. It is a single side carrying the applicant, the residence address, the vehicle, the former title number, the purchase date, two lienholder blocks and a Gross Retail and Use Tax Affidavit across the foot. A seller never files it - but the price and the odometer reading on it are copied off what you wrote, so a mistake of yours surfaces here.

Written against State Form 205 (R14 / 4-26), issued under IC 9-17. This form is revised often - the copy read for this page is the fourteenth revision - and the BMV moves fields between rows when it does. Check the revision printed under the title against the copy on the BMV's forms page before you rely on the layout described here.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank State Form 205 from the forms.in.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The buyer fills this in

   Title Format Preference

   One tick, Electronic or Paper, in the pair of boxes above the vehicle colour.

   Watch out: Skipping it is a decision. The line printed above the boxes says an electronic title will issue automatically if nothing is selected, and a duplicate cannot afterwards be processed on an electronic title.

2. 2
   The buyer fills this in

   Name of Applicant and the identification number

   Printed name in the Name of Applicant box, and the starred Social Security or Federal Identification Number to its left.

   Watch out: The starred footnote makes the number mandatory rather than optional. A buyer who will not put it on the form is a buyer whose title application is not going to be processed.

3. 3
   The buyer fills this in

   Residence Address

   Number and street, city, state, ZIP - the applicant's own home address.

   Watch out: This is not where the car is kept and not where you live. It sets the county, and the county sets what the excise and any local wheel tax come to on registration day.

4. 4
   The buyer fills this in

   The vehicle row

   Vehicle Identification Number, Year, Make, Model, Vehicle Type and the Odometer reading, straight across the page.

   Watch out: The odometer figure here has to be the one on the certificate. Two different readings on two documents about the same handover is the discrepancy a branch associate is trained to spot.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   Former Title Number and Purchase Date

   The number of the certificate being surrendered, and the date of the sale.

   Watch out: The purchase date is what the forty-five-day clock is measured from, so it is copied off the certificate rather than guessed at. A buyer who writes today's date to buy themselves more time has written a false statement on a sworn form.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   Lien (Y/N) and the two lienholder blocks

   A single letter, then two full blocks for a Holder of First Lien and a Holder of Second Lien with their addresses and Electronic Lien and Title identification numbers.

   Watch out: On a private cash sale the answer is N and both blocks stay empty. Where the buyer is financing, the lender's Indiana ELT identification number is what keeps the title electronic and out of the post.

7. 7
   The buyer fills this in

   The Gross Retail and Use Tax Affidavit

   Selling Price, Less Trade-In / Discount, Amount Subject to Tax, Amount of Tax - then a tick for Dealer, Branch or Exempt.

   Watch out: On a private sale the trade-in box is empty and Branch is the tick, because the branch is collecting. Exempt needs a reason code beside it, and an unexplained Exempt tick is the fastest way to be sent to the back of the queue.

8. 8
   The buyer fills this in

   Sign, and have the co-applicant sign

   Applicant Signature, Printed Name and date on the first row; a second row for a second applicant.

   Watch out: Nobody witnesses this. The line above it is an oath - making a false statement on this form may constitute the crime of perjury - and the branch takes it at face value.

9. 9
   The buyer fills this in

   Leave the BMV Use Only boxes alone

   Transaction Number, Branch Number, Invoice Number, License Number, License Year, Forms Used and four boxes marked BMV Use Only.

   Watch out: Filling one in helpfully is not helpful. They are the branch's audit trail and an associate who finds them already written on has to work out who wrote them.

What gets this one rejected

• •A blank Social Security or Federal Identification Number. The starred note is not advisory: disclosure is mandatory, and this record cannot be processed without it.
• •An unsigned second applicant line where two people are going on the title. Both applicants sign, and the printed name goes beside each signature.
• •A Selling Price that does not match the certificate. The branch reads both documents and the certificate wins, which is what the correction affidavit exists to sort out.
• •A former title number copied from a lien statement rather than from the certificate. It is the number of the title being surrendered, not of any earlier one.
• •Guessing at Vehicle Type. It is the BMV's own classification and it comes off the record, not out of a sales listing.
• •Ticking neither title format and then expecting paper. Silence is an answer here, and the answer it gives is electronic.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Electronic is the default now. The note across the top says a certificate of title issued by the Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles may be possessed in either printed or electronic form, citing IC 9-17-2-4(d), and that an electronic title issues automatically where no box is ticked.
• •The affirmation covers two separate promises. One is that the signer is authorized to perform this transaction and will indemnify the BMV; the other is that the information entered is correct, under the perjury warning. Both sit above the same signature.
• •Speed is a yes-or-no on this form. There is no separate expedite request. The Speed box on the second row is the whole of it, and the courier fee is collected at the counter.

Every line here was read off State Form 205 (R14 / 4-26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Indiana Bureau 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 Indiana seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Indiana involves.