How to fill out Texas VTR-904

Here because Texas sellers search for it and then find it is not theirs. The form's first line reads FOR DEALERS: it lets a licensed dealer move a buyer's plates onto a newly bought vehicle at the time of title application. A private seller keeps their plates and moves them a different way.

Top of the blank Texas VTR-904, License Plate Transfer Form, as the agency publishes it

Step 1 · the form itself Blank VTR-904 — License Plate Transfer Form PDF at txdmv.gov · new tab View the blank VTR-904

Part of our filled-in example of Texas VTR-904, License Plate Transfer Form, showing the filled-in entries

Step 2 · how to fill it in Our filled-in VTR-904 guide PDF · 2 pages · 560 KB · new tab See our filled-in example

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VTR-904 from the txdmv.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VTR-904 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.

Written against VTR-904 (Rev 10/2018), issued under Texas Transportation Code 504.901. Remove the plates and the registration sticker at handover. Once the car is gone, getting a plate back from a stranger is a conversation nobody enjoys.

Last updated August 22, 2026.

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual VTR-904, 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

A Texas VTR-904 licence plate transfer form completed the way a dealership completes it: purchaser Adrienne J. Boudreaux of Katy with email and phone, dealer Gulfway Motor Group with a GDN, a purchased 2021 Toyota with VIN 5YFEPMAE9MP234718, Passenger car ticked as the vehicle type, plate MYT-3049 named as Lone Star Texas, and the purchaser signed, printed and dated 6 August 2026. — The actual VTR-904, filled in with a dealership's cast rather than ours - because this is not a private seller's form and showing it with our seller's name on it would suggest otherwise. Its first two words are FOR DEALERS, and everything it does happens at a dealership at the moment of a title application.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
Purchaser information
The person buying from the dealership: name, address, email and phone.
Watch out: This is the buyer at a dealer sale, not a private buyer, and not you. If somebody has asked you to complete this block for a driveway sale, the request is wrong at the first field.
2
Dealers only
Dealer information
The dealership's name and its GDN - the general distinguishing number its licence is issued under.
Watch out: A private seller has no GDN, which is the cleanest way to see whose form this is. There is no fee to transfer license plates, and no version of this transaction that runs without a licensed dealer.
3
Dealers only
Purchased vehicle information
VIN, year, make and body style of the newly purchased vehicle, then a vehicle type from four boxes.
Watch out: The four type boxes carry weight limits and exclusions in their own labels - general issue plates move between cars and trucks inside those limits, and not onto a motorcycle, moped or trailer.
4
The buyer fills this in
Licence plate transfer information
The plate number coming off the buyer's existing vehicle, and the plate name - general issue, Disabled Veteran, Lone Star Texas and so on.
Watch out: This form may not be used for plates that are lost, stolen or mutilated. Those need an application for replacement plates at a county tax assessor-collector's office with the applicable fee.
5
The buyer fills this in
Certification, signature and date
The purchaser certifies the plate is on a vehicle being traded or sold and asks for it to be moved, then signs, prints and dates.
Watch out: Where it goes afterwards is unusual: it may be included with the Form 130-U submitted to the county but must not be attached to it, and a dealership filing electronically is told not to scan or upload it at all.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Who this form is for	Licensed motor vehicle dealers, transferring plates from a purchaser's Texas registered vehicle to one they have just bought.
What can be transferred	General issue or specialty plates. General issue plates move only from a passenger car or truck to a passenger car or truck, and must be in good condition with a readable number.
The fee	There is none. The form says so in as many words: there is no fee to transfer license plates.
Filing	It goes to the county with the Form 130-U but is not attached to it, and dealers filing through webDEALER are told not to scan or upload it at all.

What gets this one rejected

•A private seller using it. Read the first two words on the form.
•Using it for plates that are lost, stolen or mutilated. Those need an application for replacement plates filed with the county tax assessor-collector and the applicable fee.
•Attaching it to the 130-U. The instruction is to include it with the application but not attach it - the county uses it for information only.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•What a private seller actually does. Take the plates off before the buyer drives away - Texas plates belong to you, not to the car - and answer the "Did you keep your plates?" question on the VTR-346. Moving them to your next vehicle is done at the county when you register it.

Every line here was read off VTR-904 (Rev 10/2018) 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.

Forms that go with this one

VTR-60 · Application for Replacement License Plate(s) and/or Registration Sticker

You keep your plates, but the toll account is another matter: our page explains deactivating the EZ TAG or dropping the plate from HCTRA after a Houston sale.

Back to all Texas seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Texas involves.

How to fill out Texas VTR-904

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Purchaser information

Dealer information

Purchased vehicle information

Licence plate transfer information

Certification, signature and date

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

Forms that go with this one

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