How to fill out Utah TC-843

One page, three sections, and the only document in a Utah private sale that carries the whole transaction on its own. It is the form the Division names under Required for All Transactions on its document checklist, which makes a Utah bill of sale less optional than the phrase usually suggests. It also does two jobs no other Utah form does at once: it records a full odometer certification in the seller's hand, and it asks a question the certificate of title never asks - whether the licence plate is going with the car.

Written against TC-843 (Rev 9/25), issued under Utah Code 41-1a-702 and 41-1a-902. The odometer certification on this sheet and the one on the ownership document have to agree. A buyer arriving with a bill of sale saying one thing and a title saying another has two sworn statements about one car, and the counter reads them against each other.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank TC-843 from the files.tax.utah.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Every line, in the order you meet it

1. 1
   You fill this in

   Section 1, the vehicle

   Year, make, model, body type, the identification number and the plate number, copied off the certificate of title.

   Watch out: Read the identification number off the document, not the dashboard. A single wrong character here and on the title turns one sale into two documents about two different cars.

2. 2
   You fill this in

   Section 2, who you are

   Your name in the order the label asks - last, first, middle initial - or the business name, with the address underneath.

   Watch out: Spell it the way the face of the certificate spells it. If your identification says something different, that is a job for a statement of facts rather than for a second spelling here.

3. 3
   You fill this in

   Sale price

   What the buyer actually paid, in the short box in the middle of your block.

   Watch out: This figure follows the car to the counter and the buyer's tax is calculated on it. Writing down a lower number to be helpful is the thing the Tax Commission audits for.

4. 4
   You fill this in

   Date of sale

   The day possession changed hands.

   Watch out: It starts the forty-eight hours you have to get the certificate and the registration card to the buyer, and it is the date your report of sale is about.

5. 5
   You fill this in

   The licence plate question

   One of two ticks: included with the vehicle sale, or not included with the vehicle sale.

   Watch out: Utah lets you do either, and the answer changes what happens next. Included means the buyer has to apply to have the plate assigned to them; not included means you take it off and have twenty days to deal with it.

6. 6
   You fill this in

   Odometer reading, and the units

   The mileage in whole numbers with no tenths, and a tick for miles or kilometers.

   Watch out: Kilometres are converted to miles on the title, so a car imported from Canada does not need converting by hand - but the units tick has to be right or the conversion happens to a number that was already in miles.

7. 7
   You fill this in

   One certification of three

   Actual mileage, in excess of the mechanical limits, or not the actual mileage.

   Watch out: Only one. The third box brands the vehicle's mileage record permanently and is not a way of saying that you bought the car second-hand and cannot vouch for it.

8. 8
   You fill this in

   Seller's signature and date

   One signature under the transfer sentence, with the date beside it.

   Watch out: You are certifying that the title is free and clear of any claims except a lien to the new lien holder. If your own lender has not released yet, that sentence is not true when you sign it.

9. 9
   The buyer fills this in

   Section 3, the buyer's half

   Name, address, signature and date, under the as is, where is certification and an acknowledgement of the odometer information above.

   Watch out: The address here is where the vehicle will be registered, and it is what sets the sales tax rate the Division charges them. Getting it wrong costs them money, not you.

What gets this one rejected

• •The odometer box left empty on a vehicle under twenty years old. The label carries the word REQUIRED and the warning underneath it names fines and imprisonment.
• •Two of the three certification boxes ticked. The Division's published answer to whether more than one box may be checked on a disclosure statement is no.
• •Neither plate box ticked. The sheet is asking a question with two answers and a blank is not one of them.
• •The plate marked as included where the plate is personalised and no TC-840 goes with it. The instruction sits in brackets on the form itself.
• •A price left blank. Without an acceptable bill of sale the Division works the buyer's tax out on fair market value instead, which is usually worse for them and never better for you.
• •Pencil. The Division's guidance on writing one up is that it can be handwritten or typed or printed, but it should be in ink, not pencil.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

• •It is the seller's document as much as the buyer's. The Division's reasoning is split in two: for the seller, a bill of sale provides proof that title to the vehicle has been legally transferred; for the buyer, it documents the purchase price for sales tax purposes.
• •A trade-in belongs on it too. Where a vehicle is traded in, its make, year and identification number have to be submitted at registration, and the stated trade-in value is deducted from the purchase price. A television or a piece of labour cannot be.
• •Your own sheet of paper works as well. Nothing requires this particular form. The Division lists what a bill of sale must contain - the names and addresses of both sides, the seller's signature, a full vehicle description including the identification number, the trade-in if any, the purchase price and the net purchase price - and this form is simply that list with boxes round it.

Every line here was read off TC-843 (Rev 9/25) 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.