How to fill out Missouri Form 5049

The one form in Missouri that exists purely for the seller's benefit. It tells the Department of Revenue that a named person took the car on a named day, and it is due within thirty days of the sale. The Department notes the pending purchaser against the vehicle record, writes to them if no title application appears, and gives your name out beside theirs rather than alone when somebody asks who owns the car. Missing it is an infraction.

Written against Form 5049 (Rev 12-2018), issued under RSMo 301.196 and 301.198. Post it and keep the copy. The Department's address for it is a different post office box from the one on most of its other forms, and the form's own instruction is to keep a copy of this form for your records - which, since the notice does not release your ownership, is the only proof you hold that you filed on time.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 5049 from the dor.mo.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank Form 5049 — Notice of Sale or Transfer PDF at dor.mo.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual Form 5049, rendered from the PDF the Missouri Department of Revenue 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

Missouri Form 5049 filled in: purchaser Osgood M. Barrineau of 812 Vandiver Dr, Columbia, MO 65202, the Passenger box ticked, sale date 08/12/2026, net price 11,750 dollars, a 2016 Subaru with vehicle identification number 4S4BSANC1G3271486 written one character per printed cell, the buyer's signature beside his name, and seller Delphine R. Tallmadge of 4127 Wyandotte St, Kansas City, MO 64111 printed and signed in the seller block, with the dealer number and notes bands left empty. — The whole notice as the Department publishes it. Amber is what gets written; the dealer number is grey because this is a private sale, and the Notes band is grey because it is where the Department writes, not you.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
The buyer's name and signature
Last, first and middle initial on the left, the buyer's own signature on the right. Both are starred.
Watch out: Get the signature at handover. Chasing a stranger for it a fortnight later, with a thirty-day clock running, is the single most avoidable problem on this form.
2
The buyer fills this in
The buyer's address and date of birth
Address, city, state and ZIP, all starred, plus a date of birth in eight printed cells and a driver licence number that is not starred.
Watch out: The date of birth is how the Department tells two people with the same name apart. It is one of the ten items RSMo 301.196 lists as the contents of the notice.
3
You fill this in
Select one
Ten tick boxes for the type of unit. An ordinary car is Passenger.
Watch out: Three of the ten - Boat, Outboard Motor and Manufactured Home - are on the list of things the form's own instructions say are not required to be reported. They are printed because the block is shared with other transactions.
4
You fill this in
Sale date
Month, day and year, in eight cells, starred.
Watch out: It has to be the same date you wrote on the title assignment. Two different dates for one handover is the sort of discrepancy that turns a routine filing into a letter.
5
You fill this in
Net price after trade-in
The price after any trade-in allowance, in dollars.
Watch out: The Department asks for it twice over - it is starred here, and its Notice of Sale guidance adds that it is important that the net price be provided on each NOS form, because the notice can be used as proof of price when a buyer titles the car.
6
You fill this in
The vehicle
Make and vehicle identification number are starred; the title number, the state of title and the four-digit year sit beside them.
Watch out: The VIN cells are one character each. Copy it from the face of the title rather than from the dash - the two should agree, and if they do not you have a bigger problem than this form.
7
You fill this in
Your name and signature
One starred line labelled Name(s) and Signature(s), then your address, city, state and ZIP.
Watch out: The certification printed directly above it is under penalties of perjury, and names the offence: knowingly submitting false information about the sale of a vehicle is a Class C Misdemeanor.
8
You fill this in
Post it, and keep the copy
To the Motor Vehicle Bureau at P.O. Box 3050, Jefferson City - the address printed at the foot of this form rather than the one on Form 108.
Watch out: Within thirty days of the sale date. If the sale later falls through, the Department's instruction is to send back a copy of the notice marked Rescinded Sale, signed and dated.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Purchaser(s) block	The buyer's name, signature, address, city, state and ZIP, their driver licence number and their date of birth. Everything here is starred as required except the licence number, and the signature is one of the starred ones.
Select one	Ten unit types across two rows: Passenger, Truck, Motorcycle, Motortricycle, Autocycle, Trailer, ATV, Boat, Outboard Motor and Manufactured Home. The instructions later rule three of those out of the reporting requirement entirely.
Sale Date	Eight printed cells, month, day and year, and starred. This is the date the thirty days runs from.
Net Price (After Trade-In)	A dollar figure, starred. The instruction block explains why it matters: the notice can stand in for a bill of sale when the buyer applies for title, and it is what a 180-day sales tax credit is measured against.
Title Number, State of Title, Year	A combed title number, the two-letter state and a four-cell year. Only the year is starred.
Make and Vehicle Identification Number	Both starred. The VIN sits in a seventeen-cell comb across the full width of the block.
The certification	Printed above the seller's block: I certify under penalties of perjury that the facts regarding this sale are true to the best of my knowledge. Knowingly submitting false information about the sale of a vehicle is a Class C Misdemeanor.
Seller(s) block	Name and signature on one line - the label is Name(s) and Signature(s), starred - then address, city, state, ZIP and a dealer number for the people this form is not aimed at.
Notes	A free band under the seller block. The Department uses it for the word Rescinded Sale where a reported sale falls through.
Instructions and Penalties	Two printed bands at the foot rather than fields, and between them they carry the deadline, the exemptions, the 180-day credit rule and the fine.

What gets this one rejected

•A starred block left empty. The form says so in its own instructions: failure to complete the required blocks will result in the information not being processed - which means an unprocessed notice, not a late one.
•Only one signature. The instruction is to sign the notice and obtain the purchaser's signature, so the buyer signs before they leave with the car.
•Sending it for a transfer that is outside the requirement. Marinecraft, manufactured homes, anything on a salvage title or junking certificate, and transfers to dealers, out-of-state purchasers, insurers on a theft or casualty loss, trust beneficiaries and transfer-on-death beneficiaries are all listed as not required to be reported.
•Treating it as the buyer's title application. It is not one, and RSMo 301.196.5 says the notification does not constitute an assignment or release of any interest in the vehicle.
•Filing it more than thirty days after the sale date you wrote at the top. The deadline is measured from that box.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•The tear-off version is the same form. Missouri titles issued since February 2006 carry a tear-off Notice of Sale, DOR-5049A, along the bottom of the certificate. Where it is still attached, it does the same job and saves you printing anything.
•It doubles as a bill of sale for the buyer. Printed on the form: this form may be used in place of a bill of sale, when applying for title on a newly purchased vehicle to obtain a 180-day sales tax credit - and the two dates have to fall within 180 days of one another.
•It also gets a buyer a temporary permit. The Department lists a Notice of Sale among the ownership documents a license office will accept when issuing a thirty-day temporary permit, which is the answer to the buyer who has just watched you take the plates off.

Every line here was read off Form 5049 (Rev 12-2018) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Missouri Department of Revenue 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 Missouri seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Missouri involves.

How to fill out Missouri Form 5049

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The buyer's name and signature

The buyer's address and date of birth

Select one

Sale date

Net price after trade-in

The vehicle

Your name and signature

Post it, and keep the copy

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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