A licensed dealer or used automotive parts recycler’s periodic return, listing the vehicles they took in and destroyed and surrendering the ownership evidence for each. A private seller never files one - but the search results put it in front of people scrapping a car, so it is worth knowing whose form it is.
Written against VTR-340 (Rev 06/26), issued under Texas Transportation Code 501.0935.
This page exists because the form’s title sounds like something a person scrapping a car should file, and it is not. If you are an individual with a car to destroy and no title, the form you want is the VTR-71-2 - or, far more often, you want to sell the car instead.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VTR-340 from the txdmv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VTR-340 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VTR-340, 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 VTR-340, filled in the only way it ever is - by a licensed yard, reporting a month’s worth of vehicles. The licence number box near the top is the tell: a private seller has nothing to put in it.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
Dealers only
Reporting period
Start and end dates for the return.
Watch out: This is a batch covering a period, which is the first sign the form is not about your one car.
2
Dealers only
Dealer or recycler information
Entity name exactly as it appears on the licence, phone, licence number and address.
Watch out: Entity name as listed on licence. If that phrase does not describe you, you are on the wrong form.
3
Dealers only
Vehicle blocks
VIN, year, make, body style, model, title number, state of issuance and plate - up to ten vehicles.
Watch out: Ownership evidence for each one goes in with the form, and a copy stays on the premises for four years.
4
Dealers only
Sign and date
Printed name and date for the licensee.
Watch out: Wait for the acknowledged copy before destroying any plates or stickers. Until then they are supposed to be locked up.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Reporting period
A start and end date. This is a return covering a stretch of time, not a single vehicle.
Dealer or recycler information
Entity name as listed on the licence, phone, licence number and address.
Vehicle information
Ten blocks, each with a VIN, year, make, body style, model, title or document number, state of title issuance and plate.
Certification
Printed name and date for the licensee.
What gets this one rejected
•Filing it as a private individual. The heading asks for an entity name as listed on the licence and a licence number, and there is no version of those a private seller has.
•Using it to scrap your own car. The route for an individual with no title is the VTR-71-2, which is a different form with a different fee and a different outcome.
•Destroying plates too early. Any plates and stickers removed may be destroyed only once the form comes back acknowledged by a TxDMV representative - until then they must be stored in a secure location.
•Throwing away the paperwork afterwards. The licensee has to keep a record of every vehicle and a photocopy of the front and back of the ownership evidence until the fourth anniversary of filing.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Anything on this form is nonrepairable from that moment. The note at the end is unambiguous: a vehicle reported on this form is considered a nonrepairable motor vehicle and cannot be repaired, reconstructed, made operable, or retitled.
•The body and frame die with it. Also stated: the body and frame of a nonrepairable motor vehicle cannot be used to assemble, build, construct, rebuild, or reconstruct another motor vehicle.
•Ten vehicles to a sheet. The form is built as a batch return. A busy yard files several.
•Four years of records. On the business premises, not in a filing cabinet somewhere else. The retention period runs from the date the form was filed.
Every line here was read off VTR-340 (Rev 06/26) 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.
