How to fill out North Dakota SFN 2475

The buyer's half of the certificate, published as a loose sheet the way the seller's half is. Part 3 is where the new owner certifies the purchase price, claims any excise tax exemption, works the fee column and applies for the certificate of title - and its header sets their clock: submit to Department of Transportation within 30 days. A seller has no line on it at all, which is exactly why it is worth reading: it shows you what the person across the table has to do with the document you just signed, and how many of those thirty numbered exemptions are not what they think they are.

Written against SFN 2475 (4-2026), issued under North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle Division; the buyer's application for a new certificate required by NDCC 39-05-17(4). Read this one for what it tells you about your own paperwork rather than for anything you have to write. The buyer will certify a purchase price on it, and the department's note beside the fee column says plainly that a guide published by the automobile industry will be used to check values. If the price you wrote in Part 1 and the price they write here disagree, both documents are in the same envelope when somebody notices - and the penalty printed at the foot names a class A misdemeanor for a false entry on a government document.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SFN 2475 from the dot.nd.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SFN 2475 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   The buyer fills this in

   The vehicle line

   Year, make, model, vehicle identification number and title number, taken from the certificate the seller assigned.

   Watch out: These five have to match Part 1 exactly. Part 1 and Part 3 are two halves of one document and the department reads them together.

2. 2
   The buyer fills this in

   The exemption number box

   One number from the list of thirty, entered only where an exemption genuinely applies - and left empty in an ordinary purchase.

   Watch out: Almost every category names the documentation it needs beside it. A number with nothing attached is an application the department returns rather than one it approves.

3. 3
   The buyer fills this in

   Full Purchase Price, and the allowances under it

   The price paid less any rebate, then less a trade-in allowance and less a total loss allowance, down to the difference or subtotal.

   Watch out: The trade-in lines at the foot of the column ask for the year, make and VIN of the traded vehicle. An allowance claimed without identifying the vehicle it came from will not stand.

4. 4
   The buyer fills this in

   Tax at 5% of the subtotal

   North Dakota's motor vehicle excise tax, worked on the subtotal immediately above it.

   Watch out: This is the buyer's money and the buyer's arithmetic. A seller who offers to 'sort the tax out' on a private sale is offering something that does not exist in this state.

5. 5
   The lienholder fills this in

   First and Second Lien Holder

   Name and mailing address for a lender financing the purchase. The first block's own label warns that the title will be mailed to the first lien holder.

   Watch out: Leave both blocks empty on a cash purchase. An address written here is where the new certificate goes, and getting it back is a separate application.

6. 6
   The buyer fills this in

   TOTAL FEES DUE

   The sum of the tax, the title fee of $5.00, the vehicle licence fee, any plate charges and the branch fee.

   Watch out: DO NOT SEND CASH is printed alongside the total. Sites take other methods, and the branch fee that applies at most of them is part of what is being totalled here.

7. 7
   The buyer fills this in

   The buyer's signature and date

   Signature of Applicant/Buyer/Transferee, above the certification of price, the application for title, and the promise of continuing insurance. A second line takes a co-buyer.

   Watch out: Thirty days runs from receiving the title, not from signing this. The header says submit to the Department of Transportation within 30 days and the statute backs it with suspension or revocation of the registration.

What gets this one rejected

• •A gift claimed on exemption 1 where money changed hands. The exemption names the relationships it covers and asks for the relationship between all new owners to be specified - it is not a way of describing a cheap sale.
• •An exemption number entered with none of its documentation. Most of the thirty carry a requirement in brackets beside them - a death certificate, a divorce decree, a letter of eligibility, trust paperwork - and the number alone does not stand.
• •A first lienholder written in where there is no loan. The label warns that the title will be mailed to the first lien holder, so a stray entry there sends the new certificate to a bank instead of to the buyer.
• •A purchase price that does not match the assignment. The department's own note is that a guide published by the automobile industry will be used to check values, and Part 1 and Part 3 are read side by side.
• •Sitting on it past the header. The form says submit within 30 days, and NDCC 39-05-17 lets the department suspend or revoke the registration where the transferee does not.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •Only the buyer signs, and the signature is a certification of price. The block above the signature line makes the buyer certify the purchase price, apply for the certificate, and certify continuing insurance. Nothing on this sheet belongs to the seller.
• •Two owners, two signature lines. The form provides a second buyer signature line for a co-applicant. Which of the two must use it goes back to the conjunction ticked in Part 1.
• •The fee column is the whole cost of a North Dakota transfer, in order. Price, allowances, subtotal, 5% tax, the title fee, the licence fee, plate charges, the branch fee, total. A buyer working out what the counter will ask for can read it straight down.
• •The exemption numbers are not interchangeable with another state's. Number 9 covers tax paid to a state that grants reciprocity to North Dakota and requires proof; number 23 is a military home of record with its own form. Picking a number because it sounds right is the fastest way to have an application returned.

Every line here was read off SFN 2475 (4-2026) itself — the PDF is here — and off the North Dakota Department of Transportation, Motor Vehicle 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 North Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in North Dakota involves.