How to fill out South Dakota Form 1001

This is the buyer's form, and it is on this list because a South Dakota seller hands it over, watches it get filled in wrong, and inherits the delay. Two pages: page one identifies the vehicle and the people going onto the new title, page two computes the tax and the fees and carries the signatures. The department's own list of the five commonest titling errors starts with no signature on application or title, and its guidance for a private-party purchase names this form first - the DOR website provides you with the Motor Vehicle Title and Registration Application to fill out, print and sign.

Written against Form 1001 (no revision printed), issued under South Dakota Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, presented to the county treasurer under SDCL 32-3-18. The odometer box on this form is where the department's own paperwork disagrees with itself. The printed artwork reads Odometer (complete for vehicles 2011 or newer), which is the current federal rule. The label the department's form portal attaches to the same box still reads complete for vehicles 10 years old or newer, which is the rule that expired at the end of 2020. Go by the printed line and by the department's 2021 bulletin: model year 2011 and newer discloses until the vehicle is twenty years old, and model year 2010 and older is exempt. A seller handing this form to a buyer is well placed to point at the right one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 1001 from the sddor.seamlessdocs.com copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Form 1001 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank Form 1001 — Motor Vehicle/Boat Title & Registration Application PDF at sddor.seamlessdocs.com · new tab Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in Form 1001 guide PDF · print and keep beside you

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is all 2 pages of the actual Form 1001, rendered from the PDF the South Dakota Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division 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 completed South Dakota Motor Vehicle/Boat Title & Registration Application, Form 1001. Page one has Motor Vehicle and Title Transfer ticked, a 2015 Chevrolet Equinox LT identified by vehicle identification number, colour and body type, an odometer reading of 108,472 with Miles and Actual Mileage ticked, and one owner, Orval J. Bjornson of Watertown, South Dakota, entered as an individual with his driver's licence number. Page two shows a purchase date of 08/19/2026, a purchase price of $9,150.00, tax of $366.00 on line 4, the pre-printed title and technology fee of $12.00 on line 7 and a balance due of $378.00, with the trade-in, lienholder, dealer certification and exemption blocks shaded grey. — Page 1 of 2. Page one: the request type, the vehicle, the odometer entry and the buyer going onto the new title. The boat, trailer and secondary-vehicle rows are washed grey because a car sale never touches them.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
Application request: Motor Vehicle, Title Transfer
Two ticks at the top of page one. Eight request types are printed and a private sale of a South Dakota car is the first of them.
Watch out: Out-of-State Title Transfer is a different tick with different paperwork behind it. A South Dakota certificate assigned to a South Dakota buyer is a plain title transfer.
2
The buyer fills this in
The vehicle, from the certificate
VIN, year, make, model, colours, body type, weight and fuel type, copied off the title rather than off the car.
Watch out: The Previous State/Brand box is where an out-of-state brand lands. The manual notes that out-of-state title brands are displayed on all titles in the previous state field.
3
The buyer fills this in
The odometer entry
Reading, unit and one of the three odometer brands. It repeats what the assignment on the back of the title already carries.
Watch out: It must match the assignment. A reading that disagrees with the one the seller disclosed is a discrepancy the county has to resolve before it can issue anything.
4
The buyer fills this in
Owner information, with the type of ownership
Name, type of ownership, customer type and identification number for each person going onto the title.
Watch out: The type of ownership box is the one that matters years later. It is the word between two names that decides whether one signature or two can sell the car next time.
5
The buyer fills this in
Purchase price on line 1
What was paid, from the bill of sale, less any trade-in allowance on line 2, giving the difference on line 3.
Watch out: Tick Bill of Sale not available/NADA only if there genuinely is not one. It moves the tax base to the industry guide value, which on most cars is higher than the price.
6
The buyer fills this in
The 4% tax and the printed fees
Line 4 is 4% of line 3 for a vehicle. Line 7 is pre-printed as Title Fee + Tech Fee $12.00; line 8 is the late fee if the application is past forty-five days.
Watch out: Penalty and interest on line 5 are calculated from the purchase date regardless of when the application is made - so a delayed application is charged as though the tax had been due all along.
7
The buyer fills this in
Lienholder block, if they borrowed
Name and address of the first and second lienholder, and $10 for each lien noted.
Watch out: Once a lien is noted, no paper title is printed at all until it is released. A buyer expecting a document in the post will not get one.
8
The buyer fills this in
The Unsworn Declaration
Every person going onto the title prints and signs, with a date and a place. The declaration is made under penalty of perjury under the law of South Dakota.
Watch out: No notary is needed and none is offered. What is needed is every signature - the department's first common error is a missing one, and a mailed application with a blank line comes straight back.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Application Request - Motor Vehicle or Boat, then one of eight types	Title Transfer, New Title, Operation by Law, Repossession, Out-of-State Title Transfer, Unpaid Repair Bill, Interstate Title or Abandoned Title. An ordinary private sale of a South Dakota car is Motor Vehicle plus Title Transfer.
Vehicle/Boat Information	VIN or HIN, year, make, model, a secondary VIN row, primary and secondary colour, previous state or brand, body type, weight or engine capacity, fuel type and wheels.
Brand (check if applicable)	Eight boxes: Manufacturer Buy Back and its rebuilt, salvage and junking-certificate variants, Parts Only, Junking Certificate, Salvage Total Loss and Recovered Theft. A clean car ticks none of them.
Odometer, complete for vehicles 2011 or newer	The reading, a unit tick for miles or kilometres, and one of three odometer brands - actual mileage, exceeds mechanical limits, not actual mileage. The artwork prints the current 2011 test; the department's own field label behind the box still says ten years old or newer.
Owner & Business Information, up to three owners	For each: name, type of ownership, customer type and identification number. The instruction block defines all three - the type of ownership is chosen from and, or, DBA, guardianship, lessee, lessor, trustee, transfer on death; the customer type from individual, company, dealer, government or trust; the identification number is a South Dakota driver's licence, identification, social security or federal employer identification number.
Title Mailing Address and Contact Information	Where the printed title should go if that differs from the owner's address, plus a contact name, email and phone.
Motor Vehicle/Boat Purchase Information, lines 1 to 10	Purchase date, purchase price, a Bill of Sale not available/NADA tick, trade-in allowance, the difference, tax at 4% for vehicles, penalty and interest, credit for tax paid to another state, Title Fee + Tech Fee $12.00 pre-printed on line 7, a late fee for an application made after 45 days, the lien fee, and the balance due.
Exemptions	Three ticks on page two: a rental vehicle with its sales tax number, a non-profit donated vehicle with a corporation number, and Title Only - which attests that the vehicle will not be used upon the waterways, streets, or highways of this state or any state.
Trade-in Information	Two rows, each year, make, VIN or HIN and title number, for vehicles traded against the purchase.
Lienholder Information	First and second lienholder name and address. Above it the form prints the consequence: a paper title is not printed until lien(s) are released or a request by a lienholder is approved.
Unsworn Declaration	Signed on this day, at a named place, with four printed-name and signature pairs. The declaration reads: I declare under penalty of perjury under the law of South Dakota that the foregoing is true and correct.

What gets this one rejected

•An unsigned application. It heads the department's own list of common titling errors, and it is the reason a mailed application comes back rather than a title going out.
•A missing lien. Another of the department's five: lien not put on application when noted on title for new buyer. The county cannot invent it from the certificate.
•An owner block with no type of ownership. The connector between two names decides who has to sign the next assignment, and leaving it empty means the department reads it as and.
•An identification number left out. The manual requires the South Dakota driver's licence or social security number of each purchaser, with a federal employer identification number for a company.
•A purchase price with no bill of sale behind it. The tick marked Bill of Sale not available/NADA is what the county uses when there is none, and it moves the tax onto the guide value.
•Filing it in the wrong county. The application must be filed in the county of the new applicant's residence.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It must be signed by the record owner or an appointed agent. The department's own page: an Application for Motor Vehicle Title & Registration must be signed by the record owner(s) or by an authorized agent for the record owner(s), and a power of attorney document must be attached to verify the appointment.
•The penalties are printed beside the arithmetic. Two boxes on page two. Any person failing to pay the full amount of excise tax is subject to a Class 1 misdemeanor. Any person who intentionally falsifies information on this application is guilty of a Class 6 felony.
•Line 7 is pre-printed at $12.00. Title Fee + Tech Fee, as one line. The $2 technology fee took effect on 1 July 2025 and is now part of the printed figure rather than an extra the counter adds.
•Forty-five days, and the form knows it. Line 8 is a late fee for an application made after 45 days, and the Title Only exemption block repeats that applications must be made within 45 days of the purchase date.
•A guide value is the fallback, not a choice. The note above the purchase block: a guide published by the automobile industry will be used to check values.
•Transfer on Death is set here, not on a separate form. The type-of-ownership list on this form includes transfer on death, which is how a beneficiary is named; the department requires the vehicle to carry no open liens.

Every line here was read off Form 1001 (no revision printed) itself — the PDF is here — and off the South Dakota Department of Revenue, 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 South Dakota seller paperwork, or what selling a car in South Dakota involves.

How to fill out South Dakota Form 1001

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Application request: Motor Vehicle, Title Transfer

The vehicle, from the certificate

The odometer entry

Owner information, with the type of ownership

Purchase price on line 1

The 4% tax and the printed fees

Lienholder block, if they borrowed

The Unsworn Declaration

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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