Keeps a family car transfer at the $10 gift tax instead of the full motor vehicle sales tax. Hand a car to your daughter in Texas without this affidavit and the county charges tax on the vehicle’s standard presumptive value, whether or not a dollar changed hands. It is a Comptroller form rather than a TxDMV one, which is why it looks different from everything else in this section.
Written against 14-317 (Rev. 12-25/9), issued under Texas Tax Code 152.062, with eligible parties defined at 152.025(a) and Comptroller Rule 3.80.
The word gift does the work here, and Texas defines it narrowly. Consideration includes cash, assuming a lien or other debt, paying for services or labour, or swapping property. If any of that is in play, the $10 rate is not available and filing this affidavit anyway is the false statement the felony line is about.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 14-317 from the txdmv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our 14-317 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual 14-317, rendered from the PDF the Texas Department 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
The real 14-317, downloaded from TxDMV.gov and filled in for one family gift. The signature and notary blocks are deliberately empty: this affidavit is sworn in person in front of a notary or the county tax office, so a pre-signed sample would be showing you the wrong thing. Amber is what you write.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
County and vehicle
The county where the Form 130-U will be filed, then the year, model, make and VIN.
Watch out: The county is the recipient’s county of residence, because that is where the title application goes. Copy the VIN off the title, not the door jamb.
2
You fill this in
Tick the relationship
One box out of the seven family relationships, or one of the two on the second row for a qualifying nonprofit or revocable trust.
Watch out: It describes the donor. A father handing a car to his daughter ticks Parent/Stepparent, not Child/Stepchild.
3
You fill this in
Donor certification
Name, address and phone, then the certification that the vehicle is being transferred without consideration and no assumption of debt.
Watch out: Leave the signature until you are in front of the notary or at the county counter. A signature already on the page cannot be sworn to.
4
The person receiving the car fills this in
Recipient certification
The same block for the person receiving the car, with its own signature and notary line.
Watch out: Both parties certify. If one of you cannot attend, that party signs before a notary first and the other brings the notarised copy - the instructions allow a reproduced or faxed copy of the absent party’s notarised signature.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
County and vehicle
The county where the title application is being filed, then year, model, make and VIN. Four boxes and a VIN comb across the top of the page.
Which relationship
Seven tick boxes for family relationships and two more for a qualifying 501(c)(3) or revocable trust. Exactly one gets ticked, and it describes the donor’s relationship to the recipient.
Donor certification
Name, mailing address, city, state, zip and phone, then a certification that the vehicle is being transferred “without consideration, including no assumption of debt”, a signature and a notary block. There is a second identical column for a second donor.
Recipient certification
The same block again for the person receiving the car, with its own signature and notary block. Also doubled, for two recipients.
What gets this one rejected
•Posting it to the Comptroller. The form says so in bold on its own face: DO NOT SEND TO THE COMPTROLLER’S OFFICE. It goes to the county tax assessor-collector with the buyer’s Form 130-U.
•Filing by post at all. The affidavit “must be submitted in person by either the donor, recipient or authorized agent, with valid photo identification”. An agent needs a completed power of attorney and has to turn up too.
•Sending a title service. One line in the instructions kills that route outright: a motor vehicle title service may not file this affidavit.
•An unsworn signature. Every principal party’s signature has to be sworn and subscribed in front of a notary, an online notary authorised by the Secretary of State, or the tax assessor-collector or one of their employees.
•Ticking a relationship that is not on the list. A transfer for nothing to somebody outside the listed parties is not a gift in Texas - the instructions define it as a sale, taxed on standard presumptive value.
•Calling it a gift when a loan comes with it. The certification says without consideration, including no assumption of debt. A recipient taking over the payments is paying for the car.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The eligible list is a closed list. Spouse, parent or stepparent, father or mother-in-law, foster parent, grandparent or grandparent-in-law, great grandparent, grandchild or grandchild-in-law, great grandchild, child or stepchild, son or daughter-in-law, foster child, sibling or brother or sister-in-law, and guardian. Plus a 501(c)(3) nonprofit or a qualifying revocable trust on either side. Cousins, nieces, nephews and friends are not on it.
•The spouse box has a catch. It applies to separate property only. The instructions say vehicles held as community property are not subject to the gift tax, because moving a community-property car between spouses is not a transfer of ownership in the first place.
•An out-of-state gift still counts. A vehicle received as a gift from an eligible donor located out of state is subject to the $10 gift tax when the vehicle is brought into Texas. The relationship travels; the tax follows the car.
•Bring photo ID. Five kinds are listed and it must be unexpired and carry your name and photograph: a state driver licence or ID card, a US or foreign passport, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice ID, a US military ID, or a Homeland Security or USCIS document.
•Signing a false one is a felony. Printed on the face of the form: Tax Code Section 152.101 provides a penalty to a person who signs a false statement, and an offense under this section is a felony of the third degree.
Every line here was read off 14-317 (Rev. 12-25/9) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Texas Department 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.
