How to fill out Maryland VR-008

The alternative to handing your plates in, and the only reason a Maryland seller ever keeps them: moving a registration onto the next car. It is also how a buyer who already owns a Maryland vehicle brings their existing plate across. One page of application and a second page that is nothing but the state's registration fee schedule, which is the clearest published version of what tags actually cost.

Written against VR-008 (05-26), issued under Maryland Transportation Article, Title 13, Subtitle 4. This is not the form for handing plates back. It is for keeping them and putting them on something else, and using it when you meant the VR-027 leaves the registration open in your name with nothing to attach it to.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VR-008 from the mva.maryland.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VR-008 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank VR-008 — Application: New Plates/Stickers & Transfer of Plates or Non-Title Trailers PDF at mva.maryland.gov · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in VR-008 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual VR-008, rendered from the PDF the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration 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 Maryland VR-008 application filled in for a plate transfer: the Transfer of License Plates box ticked with tag number 8DM3417, a sticker number and an expiration date, the plates going onto a 2018 Ford F-150 with a title number, class and VIN, owner Rosalind T. Purnell with an MDID and date of birth, rented or leased answered no, loaner answered no, an insurance company and policy number, and her signature and printed name at the foot. — The actual VR-008 at revision 05-26. The Transfer of License Plates line carries three boxes, not one - tag number, sticker number and expiry - because the MVA is matching a specific registration rather than a plate design.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Transfer of License Plates
The third tick block, with the tag number, sticker number and expiration date written on the same line.
Watch out: All three, not just the plate number. The sticker number and expiry are how the MVA identifies which registration year is being moved across.
2
You fill this in
Title Number, Class and Make
The vehicle the plates are going onto, not the one they came off.
Watch out: This trips people up because everything above this row is about the old car. From here down the form is describing the new one.
3
You fill this in
Vehicle Year and Vehicle Identification Number
The row underneath, again for the vehicle receiving the plates.
Watch out: If the new car is not titled in Maryland yet, this application travels with the title work rather than ahead of it.
4
You fill this in
Owner's MDID and Date of Birth
The owner identification block, with a second row for a co-owner.
Watch out: The printed instruction covers the case where you have no licence: give the date of birth on its own. A company copies the owner's MD ID from the title certificate and leaves the date of birth alone.
5
You fill this in
Is this vehicle rented or leased, and is it a loaner
Two yes-or-no pairs. On an ordinary private vehicle both answers are no.
Watch out: Answer them anyway. An unticked pair is an unanswered question and this is a certified application.
6
You fill this in
Certificate of Insurance
Insurance company, policy or binder number and agent or broker.
Watch out: The cover has to be in force on the vehicle the plates are moving to. A policy that starts when the old car is collected leaves a gap the MVA's own systems will see.
7
You fill this in
Owner's Signature and Printed Name
The last block, with a co-owner pair below it, under a penalty-of-perjury certification.
Watch out: Print as well as sign. It is the same habit the certificate of title demands and the same reason - a signature alone leaves the MVA guessing at a name.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The four application blocks	New License Plates/Stickers; New Stickers Only with a tag number; Transfer of License Plates with the tag number, sticker number and expiry date; and Registration only for non-titled trailer, which carries its own certification about weight and security interest.
These plates/stickers will be affixed to the following vehicle	Title number, class and make on one row, then vehicle year and the vehicle identification number - with the instruction that a copy of the current registration card is attached where plates are being transferred.
Owner and Co-Owner	MDID and date of birth for each. The printed guidance is specific: copy your driver licence number and give date of birth, and companies copy the owner's MD ID from the title certificate and disregard date of birth.
Two yes-or-no questions	Is this vehicle rented or leased, and is this vehicle a loaner.
Certificate of Insurance	Insurance company, policy or binder number and agent or broker, above a certification that the vehicle is insured with a licensed Maryland insurer as required by Maryland law.
Signatures	Owner's signature and printed name, then co-owner's, under a penalty-of-perjury certification.
Transferring Plates	The paragraph at the foot: the transfer fee is $15.00 plus any difference in the two registration fees, and where less than twelve months remain before the registration expires, the registration will be renewed for an additional year.
The fee schedule on page two	Every class the MVA registers, with the annual figure: Class A passenger cars at $120.50 up to 3,500 lbs, $125.50 to 3,700 lbs and $191.50 over; Class D motorcycles $105.00; Class L historic $55.50; Class N street rod $45.50; Class M multi-purpose on the same three-band scale as Class A; truck, tractor and trailer tables by gross weight.

What gets this one rejected

•A transfer application with no copy of the current registration card, which the form asks for on its face.
•A plate being moved onto a class it cannot go to. The MVA's manual limits transfers to class A, M and E vehicles.
•A plate being moved to somebody else's car. It transfers within the same owner's name, between parents and children, and between spouses, and nowhere else.
•Insurance details left blank, when the certification directly above the signature is the whole point of the block.
•A date of birth left out where the owner has no Maryland licence number to give, which is the case the printed instruction is written for.
•Budgeting for the transfer fee alone. Where the new vehicle's registration fee is higher, the difference is collected as well.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Registration is sold two years at a time. Only trucks of a ton and over and tractors are billed by the year. The figures on page two are one year at the time of titling or renewal, and a buyer expecting to pay one of them once will be short at the counter.
•A short plate gets extended, not prorated. Transfer a plate with less than twelve months left on it and the registration is renewed for an additional year, and charged for. That is a real cost of keeping a plate rather than handing it in.

Every line here was read off VR-008 (05-26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration 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 Maryland seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Maryland involves.

How to fill out Maryland VR-008

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Transfer of License Plates

Title Number, Class and Make

Vehicle Year and Vehicle Identification Number

Owner's MDID and Date of Birth

Is this vehicle rented or leased, and is it a loaner

Certificate of Insurance

Owner's Signature and Printed Name

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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