Mississippi runs its titles out of a tax office in Clinton, and a private seller never mails it anything. Your half of the job is the back of the certificate and the tag off the bumper; the buyer's half happens at their county Tax Collector, who is the Department of Revenue's designated agent and co-signs the application with them. The tag is the part sellers get wrong - it does not move to your next car here, it goes back to the county, and handing it in is also what takes the car off your record. Here is the whole thing, taken from the Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Services' own pages and the forms themselves.
Start hereHow to fill out a Mississippi titleThe seller completes every section of the assignment except two - the buyer's printed name and signature are theirs.Open the walkthrough →Most states print an age on their disclosure form - twenty model years, or ten - and a seller can read the exemption off the sheet. The 78-015 prints nothing of the kind: no age, no weight cutoff, no exempt box. It opens with BOTH FEDERAL LAW AND STATE LAW REQUIRE THAT YOU (THE TRANSFEROR) STATE THE MILEAGE and then simply asks for the number. Whether your vehicle is exempt is decided entirely by the federal regulation the sentence points at, and the form gives you no help finding it.
The federal rule, 49 CFR 580.17, splits at model year 2011. A vehicle built for 2010 or earlier stopped needing a disclosure ten years after its model year, which by now covers every one of them. A vehicle built for 2011 or later needs a disclosure for twenty years, so the first of those becomes exempt in 2031. Since the Mississippi form offers no place to claim an exemption, the answer that satisfies everybody on an older car is the cheapest one available: read the dashboard and write the true number in.
Model year 2010 and earlier: Exempt under the federal rule, all of them, because every one passed ten model years before 2021. The 78-015 still has a blank where the reading goes and no box that says exempt - writing the actual figure in costs nothing and forecloses the argument.
Model year 2011 and later: A disclosure is required and will be for years yet. The reading you certify follows the vehicle: the 78-023 exists precisely because a wrong figure here means a sworn affidavit from every owner since the error.
Over 16,000 pounds GVWR: Exempt under the federal regulation's weight branch. Mississippi's own paperwork meets these trucks elsewhere - the 76-903's sold-or-discontinued box singles out vehicles of 16,000 pounds GVW or greater.
Trailers and anything not self-propelled: No odometer, no disclosure. Mississippi titles trailers only above 5,000 pounds gross vehicle weight, and boat trailers under that are registered on a bill of sale.
Mississippi Department of Revenue form library, 78-015 Odometer Disclosure Statement
You, the seller: Complete every section of the assignment on the back of the certificate except two: the buyer's printed name and the buyer's signature are theirs to write, in their own hand. The Department's instruction is exactly that split - the seller must complete all sections on the title assignment except for the buyer's printed name and signature - and its titles page warns in bold against the shortcut people take with that sentence: never deliver a title with the buyer's name left blank to complete later, which it calls a violation of Mississippi law.
The buyer: The buyer prints and signs their name in the assignment, then carries the certificate to the Tax Collector's office in their own county, where the real application happens: the 78-002 title application is prepared at the counter, signed by the buyer and by the designated agent, and the duplicate copy the buyer walks out with is the permit to operate the vehicle until Clinton issues or refuses the title.
No notary watches you sign the title - but a sworn signature is never far away. The Department's transfer instruction has no notary step in it anywhere: assign the title, hand it over, take the plate off. What stands behind the signatures instead is the designated agent who co-signs the buyer's application. But step one inch off the ordinary path and Mississippi reaches for a notary at once - the 78-003 power of attorney, the 78-013 affidavit of ownership, the 78-014 heirship affidavit, the 78-008 correction affidavit and even the 76-903 tag-credit affidavit are all sworn documents.
One oddity worth knowing exists in the Department's own paperwork: its correction form lists Notary Public placed signature in wrong space among the strikeovers it can cure, so notary blocks do appear in the assignment stream it processes - manufacturers' certificates of origin travel through the same form. The instruction for a private sale asks for no notary at any point.
The Department's line is short: since 1969, Mississippi has required all motor vehicles to be titled, and pre-1969 motor vehicles are voluntarily titled. So an ordinary car always has a title to sign over, however old - the only vehicles sold on a bill of sale alone are the ones built before Lyndon Johnson left office, and even those can be titled if an owner chooses. The list has grown twice since: trailers over 5,000 pounds gross vehicle weight and manufactured homes joined in 1999, and ATVs and utility vehicles manufactured after July 1, 2025 are now titled too.
Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Services, title requirements
The full box-by-box walkthrough is here, with a printable checklist.
The back of the certificate, a mileage statement, and a counter application the buyer co-signs with the county's designated agent.
Paid-off loans release on the face of the title or electronically - and the form people find when they search for a lien release belongs to the lender.
Lost certificate, spoiled assignment, wrong mileage on record, or no title at all - Mississippi has a separate sworn document for each hole.
One notarised page appoints someone to sign in your place, and it travels stapled to the certificate it transfers.
Whether the family needs probate or one sworn affidavit turns on a two-letter word between the names on the front of the title.
Total loss, rebuild, or the crusher - who signs what depends on whether the insurance company took the car or you kept it.
The tag comes off, goes back to the county, and turns into credit. Losing it instead means a notarised affidavit and a police report.
Both halves matter, because most states only have the first. The Department's transfer instruction says the previous owner must remove the license plate once the title is assigned. Its licensing FAQ then closes the door the seller in every neighbouring state walks through: no, you cannot transfer your old license plate to a new vehicle - in Mississippi, the tag is registered to both the vehicle and the owner, and if either changes, the old tag must be removed and surrendered to your county Tax Collector's office.
Surrendering it is not a formality; it is the filing. The Department's own answer to how a seller removes their name from the records is three steps long: remove the plate, surrender it to the Tax Collector, and once the license plate is surrendered, your ownership record is no longer current with the state. Mississippi has no notice-of-sale form and no release-of-liability form - the tag on the counter is both.
What you get back is money, not metal. Mississippi law allows no refunds, but the unused portion of the registration transfers to your next Mississippi vehicle as a credit: turned in mid-cycle, the tag earns credit from the first day of the next month, issued as a credit certificate if you are not buying a tag the same month, and usable in any county. The clock runs from when the tag is turned in, not when the car was sold - every week the plate sits in your garage is credit gone. Move out of state and the credit is worthless.
The Department's toll FAQ shows the machinery working: a seller who gets another driver's toll bill can email it in, and if the plate was not left on the vehicle when it was sold, the Department writes to the toll company on the seller's behalf. A lost or stolen tag runs through the notarised 76-903 instead, with a report from law enforcement - $10.00 for a replacement tag and decal, $2.50 for the decal alone.
There is no notice of sale to post and no release of liability to file, and the title side takes care of itself when the buyer's application reaches Clinton. What Mississippi wants from a seller after the handshake is physical: the plate, at the county Tax Collector's counter. The Department's FAQ answers the question in exactly that shape - remove the license plate(s) when transferring the vehicle to the buyer, surrender the license plate to the Tax Collector's office - and adds the sentence sellers skip: always make a copy of the front and back of the signed title and keep it with your records.
Until the tag is surrendered, the registration record still points at you, and that record is what toll cameras, tickets and every roadside system read. The buyer, meanwhile, has 30 business days from the purchase date to register, and their duplicate copy of the title application is their permit to drive in the gap - so nothing about their timetable protects yours. The credit rule sharpens the point: your registration credit is calculated from the day the tag is turned in, not the day the car was sold.
Surrender the tag before you cancel the policy.
Mississippi requires liability insurance but does not enforce it through registration - there is no database letter coming to warn you. What arrives instead is other people's driving: a toll bill, a parking summons, an abandoned-vehicle notice, each routed to the name on the registration. The Department will untangle a toll for a seller who can show the plate came off at the sale, which is exactly why the plate should come off at the sale and go to the county promptly - the surrender is the record you will point at later. Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle FAQ.
Register at the county Tax Collector's office where the buyer lives within 30 days of the purchase. Mississippi is one of the few states that taxes a private sale like a purchase: casual sales of motor vehicles carry 5% sales tax on the net purchase price - 3% for trucks over 10,000 pounds carrying property - collected from the buyer at the Tax Collector's counter with the title fee. The exemptions are strictly blood-and-marriage narrow: spouses, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, and, since July 1, 2019, siblings. A sale to a cousin, an aunt, an uncle or an in-law is taxed like a sale to a stranger. The counter the buyer visits belongs to the county, but the person behind it acts for the state: county Tax Collectors are designated agents of the Department of Revenue under Section 63-21-13(3), alongside licensed dealers, financial institutions and title pledge lenders. The title itself is $9.00, first-time registration is $14.00, and ad valorem tax lands on top - assessed at 30% of the manufacturer's suggested retail price less depreciation, multiplied by the county's own millage, which is why the same car costs different money to register in different counties.
What they need to bring:
The Department's answer on emissions is one line - no, Mississippi does not require emissions testing for motor vehicles as a condition of registration - and there is no periodic safety inspection in a private sale either. The inspections that do exist belong to the Department of Public Safety, and a seller only meets them at the edges of the map: a bonded-title vehicle of ten model years or less goes to a DPS substation for an inspection before the title application, and a rebuilt salvage vehicle cannot be retitled until a DPS inspector has examined it and its parts receipts.
Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle FAQ.
Mississippi Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Services · figures and rules as of 2026-08-23. Plain-language help with paperwork, not legal advice.
See also: selling a car in Mississippi and the rest of the guides.