How to fill out Utah TC-820

This is not a private seller's form, and it is the one a Utah seller is most likely to find by searching for one. Its own subtitle says who it belongs to: Affidavit for Vehicles Purchased from Dealers in Non-Emission Counties. It covers a buyer who lives in one of the five testing counties and has bought from a licensed Utah dealer somewhere that has no testing station, and it buys them a deferral rather than an exemption. In a sale between two private people it does nothing at all - the buyer either brings a certificate or does not register.

Written against TC-820 (Rev 6/14), issued under Utah Code 41-6a-1642 and 76-8-504. If a buyer asks you to sign one of these, read the last block first. It ends with a dealer's name, signature and bonded dealer number, and signing it as a private seller is a false statement on a form whose first line names the criminal statute for making one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC-820 from the files.tax.utah.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank TC-820 — Exemption Affidavit for Utah Emission Testing PDF at files.tax.utah.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual TC-820, 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-820 filled in as it is actually used: a 2021 Ford Escape with identification number 1FMCU9G68MUA31278 bought by Talia J. Mickelsen of Kaysville in Davis County from a licensed dealer in a non-emission county, with the Davis County box ticked and a return date of 3 September 2026, and the dealer block completed with a bonded dealer number. — Completed the only way it can be, with a dealer at the bottom of it. The whole sheet is a deferral until the date in the middle, not a way past the test.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
Vehicle Description
Year, make, model, identification number and the Utah plate number.
Watch out: The plate number is asked for because the deferral is tracked against the registration, and a registration can be revoked if the certificate never arrives.
2
The buyer fills this in
I expect to return to
One of the five county boxes, and a month, day and year.
Watch out: This date starts the ten-day clock. Writing an optimistic one does not buy time - it spends it.
3
The buyer fills this in
The purchaser affidavit
The acknowledgement that a test is required before registration and that the vehicle was bought from a licensed dealer in a county with no programme.
Watch out: Both halves have to be true. A vehicle bought privately fails the second half, and the form has no box for that case.
4
The buyer fills this in
The written agreement
An affirmation that the buyer and the dealer have agreed in writing about who pays for the certificate.
Watch out: Get that agreement in writing before signing this, not afterwards. The affidavit says it already exists.
5
Dealers only
The dealer block
Dealer's name, an authorised representative's signature, and the bonded dealer number.
Watch out: This is the line that tells you whose form it is. A private seller has no bonded dealer number, and a blank there is the Division's cue that the transaction was not a dealer sale.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
The warning across the top	Providing false or misleading information on this form is a crime, subject to penalty under Utah Criminal Code 76-8-504.
The instruction to dealers	Complete this form and provide a copy to the nearest motor vehicle office with the registration application and a copy to the purchaser.
The instruction to purchasers	Provide a copy of this form with the emission Certificate of Compliance to your county Department of Health.
The five health departments, printed in full	Bear River Health Department in North Logan for Cache County, Davis County Environmental Health in Farmington, Salt Lake Valley Health Department in Murray, the Utah County Health Department Bureau of Air Quality Program in Spanish Fork, and Weber-Morgan Health Department in Ogden - with addresses and telephone numbers on the sheet.
Vehicle Description	Year, make, model, identification number and Utah plate number.
Purchaser Affidavit	An acknowledgement that Utah Code requires the vehicle to be tested for emissions prior to registration, and that the vehicle was purchased in a non-emission county from a licensed Utah motor vehicle dealer.
I expect to return to	Five county tick boxes - Cache, Davis, Salt Lake, Utah, Weber - and a month, day and year.
The ten-day promise	An agreement to have the vehicle tested and to submit a Certificate of Compliance to the county health department within 10 days from the date of return.
The written-agreement affirmation	That the purchaser has entered into a written agreement with the dealer about costs they may incur to obtain a Certificate of Compliance.
Purchaser name, telephone, street address, city, county, state, ZIP	The buyer's block, with a county field because the county is the whole point of the form.
Dealer's name, signature and bonded dealer number	The dealer certifies to the same written agreement. A private seller has no bonded dealer number and cannot complete this band.

What gets this one rejected

•Filed on a private-party sale. The affidavit's own text is that the vehicle was purchased from a licensed Utah motor vehicle dealer, and there is a bonded dealer number line to prove it.
•Used as though it were an exemption. It is a deferral with a date on it, and failure to submit a Certificate of Compliance may result in revocation of the registration.
•Sent to the Division and nowhere else. The purchaser's copy goes to their county health department with the eventual certificate; the Division is not the body that clears it.
•A return date left blank. The ten days run from the date written into that line.
•Signed by a purchaser who does not live in one of the five counties. If they register anywhere else in Utah there is no test to defer.
•Used to get round a test on a car the buyer bought two counties away from a neighbour. Only a licensed dealer's transaction is inside this form.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•The private-sale answer is a certificate, not an affidavit. Utah Code 41-6a-1642 lets a buyer use an emissions certificate issued for the vehicle in the previous eleven months to satisfy the requirement on a transfer of title. That is the seller's certificate, and it is the thing to hand over.
•The county in question is the buyer's, not the car's. The programme follows where the vehicle is registered, so a car that has lived in Sanpete County its whole life needs a test the moment it is registered in Davis.

Every line here was read off TC-820 (Rev 6/14) 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-820

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

Vehicle Description

I expect to return to

The purchaser affidavit

The written agreement

The dealer block

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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