How to fill out Louisiana DPSMV 1799

The sheet every Louisiana title is generated from, and the one document that turns up in every transaction the OMV has a policy for. Two sides doing about nine jobs: it describes the vehicle, names the new owner, records the lienholders, declares the price, works out the fees, and carries two sworn affidavits down its right-hand edge that have nothing to do with an ordinary sale. A private seller signs it nowhere. It belongs to the person buying the car.

Written against DPSMV 1799 (R05/24), issued under R.S. 32:707, application for certificates of title. This is the R05/24 revision. The OMV publishes it through PowerDMS rather than as a file on its own website, so take a fresh copy from the link below rather than reusing a saved one, and check the code printed sideways down the left margin of page one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank DPSMV 1799 from the public.powerdms.com copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank DPSMV 1799 — Vehicle Application PDF at public.powerdms.com · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is all 2 pages of the actual DPSMV 1799, rendered from the PDF the Louisiana Office 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 Louisiana DPSMV 1799 vehicle application filled in for one private sale: buyer Delmar J. Thibodeaux of Lafayette with a driver's licence number, a used 2015 Nissan Frontier SV, VIN 1N6AD0EVXFN718435, mileage 118406, Lafayette parish, Used ticked, a previous title number and a cost of vehicle of 9,750.00, dated 14 August 2026. The twenty-box fee column, the duplicate title affidavit and the lienholder affidavit are all greyed out. — Page 1 of 2. The transfer itself, completed by the buyer. The whole fee column is greyed because the office or the Public Tag Agent works those figures out, and both affidavit blocks on the right are greyed because neither belongs to an ordinary sale.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
VIN
First box of the identification row, copied off the face of the certificate being surrendered.
Watch out: Copy it from the title rather than from the windscreen plate, and remember a VIN never contains the letters I, O or Q. Every other document in the file gets matched to these characters.
2
The buyer fills this in
Mileage
Middle of the description row, between Year and Model/Weight.
Watch out: It has to agree with the figure certified in the odometer block on the back of the title. This box is a description of the vehicle, not a disclosure - the disclosure with legal weight is the one the seller signed.
3
The buyer fills this in
Name of Owner
The buyer's full legal name as it reads on their driver's licence or ID card, with the licence number or an EIN in the box to the right.
Watch out: Initials, nicknames and pet names cannot be used for first names, and no rank or title goes in front. Where the name does not match the other documents in the file exactly, the OMV wants an Affidavit of One and the Same instead of a shrug.
4
The buyer fills this in
Parish
Between City and State/Zip in the owner's address block, and again in the mail-to block below it.
Watch out: This is the box the sales tax rate is read from. A Baton Rouge address that is actually in East Baton Rouge parish and a Baton Rouge address that is in West Baton Rouge are taxed differently, so it is filled in from the licence rather than guessed.
5
The buyer fills this in
New / Used
Two small ticks at the left end of the transaction row, immediately before Date Acquired.
Watch out: Used is what a private sale is, always - the New box is for a vehicle arriving on a manufacturer's statement of origin. Ticking neither leaves the file ambiguous about which set of supporting documents the office should be looking for.
6
The buyer fills this in
Cost of Vehicle
Right-hand end of the transaction row, with Less Trade beside it.
Watch out: It has to be the same figure that appears in the title assignment, and the same figure again on any bill of sale in the envelope. This is what the tax is assessed on and it is also what the two-year plate fee is calculated from.
7
Somebody else fills this in
The fee column
Twenty boxes running down the left of the lower half, from Title Fee to Grand Total.
Watch out: Leave every one of them empty. These are worked out and entered by the OMV employee or the Public Tag Agent processing the file, and a buyer's arithmetic in them is one more thing for somebody to reconcile.
8
Somebody else fills this in
Duplicate Title Affidavit
The boxed block at the top right, with ticks for lost, mutilated and never received.
Watch out: Not part of a sale. It is here because the same sheet doubles as the application for a duplicate certificate, and it is signed by the registered owner in front of a notary whose identification number goes in the box marked ID Number.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Date Prepared, Type of Plate	Top-left pair, under the words TO AVOID REJECTION: Complete all required information. Type of Plate is the class being asked for - auto, truck, commercial, transfer, or the name of a specialty plate.
Electronic Fund Transfer Code, Dealer Code	Top-right, and both belong to the trade. A private buyer walking into an OMV office or a Public Tag Agent leaves them empty.
VIN, Make, License No., Exp. Date	The identification row. License No. and Exp. Date describe a plate being carried over, which on a private passenger sale there will not be, because Louisiana plates are not transferable between owners.
Body, Color, Year, Mileage, Model/Weight	Five boxes of description. Mileage is a plain number here rather than a certified disclosure - the certification lives on the title or on the DPSMV 1606.
Name of Owner, Name of Joint Owner, Driver's License or EIN	Two owner rows, each with its own identification box. A company goes in with its EIN rather than a licence number.
Owner's Principal Residence Address, City, Parish, State/Zip	Parish is asked for separately from city, and it is not decoration - it is the parish rate the sales tax is worked out at. Beside it the form prints its own reason: I affirm that the information provided is in compliance with R.S. 47:303.
Lessee / Mail To / Domicile / Renter	Four ticks and a second address block for a vehicle whose renewal notice should go somewhere other than the owner, with a Domicile Code the office fills in.
Vehicle is subject to security agreement as follows	Electronic Lien Transfer Code, then first and second lienholder with street and city, state and zip for each. Empty on a cash sale.
New / Used, Date Acquired, Tax Date, Previous Title No., State, Cost of Vehicle, Less Trade	The transaction row. Previous Title No. is the number off the certificate being surrendered, and Cost of Vehicle is the figure the tax is assessed on.
The fee column	Twenty boxes down the left: title fee, licence penalty credit, handling fee, rebate, tax value, mortgage fee, tax, tow fee, licence fee, tax penalty, miscellaneous fee, licence transfer fee, interest, total fees, licence credit, vendor's compensation, total taxes, licence penalty, tax credit and grand total. The office fills these in, not you.
BE SURE TO SIGN AND DATE	Three printed declarations above the signature: that the information is true, that liability insurance required by LRS Title 32:861-865 has been and will be maintained, and that a registrant of a commercial motor vehicle knows the federal safety and hazardous material regulations apply. Then Applicant's Signature and Co-Applicant's Signature with a date beside each.
Duplicate Title Affidavit	A boxed block on the right, headed Must be signed by owner and notarized. Three ticks - lost, mutilated, never received - a promise to hold the Commissioner harmless if the previous title turns up in somebody else's hands, an optional permission to post the title to the address on the application, two witness lines and a notary line with an ID Number box.
Affidavit of Non-Possession of Title by Lienholder	The second boxed block, headed Must be signed by lienholder and notarized. Two ticks - never received, or received and surrendered to the owner - then the lienholder's signature, two witnesses and a second notary line.
Page two, sections A to G	Conversion, transfer of plate, lost or stolen plate or sticker, title correction, farm use statement, out of state declaration, and a disclosure block for salvage, reconstructed, water damaged and hail-damaged vehicles that ends with the words False statements are punishable by fine, imprisonment or both under R.S. 32:730.

What gets this one rejected

•Parish left blank or filled in with the city's name. The tax rate follows the parish the vehicle is domiciled in, and the OMV cannot work the file without it.
•A Cost of Vehicle that does not agree with the price written into the title assignment or the notarised bill of sale. Two figures in one envelope is a discrepancy, not a choice.
•Neither New nor Used ticked, which leaves the office guessing whether it is looking at a manufacturer's statement of origin or a used certificate.
•A duplicate title affidavit filled in and signed but not notarised, or notarised with no identification number written next to the notary's name.
•Both an owner's licence copy and the signature missing where a plate is being asked for. A title can still be issued, but the plate will not be until identification is shown.
•No proof of liability insurance where a plate is wanted. The form prints its own warning across the foot: proof of liability insurance must be furnished as provided for by law before this file can be processed.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Your name is not on it anywhere. Read down both sides and you will not find a seller. Louisiana puts the whole of a private seller's job on the back of the certificate; this form belongs to the buyer, and the only thing you owe it is a correct previous title number to copy from.
•The forty days on this form and the five days in the statute are two different clocks. The form prints TO AVOID PENALTY AND INTEREST: File must be submitted within 40 days from the date of purchase. That is the tax clock. R.S. 32:707(A) sets a separate five-day deadline for making the application itself, and it is not printed here at all.
•The two affidavits are not part of a sale. Both boxed blocks on the right belong to other transactions - a lost certificate, or a lienholder who never got one. Filling one in on an ordinary transfer confuses the file rather than strengthening it.
•It can go by post. A used-vehicle title file can be mailed to OMV headquarters in Baton Rouge, walked into a field office, or handed to a Public Tag Agent. The form carries the headquarters address across the top for exactly that reason.

Every line here was read off DPSMV 1799 (R05/24) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Louisiana Office 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 Louisiana seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Louisiana involves.

How to fill out Louisiana DPSMV 1799

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

VIN

Mileage

Name of Owner

Parish

New / Used

Cost of Vehicle

The fee column

Duplicate Title Affidavit

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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