A single sheet with seven pre-written statements on it, one of which is the one a private seller needs: a declaration that the vehicle is being given rather than sold. Missouri treats a gift as a transfer that still has to be reported, still needs an inspection certificate and still takes the plates off - but not as a sale, and this is the paper that says so.
Written against Form 768 (Rev 05-2020), issued under RSMo 301.190.
The alternative to this form is a written statement of your own saying the vehicle was given as a gift - the Department offers both. Use the form anyway: the block that asks for the year, make, model, vehicle identification number and title number is the part a license office actually needs, and a hand-written note usually leaves half of it out.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 768 from the dor.mo.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual Form 768, 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
One tick, one name and one vehicle band. The notary block at the foot is deliberately grey - the Department's note beside this statement is that the General Affidavit or statement does not have to be notarized, and only two of the seven statements on the sheet are marked as needing it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Tick the gift statement
The second of the seven boxes, and write the recipient's name into the rule that follows I am giving the unit described below to.
Watch out: Read the bracketed note that follows it rather than skipping to the next block. It is where the Department tells you the transfer still has to be reported on a Notice of Sale, signed by both of you.
2
You fill this in
The vehicle band
Owner, year, make, model, vehicle identification number, original title number and current licence number.
Watch out: The current licence number is the plate you are about to take off. Filling it in is how the Department ties the affidavit to the registration record.
3
You fill this in
Sign and date
Signature of Owner and the date, under the false-statement warning.
Watch out: Sign it on the day the car changes hands, and use the same date on the title assignment and on the notice of sale.
4
You fill this in
Leave the notary block
The block at the foot, with its seal box and commission expiry.
Watch out: Only the non-operation and firefighter statements carry the asterisk that means notarization required. A gift affidavit signed in front of a notary is not wrong, only unnecessary.
5
You fill this in
Write GIFT on the title
Not on this form at all - in the sale price area of the assignment on the back of the certificate.
Watch out: The word, not a figure. The Department's bracket is explicit that a sale price of one dollar is the wrong way to do this, and a dollar sale is taxed as a sale.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The seven statements
Tick boxes down the left. Non-operation for a stated period; a gift with the recipient named; a vehicle absent from Missouri for sixty days before registration; abandoned property found on land you own; an age declaration for a disabled placard; a firefighter plate certification; and Other, with three ruled lines to write your own.
The gift statement
I am giving the unit described below to ______ and there is no money or other valuable consideration involved in the transaction - with a bracketed note that runs to six lines about the notice of sale that still has to be filed.
Vehicle band
Owner, year, make, model, vehicle identification number, the original title number and the current licence number.
Signature of Owner
One rule, with the date in eight cells beside it, under the warning that any false statement in this affidavit is a violation of law, and may be punished by fine, imprisonment, or both.
Notary Information
The usual Missouri block - stamp box, date written out in three pieces, jurisdiction, and the officer's signature, printed name and expiry - with the two dollar license office charge noted underneath it.
What gets this one rejected
•Assuming the whole form needs notarising. Only two of the seven statements are marked with an asterisk for it - the non-operation declaration and the firefighter plate certification. The Department says separately that the gift affidavit does not have to be notarized.
•Ticking more than one statement. Each is a separate sworn assertion about a different thing.
•Using it to avoid tax on a sale. There is no money or other valuable consideration involved is the whole substance of the gift declaration, and it is signed under a false-statement warning.
•Forgetting the notice of sale. The bracketed note inside the gift statement is emphatic that the original owner and the new owner are required to sign the Notice of Sale or Transfer form, even when gifting.
•A gift of a car that was itself gifted to you. The Department's gifting page adds the rule in four words: a vehicle cannot be gifted two times in a row.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•GIFT goes on the title too. The Department's instruction for the assignment is to place the word GIFT in the sale price area - and, in its own brackets, do not use a sale price of $1.
•The recipient still needs the inspection. A gift does not change what you hand over: a safety inspection certificate less than sixty days old, and an emissions certificate in the four St. Louis-area jurisdictions.
•The plates do not go with it. The recipient cannot use or transfer the license plates that were on the vehicle at the time it was gifted.
Every line here was read off Form 768 (Rev 05-2020) 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.
