What replaces the bill of sale when the car is a gift inside the family, and the document that stops the Division of Taxation charging tax on book value for a transfer where no money moved. Its own subheading is the whole eligibility test, and it is a closed list: spouse, mother, father or stepparent, children or step-children, sibling or step-sibling.
Written against Gift Letter (family) (no revision printed), issued under RI Division of Taxation, gift exemption for immediate family.
Read the definition in the subheading rather than assuming the usual one. Rhode Island's immediate family for a vehicle gift stops at siblings and step-siblings - grandparents and grandchildren are outside it for this letter, even though the DMV's separate Plate Gift Letter uses a wider list that does include them.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Gift Letter (family) from the dmv.ri.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Gift Letter (family) guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual Gift Letter (family), 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
One sheet, four blocks and a decision about the plate at the foot. The subheading is the eligibility test - spouse, parent or stepparent, child or step-child, sibling or step-sibling, and nobody else. The relation line in the recipient block is where the exemption is actually claimed.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Date of gift
The day the car changes hands, at the head of the letter.
Watch out: It sets the same clock a sale would. The tax exemption is claimed against this date and the registration in your name expires on it.
2
You fill this in
Print and sign as the person gifting
Two rules, and every owner named on the registration or the certificate appears on both.
Watch out: The instruction is printed on each rule - if two owners, both must print, and if two owners, both must sign. A jointly registered car needs both, even inside one household.
3
You fill this in
The vehicle block
Year, make, model, identification number and mileage.
Watch out: The mileage box here has no qualifying statements beside it, unlike the disclosure on the bill of sale. If the reading is not the actual mileage, that has to be said on the certificate's own odometer block.
4
You fill this in
Name the recipient and the relation
Printed name on one rule, relation of recipient on the next.
Watch out: Write the relation in the words the subheading uses. Daughter, brother, stepfather - a description like family friend on this sheet is the wrong form and a taxable transfer.
5
You fill this in
Decide about the plate
Tick yes and record the plate number, type and design, or tick no.
Watch out: If the plate is going too, the registration behind it still ends and the recipient re-registers. And if the plate you want to give is not the one on this car, it needs the separate Plate Gift Letter.
6
You fill this in
Hand it over with the proof of ownership
The letter travels with the certificate, or with the old registration where the car is older than the 2001 line.
Watch out: A gift letter alone is not a transfer of ownership. It is the tax document; the assignment or the bill of sale is what actually moves the car.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Date of gift
One box at the head of the letter.
Name of the person(s) gifting the vehicle
Printed name and signature, with the two-owner instruction on both rules - if two owners, both must print, and if two owners, both must sign.
Vehicle information
Year, make, model, vehicle identification number and mileage. The mileage box carries no qualifying statements of its own.
Name of the person(s) receiving the vehicle
Printed name, and a separate line for the relation of the recipient.
The plate on the vehicle
Two ticks. Yes, gifting plate - with the plate number, plate type and plate design - or no, the plate on the vehicle is not being gifted.
What gets this one rejected
•A grandparent, grandchild, aunt, uncle, cousin, niece, nephew, in-law or friend. The subheading defines immediate family for this letter as spouse, mother, father, stepparent, children, step-children, sibling and step-sibling, and anybody outside it needs the notarised non-family letter and a gift affidavit instead.
•A notarised signature on this letter, which is the wrong document if a notary is involved - the DMV's tax page requires notarisation only for a gift from a non-immediate family member.
•A relation line left blank. It is the only place on the sheet where the exemption is actually claimed.
•A gift affidavit offered in place of a letter. The DMV's checklist says it plainly: the gift affidavit found on our website does NOT constitute a gift letter.
•One signature where two owners are named on the registration or certificate.
•Gifting a plate that is not the plate on the vehicle, on this sheet. The note at the foot says a separate plate gift letter must be used if the plate being gifted is NOT the plate on the vehicle being gifted.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The plate can go with the car here, and only here. Rhode Island plates belong to the registrant, so they do not follow a sale. On a family gift this letter lets one travel, with its number, type and design recorded - which is the only sanctioned way a Rhode Island plate moves between two people.
•It does not replace the title work. A gift is still a transfer of ownership. If the car is model year 2001 or newer the certificate is assigned on the back exactly as on a sale; if it is older and never titled, the letter does the job the bill of sale would have done.
•No sales tax, unless something else is owed. The DMV's tax page is careful about this: no sales tax on the vehicle unless outstanding taxes are due. An unpaid excise bill on the car does not disappear because the transfer was a gift.
•Mileage still gets disclosed. The letter has its own mileage box, and the federal and state disclosure duties attach to a transfer of ownership rather than to a sale for money.
Every line here was read off Gift Letter (family) (no revision printed) 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.
