How to fill out South Dakota Form 1021

The mileage disclosure belongs inside the assignment on the back of the certificate - the Procedures Manual's line is that federal odometer regulations require that the odometer statement is completed on the title reassignment. Form 1021 is the separate sheet for the transfers where the title cannot carry it: a duplicate application, a car whose title is held electronically by a lender, a sale being papered where the certificate has run out of room. Its instruction sets the current test in one sentence - complete this disclosure statement if the vehicle being transferred is less than 20 years old and weighs less than 16,000 pounds - which is the rule that replaced the ten-year one at the end of 2020.

Written against Form 1021 (no revision printed), issued under South Dakota Department of Revenue, Motor Vehicle Division, under SDCL 32-3-30.1 and the federal Truth in Mileage Act, 49 CFR part 580. Do not use this sheet to avoid writing in the assignment. Where the certificate is in your hands, the disclosure goes on the title itself - that is what federal law and the manual both require, and a county treasurer meeting a title with an empty odometer statement and a loose Form 1021 will ask why. The separate sheet is for the cases where the title genuinely cannot carry the entry: an electronic title held by a lender, a duplicate application, a sale run through a power of attorney. The department may refuse to transfer the title or issue a new title if the disclosure on the certificate is not completed.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank Form 1021 from the sddor.seamlessdocs.com copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our Form 1021 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

   Vehicle, VIN and title number

   The identifying block, matching the certificate exactly.

   Watch out: If you are completing this because the title is electronic and you have never seen it, take the VIN off the doorpost rather than off an old insurance document.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   The reading, and miles or kilometres

   Whole units as the cluster shows them, then tick which unit it is. South Dakota's form does not ask you to convert.

   Watch out: Read it the day you sign, not the week before. A reading taken at the advert and disclosed at the sale is a discrepancy waiting to be noticed.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   One of the three statements

   Actual mileage; exceeds the odometer's mechanical limits; or is not actual, which the form labels as a warning of an odometer discrepancy.

   Watch out: Exceeds mechanical limits means a cluster that rolled over, not one that is broken. A cluster that has been replaced is not actual, and that brand follows the car.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Your name, address and the date of sale

   The seller block under the certification that you certify by your signature to the truth and accuracy of this disclosure statement.

   Watch out: The certification is made under penalty of South Dakota law, and the statute above it makes a false entry a Class 6 felony. This is not a box to fill in optimistically.

5. 5
   The buyer fills this in

   The buyer's block and second signature

   Name, address and signature, with the same date of sale. The buyer is acknowledging the reading you disclosed.

   Watch out: Get it signed while they are in front of you. Chasing a buyer for an acknowledgement after the car has gone is how a disclosure ends up unusable.

What gets this one rejected

• •A reading with no box ticked. The form requires one of the three statements to be chosen, and a bare number tells a county treasurer nothing about whether it is trustworthy.
• •Tenths of a mile. The disclosure is whole miles; a decimal is read as a different number entirely when it reaches the record.
• •Guessing rather than reading the cluster. The certification is signed under penalty of South Dakota law, and SDCL 32-3-30.1 makes falsifying any information within the disclosure a Class 6 felony.
• •Only one signature. Purchaser name, address and signature are printed on the form because the buyer acknowledges what you disclosed.
• •Filing one for a vehicle whose title has already skipped a disclosure. The manual notes that once there is a skip, the odometer cannot be shown on the title - the reading becomes part of the vehicle history instead of appearing on the certificate.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •The current test is on the form, in one line. Complete this disclosure statement if the vehicle being transferred is less than 20 years old and weighs less than 16,000 pounds.
• •Model year 2010 and older is exempt. The department's own bulletin when the rule changed: model year 2010 and older vehicles continue to be subject to the previous 10-year disclosure requirements and are exempt from the extended federal requirements.
• •The old rule is still printed in the department's own library. The 2023 Procedures Manual's odometer exemptions list still includes a vehicle that is ten (10) or more years old - eighty pages after the same manual's table prints the corrected twenty-year version. The form is the newer authority.
• •Motorcycles are not exempt any more. The manual records that a South Dakota motorcycle title previously issued showing no odometer reading will be required to comply, and the reading will be shown on the title.
• •Failure is not just a rejection. The form's own instruction: failure to complete an odometer disclosure or making a false disclosure may result in fines and/or imprisonment.

Every line here was read off Form 1021 (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.