Massachusetts hands a seller two jobs and one of them has nothing to do with the car. Write out the assignment on the back of the certificate, then kill the registration - because in this state the plate was never the vehicle's, it was yours, and the excise bill follows the registration rather than the metal. Here is the whole thing, taken from the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles' own pages and the forms themselves.
Start hereHow to fill out a Massachusetts titleThe reverse of the certificate, from the Registry's own specimen - already filled in, by the Registry, in its training names.Open the walkthrough →Look at the odometer strip on the reverse of the certificate and count the choices. There are two, and neither of them is exempt: one says the reading is in excess of its mechanical limits, the other says the reading is not the actual mileage. Sellers of very old cars reach for the first of those as a way of saying the number is meaningless, and the RMV's own training manual explains what actually happens when they do - if the vehicle is not antique and this box is checked, the Registry adds 100,000 miles to the mileage stated on the title. The car leaves the counter with six figures on its record that it never travelled.
The state requirement carries no age limit at all: Chapter 90D section 15 says the owner shall execute an assignment including the actual odometer reading, full stop. The only age exemption that exists is the federal one, and it is a federal rule rather than something the Registry publishes. Below those ages, write the number in whole miles - the strip has a separate cell marked No Tenths and it is not yours to write in.
Model year 2010 or earlier: Federally exempt once the sale happens at least ten years after 1 January of the model year. A 2010 became exempt in 2020. Massachusetts prints no box to record that on, so in practice the reading still gets written.
Model year 2011 or later: Not exempt for twenty years. A 2011 reaches that on 1 January 2031 and a 2016 on 1 January 2036, which is well beyond any car being sold privately today.
Over 16,000 lb gross vehicle weight rating, or anything not self-propelled: Exempt at any age under the same federal section - the weight and the trailer exemptions do not wait for a birthday.
You, the seller: Turn the certificate over. Everything you sign is inside one block headed ASSIGNMENT OF CERTIFICATE OF TITLE BY OWNER: the sale price, the buyer's name and address, the odometer reading, then your signature and your name printed beside it, and the date.
The buyer: The buyer signs the row directly beneath yours and prints their name next to it. The line above that row is addressed to them and warns them not to drive until everything above has been completed and signed.
Nobody notarises a Massachusetts sale. Chapter 90D section 15 asks for an assignment and an odometer reading and says nothing about an oath, and the assignment block on the certificate has no notary panel printed on it. The RMV's own list of what has to be recorded on the back of a title runs to seven items and a notary is not among them.
Two Registry title forms do carry a notary block, and neither of them is a sale: the affidavit used to correct an assignment that has already gone wrong, and the affidavit a lender swears after repossessing a car. If somebody sends you to a notary to sell a car in Massachusetts, they are thinking of a different state or a different form.
The line printed across the top of the reverse reads ANY ALTERATION OR ERASURE VOIDS THE ASSIGNMENT AND ALL ASSIGNMENTS THAT FOLLOW, and the Registry means all of it. Its training manual is blunter still: the assignment by owner section can never be voided, and no void stamp or crossed-out entry is acceptable if the sale falls through or somebody mistypes a digit. The way back is a notarised affidavit of correction, or a $25 duplicate title and a fresh start.
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, title requirements
The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.
One block on the reverse of the certificate, one application the buyer's insurance agent stamps, and a registration of yours to switch off the same week.
Massachusetts holds most titles electronically while a loan runs, so the first job is getting a piece of paper out of the lender - and there is a Registry form for a lender who will not send it.
Lost, misspelled, written on twice, or in a name that has changed. Four different forms and $25 apiece, and picking the wrong one costs a second fee.
Signing when you cannot be in the room, on a power of attorney that dies after thirty days and needs two witnesses.
One affidavit, one death certificate and no probate - Massachusetts presumes a married couple's pleasure vehicle was jointly held.
Flood, wreck, theft and scrap. A salvage title cannot be passed from one private owner to the next, which is the trap in this whole group.
The registration is the thing that has to end, and ending it is free, online, and the only way to stop the excise bill.
Massachusetts registers the person, and Chapter 90 section 2 disposes of the question in one clause: upon the transfer of ownership of any motor vehicle or trailer its registration shall expire. The moment money changes hands the plate on that car is a plate with no registration behind it, so it comes off. Leaving it on does not help the buyer - it exposes you.
You then have a choice the statute makes for you. Put the registration onto another vehicle you own, or cancel it. Cancellation is done online through myRMV in a few minutes and costs nothing; where two owners are named on the registration the online route is closed and the Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration has to be signed by both of them.
The buyer arranges their own. They go to a Massachusetts insurance agent, get a policy, have the agent stamp and sign the registration and title application, and collect plates of their own at a Service Center. Nothing you hold is transferable to them.
Do not post the plates back. The RMV says plainly that license plates do not have to be returned to the RMV when registration is cancelled, and tells you what to do instead: once the registration is cancelled you must recycle or destroy them, and they can be cut in half and discarded or taken to a town recycling centre that accepts them.
Massachusetts publishes no notice of sale and no release-of-liability form. What it has instead is a statutory instruction to hand the registration back: on transfer the registration expires and the registrant must forthwith return the certificate of registration to the Registrar with a written notice carrying the date of the transfer and the new owner's name, place of residence and address. The modern version of that notice is the online cancellation, which produces a Registration Cancellation Receipt you can download.
What actually closes your exposure is section 15 of the title chapter, and it is worth reading twice. An owner who has handed over the vehicle and done what section 15 requires of him shall not be held liable in any manner whatsoever after delivery of possession for damages resulting from operation of the vehicle, nor for any automobile law violation, even though no new certificate of title has been issued to the transferee. Your protection comes from completing the assignment properly - not from the buyer getting round to the Registry.
Cancel the registration first, then tell the insurer. Not the other way round.
In Massachusetts the registration and the policy are wired together: an agent's stamp is what gets a car registered, and a lapse in coverage on a live registration is what gets one revoked. Cancel the policy while the registration is still open and you invite a revocation, and the fee schedule prices the way back under OTHER REGISTRATION FEES: reinstatement due to insurance cancellation, $50.00. Cancel the registration first, download the receipt, send your insurer a copy - the RMV specifically asks you to - and the policy comes off cleanly. Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, registration cancellation.
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles, private party registration
Register at a Massachusetts insurance agent, then an RMV Service Center within 10 days of the purchase. The buyer pays 6.25%, and Massachusetts does not take the price on trust: for a casual sale the tax is charged on the greater of the actual sales price and the vehicle's clean trade-in book value, which the Registry adjusts for mileage but never for condition. It falls due on the 20th day of the month after the purchase. The certificate of title fee is $75.00 and it is the same $75.00 whoever the car is changing hands between. Registration is charged separately and varies by plate type, and a duplicate title, an amendment and adding or deleting a lienholder are $25.00 each.
What they need to bring:
Nothing in Massachusetts requires a private seller to produce a fresh inspection sticker, and no page the RMV publishes for sellers mentions one. The requirement lands on the person who registers the car: you must obtain a vehicle inspection sticker within 7 days of the registration date. That is seven days from registration, not seven days from the handshake, so a buyer who takes a fortnight to get to a Service Center has not started the clock yet.
The fee is set at $35.00 for a motor vehicle and $15.00 for a motorcycle, and any licensed Massachusetts inspection station can do it. Massachusetts RMV, Apply for a registration and title for a vehicle purchased from an individual.
Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles · figures and rules as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.
See also: selling a car in Massachusetts and the rest of the guides.