The nearest thing Tennessee has to telling anybody you sold the car - and it is not a notice of sale, it is a request to cancel a plate. The form quotes its own authority across the top: whenever the owner of a registered vehicle transfers or assigns the owner's title or interest to the vehicle, the registration of the vehicle shall expire. Ten reasons are printed under section C and the first of them is the one a seller needs.
Written against VS-09162021 (Rev 9-21), issued under Tenn. Code Ann. 55-4-118(a).
If you sold the car and the plate went with it, send this the same week. The plate is registered to you, and Tennessee's insurance verification system is watching registrations rather than vehicles.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VS-09162021 from the tn.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual VS-09162021, rendered from the PDF the Tennessee Department of Revenue 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 tick out of ten, and it is the first one on the list. That it is printed first tells you how often a Tennessee plate drives away on somebody else's car.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Block A, the registrant
The registered owner or owners as the record holds them, with a phone number and address.
Watch out: The name here has to match the registration, not the title. In Tennessee they are usually the same person, but a leased or jointly registered vehicle is where they part company.
2
You fill this in
Block B, the vehicle and the plate
Vehicle identification number, year, make, model, colour and the plate number itself.
Watch out: The plate number is the point of the form. If you photographed the car before it left, the plate is in that photograph.
3
You fill this in
One tick in section C
Ten reasons, and for a seller it is the first: vehicle sold or traded in with license plate attached.
Watch out: Three of the other nine need a document with them - a death certificate, a divorce decree or a police report. The sold box needs nothing beyond the form.
4
You fill this in
Sign the acknowledgement
The certification statement in block D, with a signature and date.
Watch out: It is a certification, and it says fraudulent statements could result in denial and in criminal and civil penalties. Ordinary language, but a sworn statement all the same.
5
You fill this in
Email it, do not post it
The instruction line sends the completed form to the Vehicle Services call centre by email.
Watch out: Keep the sent message. With no notice of sale in Tennessee, an emailed cancellation with a date on it is the closest thing you will have to a receipt from the state.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
A. Registrant information
Registered owner or owners, phone, street address, city, state and ZIP.
B. Vehicle information
Vehicle identification number, year, make, model, colour and the licence plate number.
C. Reason for cancellation
Ten boxes. Vehicle sold or traded in with license plate attached; plate lost or destroyed; registered owner now deceased, with a death certificate; divorce, single owner only, with a decree; plate stolen, with a police report; owner moved out of state; vehicle towed or scrapped with the plate attached; vehicle donated to charity with the plate attached; vehicle repossessed with the plate attached; and other, with a line.
D. Acknowledgement
The certification statement, a signature and a date.
What gets this one rejected
•A supporting document named on the box and not enclosed. Three of the ten reasons carry one - a death certificate, a divorce decree, a police report.
•Divorce ticked on a jointly held plate. The box says single owner only.
•Sent to a county clerk. The instruction is to email the completed form to the Vehicle Services call centre, and this one does not go to a clerk at all.
•A plate number left off. Section B asks for it and it is the thing being cancelled.
•Using it to transfer the plate to another car. That is a counter transaction at a county clerk and it costs a dollar; cancellation is the opposite of it.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Cancelling is not the same as transferring. A plate you intend to use on your next vehicle should be transferred, not cancelled. This form is for a plate that has gone with the car or has otherwise stopped being usable.
•No refund follows it. The Department's answer is that generally you cannot receive a refund for the pro-rated or unused portion of a registration, so cancellation tidies the record rather than recovering money.
Every line here was read off VS-09162021 (Rev 9-21) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Tennessee Department of Revenue pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
