How to fill out Utah TC-502

The paper version of telling the Division your car is gone. Its own name is about cancelling a registration, but the Division lists it as one of the ways to report a vehicle as sold: a written notification carrying the vehicle year, make, plate or identification number and the owner's signature - or this form in place of writing your own letter. It is a single page with one free-text box in the middle asking a question no other Utah form asks: explain why the vehicle or vessel registration is to be canceled.

Written against TC-502 (Rev 4/26), issued under Utah Code 41-1a-701. The certification includes an indemnity: you are agreeing to be solely responsible for any liability that may result from the cancellation. That is a reason to be accurate about the date rather than a reason to avoid the form, and it is why the warning above it names felony application fraud.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC-502 from the files.tax.utah.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank TC-502 — Application to Cancel Registration PDF at files.tax.utah.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual TC-502, rendered from the PDF the Utah State Tax Commission, Motor Vehicle Division 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

Utah form TC-502 filled in to report a sale: Corinne A. Whipple of Bountiful, a 2014 Toyota 4Runner with identification number JTEBU5JR0E5170842, an explanation that the vehicle was sold privately and the plate removed and returned, and a date of sale of 11 August 2026. — The explanation box doing the work. A sentence naming the buyer, the date and what happened to the plate is worth more to a clerk than the single word sold.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
You fill this in
Owner Information
Every owner on the record, with the addresses the Division holds.
Watch out: The instruction is that it must match the motor vehicle record. If you have moved, put the current address in the mailing line rather than replacing the one the record shows.
2
You fill this in
Vehicle Information
Year, make, model and identification number.
Watch out: The plate number is not one of the boxes, so the identification number is what ties this to the record. Copy it carefully.
3
You fill this in
The explanation
Why the registration should be cancelled - sold, scrapped, exported, destroyed or stolen.
Watch out: Write a sentence, not a word. Who took the car, on what date, and what happened to the plate turns a bare cancellation into a record you can point at later.
4
You fill this in
Date of sale
The date the vehicle stopped being yours.
Watch out: This is the date that matters if the car is later photographed by a camera or towed from a street. Make sure it matches the bill of sale.
5
You fill this in
Signature
One signature under the perjury declaration and the indemnity.
Watch out: Keep a copy and note the date you sent it. The form is the only one of the three reporting routes that leaves you holding evidence.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Owner Information	Primary owner's name, co-owner's name, and street and mailing addresses for both, with a warning that all owner information must be provided and must match the motor vehicle record.
Vehicle Information	Year, make, model and identification number, under the same warning that everything must match the record.
Facts and Indemnification Agreement	The heading over the free-text box, and the reason the form is a statement rather than a note.
Explain why the vehicle/vessel registration is to be canceled	A box several lines deep. Sold, exported, scrapped, stolen and destroyed all live here, and the answer decides what the Division does with the record.
Date of sale (if applicable)	One short box under the explanation. On a sold vehicle it is the only date on the sheet.
Warning - Application fraud is a felony under Utah Law	Printed immediately above the certification.
The certification	Under penalties of perjury, I declare that this statement is true, correct, and complete - followed by an agreement that the owner is solely responsible for any liability that may result from the cancellation, that the Tax Commission and its agents do not share any responsibility, and that the owner will pay the cost of any connected legal action.
Owner's signature and Date	One line and one date.
Where to send it	Printed at the foot: the Motor Vehicle Contact Center at a Salt Lake City post office box, or an email address.

What gets this one rejected

•Details that do not match the record. Both blocks carry the same instruction, and a nickname or a new address that the Division has not been told about is enough to stop it.
•An empty explanation box. The Division is being asked to end a live registration and the reason is the whole basis for doing it.
•A sale reported with no date of sale. The box is marked if applicable because the form covers scrapping and export as well, but on a sold vehicle it applies.
•Signed by somebody who is not on the record. The certification is the registered owner's to make.
•Filed instead of dealing with the plate. Cancelling the registration does not put the plate in the post, and the twenty-day obligation to return it or reassign it is separate.
•Used in the belief that it transfers the vehicle. It ends a registration. Ownership moves on the certificate of title or on a signed duplicate title application, and nowhere else.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•Three routes, and this is the slowest and the most durable. The Division offers the online portal, this form or a letter by post or email, and the telephone. What the paper route gives you that a phone call does not is a dated copy in your own file.
•Cancelling is not the same as the sale ending the registration. Utah Code 41-1a-701 already expires the registration when the title is transferred. This form tells the Division that it happened.

Every line here was read off TC-502 (Rev 4/26) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Utah State Tax Commission, 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 Utah seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Utah involves.

How to fill out Utah TC-502

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Owner Information

Vehicle Information

The explanation

Date of sale

Signature

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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