The sworn half of a gift outside the family. It is a Division of Taxation document rather than a DMV one, it is signed by the person receiving the car rather than by the person giving it, and its operative sentence is a denial: that no monies, services, barter arrangements, or other articles or things of value or consideration in any form were paid or given in connection with the gift.
Written against SU 87-65 (Rev 07/20), issued under RI Division of Taxation, Excise Tax Section.
The examples printed on the form are the Division of Taxation's, not yours: MAKE (e.g. Chevrolet) and MODEL (e.g. Camaro) are printed under two of the rules. They are prompts, and copying them in is exactly the kind of error that gets a packet returned from an office that never sees the car.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank SU 87-65 from the dmv.ri.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our SU 87-65 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual SU 87-65, rendered from the PDF the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles 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
A Division of Taxation affidavit written as one long sentence, which is why the boxes sit at odd intervals. The grantee swears it, not the giver - and the printed words either side of each rule are worth reading before writing, because the make and model rules carry the Division's own examples underneath them.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
The buyer fills this in
The grantee's name and address
The opening of the sentence: I, full name of person receiving vehicle, of address, city, state and ZIP.
Watch out: The person receiving the car is filling this in. If you are the one giving it away, your name appears further down as the grantor and nowhere else.
2
The buyer fills this in
The date of the gift
Day and year on the line beginning hereby depose and say that on.
Watch out: It has to be the date on the gift letter. The two documents are one claim and the Excise Tax Section reads them together.
3
The buyer fills this in
The vehicle
Year, make, model and the vehicle identification number.
Watch out: The examples under the make and model rules are the Division's prompts, not the answer. Chevrolet and Camaro are printed there for illustration.
4
You fill this in
The grantor's name and address
The person giving the vehicle, with a full address.
Watch out: This is the seller's whole appearance on the affidavit, and the address should match the one on the gift letter and on the proof of ownership.
5
The buyer fills this in
The relationship
One line: the relationship of the person who gifted you the vehicle.
Watch out: This affidavit exists because the relationship is outside the immediate family list. Write what it actually is rather than stretching a word from the family letter.
6
The buyer fills this in
Sign under penalty of perjury, before the notary
The grantee signs on a stated day, month and year, then the notary signs and prints their name.
Watch out: Read the paragraph above the signature first. It denies that money, services, barter or anything of value passed, and states that all penalties imposed by law will be evoked if that is untrue.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
The grantee and their address
Full name of the person receiving the vehicle, street and number, apartment or floor, city or town, state and ZIP - written into the running sentence rather than into a grid.
The date of the gift
Day, month and year, on the line that begins hereby depose and say that on.
The vehicle
Year, make with Chevrolet given as the worked example, model with Camaro as the example, and the vehicle identification number on its own rule.
The grantor and their address
Full name of the person gifting the vehicle, with street, apartment or floor, city or town, state and ZIP.
The relationship
One line: what is the relationship of the person who gifted you the vehicle.
The sworn denial
The printed paragraph the grantee is swearing to, and a warning that if subsequent information discloses that the statements contained herein are false, then all penalties imposed by law will be evoked.
Signature and notary
Signed under penalty of perjury on a stated day, month and year by the grantee, then a notary's signature and printed name.
What gets this one rejected
•The wrong signature. The rule is headed GRANTEE'S SIGNATURE (PERSON RECEIVING GIFT) - the person giving the car away does not sign this affidavit.
•Using it for an immediate family transfer. The subheading limits it: to be used for non-immediate family only.
•Filing it without the letter. The first line under the heading says a notarized gift letter, in place of a Bill of Sale, must accompany this affidavit.
•A relationship line left blank or filled in with a word that describes no relationship at all.
•An un-notarised affidavit, or one notarised on a different date from the gift letter it accompanies.
•Treating it as the gift letter. The DMV's own checklist warns that the gift affidavit found on our website does NOT constitute a gift letter.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It goes to a different address from everything else. The masthead is the Division of Taxation's Excise Tax Section at One Capitol Hill, Providence - not the DMV in Cranston. In practice it is handed in with the registration packet, but it is not a DMV form and the DMV does not administer it.
•It is drafted as a running sentence, not as a form. Everything is written into the flow of a paragraph, which is why the boxes look uneven. Read the printed words either side of each rule before writing in it.
•Barter counts. The denial names monies, services, barter arrangements, or other articles or things of value or consideration in any form. A car handed over in return for a summer's work is not a gift for this purpose.
•A gift still moves ownership. The affidavit deals with tax only. The certificate is still assigned on the back, or - for a car older than the 2001 line - the gift letter does the work a bill of sale would.
Every line here was read off SU 87-65 (Rev 07/20) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Rhode Island Division of Motor Vehicles pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
