The one Vermont form on this site that puts money back in a seller's pocket. If you sold a Vermont-registered car on which Vermont purchase and use tax was paid, and you bought another vehicle within three months of that sale, the tax on the car you sold comes back at 6% of its J.D. Power clean trade-in value. It is not automatic, nobody at the counter offers it, and the department gives you one year from paying the tax on the new car to ask.
Written against VD-115 (12/2025), issued under 32 V.S.A. s. 8902(5), which sets the credit at the J.D. Power clean trade-in value of the vehicle sold, and s. 8914, which gives one year to claim it; affirmed under penalties of 23 V.S.A. s. 201.
Nobody prompts you. The tax is paid by your buyer at their counter and the refund on the car you sold is claimed by post, months later, by you - so the moment to note this is the day you buy the replacement, not the day you get round to the filing.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank VD-115 from the dmv.vermont.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today, then print our VD-115 guide and keep it beside you while you fill theirs in.
This is the actual VD-115, rendered from the PDF the Vermont Department of Motor Vehicles, Agency of Transportation 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
Rendered from the department's own PDF. The strip at the foot showing clean trade-in value multiplied by six percent is the department's own working and is left untouched here, because a claimant who fills it in is telling the DMV what its own valuation is. Nobody in this sample exists.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Name and Vermont License #
Your name, as it appears on both registrations.
Watch out: If the old car was in two names and the new one is in one, make sure the name here is the one on both. That single overlap is the eligibility test.
2
You fill this in
Mailing Address, City, State, ZIP
Where the refund is posted.
Watch out: Use the address the department already holds for you. A claim that has to be verified against a new address is a claim that waits.
3
You fill this in
Old Vehicle: plate, year, make, model, mileage, date sold, sale price
The car you sold, on one row.
Watch out: The date sold is the date on your bill of sale and on the assignment. It is one of the two dates the three-month rule is measured between, so it needs to be the same date everywhere.
4
You fill this in
Old Vehicle: Serial Number (VIN)
Seventeen characters for the car that has gone.
Watch out: Copy it from your photocopy of the bill of sale. This is the second reason for taking that copy before the buyer drives away.
5
You fill this in
Vehicle sold to (name) and (address)
The buyer, named and located.
Watch out: Straight off the bill of sale. The department is confirming that a real sale happened rather than a transfer between your own vehicles.
6
You fill this in
New Vehicle: plate, year, make, model, mileage, date purchased, purchase price
The replacement you paid Vermont purchase and use tax on.
Watch out: The tax has to have been paid before there is anything to refund against. A dealer purchase where the tax went through their paperwork still counts - what matters is that it was paid.
7
You fill this in
New Vehicle: Serial Number (VIN)
The replacement's identification number.
Watch out: The department matches this against the tax it collected. A digit wrong here looks like a claim against a vehicle that paid nothing.
8
You fill this in
Signature of Applicant and Date Signed
One signature, under penalty of perjury.
Watch out: Post it with your documentation to the Info Unit at 120 State Street, Montpelier, inside a year of paying the tax on the new car. Nobody will remind you when the year is nearly up.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Name, Vermont License #
The claimant. At least one registered owner has to appear on both the old and the new registration, so the name here has to be on each.
Mailing Address, City, State, ZIP Code
Where the cheque goes.
Email, Phone
Two contact boxes for the queries that follow an incomplete claim.
Old Vehicle: Plate #, Model Year, Make, Model, Milage, Date Sold, Sale Price
Seven boxes describing the car you sold, on one row. Documentation is required with them.
Old Vehicle: Serial Number (VIN)
One wide box. It is what the department matches against its own record of the tax you paid.
Vehicle sold to (name), Vehicle sold to (address)
Who bought it. On a private sale this comes straight off your bill of sale.
New Vehicle: Plate #, Model Year, Make, Model, Milage, Date Purchased, Purchase Price
The replacement, in the same seven boxes. The two dates are what the three-month rule is measured between.
New Vehicle: Serial Number (VIN)
The replacement's identification number.
The eligibility paragraph
Printed on the face of the form: the sale must occur within three months of the taxable purchase, and the registered owner or at least one co-owner must appear on both registrations.
Signature of Applicant, Date Signed
One signature, under an affirmation made under penalty of perjury per 23 V.S.A. s. 201.
DO NOT WRITE BELOW - DMV USE ONLY
The department's own calculation strip: clean trade-in value multiplied by 6% equals the refund due. It is not yours to complete and it shows you exactly how the figure is arrived at.
What gets this one rejected
•A claim on a vehicle that never paid Vermont purchase and use tax. A car bought in another state and registered here without paying the tax has nothing to refund.
•Two cars sold and both claimed. Under 32 V.S.A. s. 8902(5) only one vehicle sold is eligible - the one replaced by the newly purchased vehicle.
•A claim filed more than a year after the tax was paid on the new vehicle. Section 8914 sets the limit and the form repeats it.
•No documentation. The form accepts a title, a VT-005 bill of sale with the odometer statement, a registration certificate, or a handwritten bill of sale carrying both names and addresses, the VIN, mileage, year, make, model, sale price and date of sale.
•A claimant who appears on only one of the two registrations. The rule is that at least one registered owner has to be on both.
•A motorboat, snowmobile or ATV. Purchase and use tax does not apply to them, and the Vermont Department of Taxes handles the sales tax that does.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•The refund is on a book value, not on what you were paid. The figure is 6% of the J.D. Power clean trade-in value of the vehicle sold, and the form's own calculation strip shows the multiplication. A car sold cheaply to a friend still generates the book-value refund.
•The value cannot be argued upwards. The eligibility notes cap it: the value of the vehicle sold may not exceed the clean trade-in value listed by J.D. Power.
•The three months run against the purchase, not against the registration. The sale of the old vehicle must occur within three months of the taxable purchase of the new one, and the two date boxes on this form are what that is measured between.
•Deployment stops the clock. The three-month period is extended day for day for time a member of a guard unit or of the U.S. Armed Forces spends outside Vermont on activation or deployment, plus a further sixty days after they return.
•Two different J.D. Power figures run through Vermont's paperwork. Clean trade-in value for the tax and for this refund; average trade-in value for the amount of a title bond. The department is consistent about which is which and it is worth not mixing them up.
