How to fill out Nebraska Credit Application

The refund application's sibling, for the car that died rather than sold. Under s. 60-396 an owner whose vehicle is disabled and has been removed from service surrenders the registration, plates and decals and takes the unused months as a credit - and this short affidavit is the version for the owner standing at the counter registering a replacement that same day. Its sworn statement says exactly that: the above vehicle is disabled and has been removed from service, and the vehicle being registered today is a newly purchased replacement vehicle. The county applies the credit straight against the new car's registration fee, motor vehicle tax and motor vehicle fee, so the dead car's remaining months pay down the living one's bill.

Written against Credit Application (8/2017), issued under Neb. Rev. Stat. s. 60-396, credit for a vehicle disabled and removed from service, applied at registration of the replacement. This page and the refund application look near-identical at the counter - same venue block, same sworn owner, same vehicle grid - and counties see them swapped weekly. The test is one sentence long: money back for a car that left your ownership is the refund form; months carried across to a replacement for a car that died in it is this one. Bring the wrong form and the visit still usually succeeds, but only because the clerk quietly starts over with the right one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Credit Application from the dmv.nebraska.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Credit Application guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Time it to the replacement's registration day

   The affidavit's own sentence includes the vehicle being registered today, so it is sworn at the counter where the new car's paperwork is happening.

   Watch out: Bring both cars' paperwork in one folder - the dead vehicle's registration, plates and decals, and the replacement's title application - because the credit is applied in the same transaction.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Venue and owner

   The county taking the registration, and your name as the disabled vehicle's registered owner.

   Watch out: The names must line up: the person swearing the credit and the person registering the replacement are the same owner, or the credit has nowhere lawful to land.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Describe the dead vehicle

   Year, make, model, body style, VIN and plate number of the car being removed from service.

   Watch out: The plate number is about to be handed over with the plates themselves - copy it before they disappear across the counter.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Sign, surrender, and watch the arithmetic

   The sworn signature, the plates, decals and registration across the counter, and the county applies the unused months against the replacement's fees and taxes.

   Watch out: Sixty days from disablement is the outer limit, and the disablement month itself counts for nothing - a truck that died in January and reached the counter in April has quietly spent a quarter of its credit.

What gets this one rejected

• •Using it for a car you sold. A sale is a transfer of ownership and belongs on the Application for Refund with its own checkbox; this affidavit's operative sentence is about a vehicle disabled and removed from service.
• •Filing it with no replacement in the transaction. The sentence you swear includes the vehicle being registered today - an owner with a dead car and no new one uses the Disabled Motor Vehicle Credit application instead, and carries the resulting credit certificate forward.
• •Keeping the plates for the new car without asking. The credit rides on surrender - plates, decals and registration certificate return to the county at the time the replacement is registered.
• •Describing the replacement in the vehicle block. The year, make and VIN on this form belong to the disabled vehicle; the new car is identified by its own application and title paperwork in the same visit.
• •Stretching disabled to cover parked. The statute's phrase is disabled and removed from service - a car resting until spring still holds a live registration, and Nebraska's storage route for that is a different filing entirely.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Sixty days, like its sibling. The county pages set the same clock for credits as refunds: the application reaches the treasurer within sixty days of the date the vehicle was disabled, and the month of disablement itself pays nothing.
• •No replacement today means a certificate for later. The no-replacement route runs on the Disabled Motor Vehicle Credit application: the county computes the unused registration fee, motor vehicle tax and motor vehicle fee, authorises its portion, and hands back a signed original you must present within one year of authorization - after which the credit expires.
• •A credit is not cash and never becomes it. The county page says it in italics: this is a credit not a refund - you will not receive a direct refund or payment. The unused months only ever offset taxes and fees on a replacement.
• •Lost plates change the arithmetic, not the right. Where the plates or registration cannot be produced, s. 60-396 accepts an affidavit of the disablement and removal from service in their place - and a credit may be docked a lost-plate charge, though the owner then pays no plate fee on the replacement.
• •The dead car can come back. A vehicle reregistered within the same registration year after its registration was cancelled picks up taxes and fees for the remainder of the year - disablement pauses the ledger rather than closing it.

Every line here was read off Credit Application (8/2017) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles, Driver and Vehicle Records Division 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 Nebraska seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Nebraska involves.