The receipt, and the one piece of paper in a Washington sale that both parties sign. It is needed unless the sale price and the date are already written on the certificate itself. The form is careful about what it is not: completing this form does not transfer the title or act as a Report of Sale - and it prints both parties' duties on the same page so neither can claim not to have read them.
Written against 420-065 (R/4/24), issued under RCW 46.12.650 and WAC 308-56A-024.
The form gives the seller's deadline as 5 days from the date of sale while the statute, the rule and the Report of Sale itself all say five business days. Where two departmental documents disagree, count the shorter one - nothing is lost by filing early.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 420-065 from the dol.wa.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 420-065, rendered from the PDF the Washington State Department of Licensing 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
The whole form, rendered from DOL's PDF. Read the block above the boxes before you fill any of them in - the department prints the seller's duties and the buyer's duties on the same sheet, which is the only place in the Washington set where both appear side by side.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Vehicle or vessel
One tick at the top left. The rest of the form reads differently depending on it.
Watch out: The identification box that follows asks for a VIN or a HIN. Ticking the wrong one at the top is how a car ends up described by a hull number.
2
You fill this in
Plate and identification number
Plate number and the seventeen-character VIN, both copied off the certificate.
Watch out: These two have to match your Report of Sale exactly. The department reads both documents and a mismatch is what turns a filed report into a query.
3
You fill this in
Model year, make and model
Three boxes across the row under the plate and the identification number.
Watch out: Take them from the certificate. What the department has on record is what has to appear here, even where the certificate is wrong about the trim.
4
You fill this in
Date of sale and sale price
The date the buyer took the vehicle and what they paid for it.
Watch out: The price here feeds the buyer's use tax. If it is well under the department's own value for the vehicle they will be asked to justify it, and the form they will be handed needs your signature too.
5
You fill this in
Seller names and address
Every registered owner named on the certificate, with a full address.
Watch out: Names in the same form as the certificate. A married name on one document and a maiden name on the other stops the transaction at the counter.
6
The buyer fills this in
Buyer names and address
Everyone who will be a registered owner, with a Washington street address.
Watch out: Two buyers here means two buyer signatures below, and the department will expect both of them on the title application as well.
7
The buyer fills this in
The family-gift question
Yes or no, and the relationship if yes.
Watch out: This is a tax question, not a courtesy. A gift between immediate family is treated differently, and answering it wrongly is a statement the Department of Revenue can audit.
8
You fill this in
Signatures, printed rather than typed
Two buyer lines and two seller lines at the foot, signed after the form is printed.
Watch out: The instruction on each line is literal: when completed, print this form and sign here. A typed name in the signature box is not a signature.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
Sale of (choose one): Vehicle or Vessel
One form covers both, and the tick decides which of the two identification numbers the next box is asking for.
License plate/Registration number
The plate on the vehicle at the moment of sale - the same number that goes on your Report of Sale.
Vehicle identification number (VIN)/Hull identification number (HIN)
Seventeen characters for a vehicle, copied from the certificate.
Model year, Make, Model
Three boxes, taken off the certificate rather than off the advert.
Date of sale
The date the vehicle changed hands, which has to agree with the date on your Report of Sale.
Sale price
The figure the buyer's use tax is worked from, unless the department's fair market value for the vehicle is higher.
Seller names, address, city, state, ZIP code
Every registered owner, not just the one who did the talking.
Buyer names, address, city, state, ZIP code
Everyone who is going to appear on the new certificate.
Relationship: are you an immediate family member receiving this vehicle as a gift?
A yes-or-no tick, and a line for the relationship if the answer is yes. It exists because a genuine family gift is treated differently for tax.
Four signature lines
Two for buyers and two for sellers, so a jointly owned vehicle can be signed for on both sides without a second sheet.
What gets this one rejected
•Using it in place of the report the department is waiting for. The form says on its face that completing it does not act as a Report of Sale.
•Treating it as a transfer of ownership. It is not one, and the certificate still has to be signed and handed over.
•One signature where the certificate names two owners. There are four signature lines for a reason.
•A sale price that contradicts the one on the Report of Sale. Both documents reach the same department and the buyer's tax is computed from the pair.
•Filling it in on screen and never printing it. The form's own header says to download and fill out using desktop application, and each signature line says to print the form and sign there.
•Ticking the family-gift box on a sale that was not a gift, which is a statement about tax rather than a courtesy.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•It carries the seller's instructions on its own face. Remove license plate from the vehicle at time of sale, and submit a completed Report of Sale within 5 days from the date of sale. The form adds the reason: the Report of Sale releases your liability from the vehicle or vessel.
•And the buyer's, with the numbers. You must apply within 15 days of acquiring the vehicle or you may pay a late fee, and the form states the range: late transfer fees start at $50 and increase to a maximum of $125.
•Keep your copy, because the department does not. There is no departmental copy of your bill of sale to fall back on. If yours is lost, the only route to another is a public records request.
•It is the document that proves the buyer accepted the car. Where a vehicle is later abandoned, the statute treats a report of sale alone as insufficient proof of transfer and names a contract signed by the prior owner and the new owner as one of the things that establishes who is responsible. This is that contract.
•A cheque or money order goes to the department, not to the agent. The form's filing instructions say to make it payable to Department of Licensing when the report of sale is posted.
Every line here was read off 420-065 (R/4/24) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Washington State Department of Licensing pages.
This is plain-language help with a form, not legal advice, and where our wording and the agency's differ,
theirs governs.
