The other value form, and it answers a different question. The Department of Revenue's declaration is about what was paid for a vehicle the department already has a value for. This one is for a vehicle the department has no value for at all - homemade, assembled, foreign, or simply not listed in the excise tax schedules - and it asks the owner to estimate what the vehicle was worth when it was new.
Written against 420-737 (R/2/18), issued under Chapter 82.44 RCW and WAC 308-57-030.
Most private sellers will never see this form, and the ones who do are usually selling something unusual: a kit car, an assembled trailer, an import with no domestic listing. If that is what you have, expect the buyer to be sent back to you for a description of the vehicle you are the only person who can write.
Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank 420-737 from the dol.wa.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.
This is the actual 420-737, 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
Filled in for the kind of vehicle it actually exists for - one with no entry in any excise tax schedule. The vessel half of the form has been left grey because it is not the seller's to complete on a vehicle, and the sum at its foot is the only arithmetic anywhere on the page.
Field by field
Every line, in the order you meet it
1
You fill this in
Plate and identification number
The plate or registration number, and the identification number of the vehicle or hull.
Watch out: On an assembled or homemade vehicle the identification number may be one the department assigned rather than one a manufacturer stamped. Use the number the certificate carries.
2
You fill this in
Model year, make and model
Three boxes, as the certificate describes the vehicle.
Watch out: For something assembled, the make and model are whatever the department recorded when it was first titled - not what the parts came from.
3
You fill this in
Comments
The description block, for conditions that may affect the value.
Watch out: The form gives its own examples - mileage, dents - so this is the place for the specific and the physical rather than for an opinion about the market.
4
You fill this in
The declaration of original value
One sentence with two blanks: the estimated original value, and the year the vehicle had it.
Watch out: It says to the best of my knowledge for a reason. An estimate you can explain is what is being asked for; a number chosen to reduce the tax is a declaration you have signed.
5
You fill this in
Sign it, and say if you are signing for a business
One owner signature line, with a title box beside it.
Watch out: Print the form before signing. The line says so, and an electronically typed name in it is not a signature.
6
You fill this in
The vessel half stays empty
Three ticks and a four-line total for a boat, its accessories and its motor.
Watch out: Nothing here applies to a car. Filling it in because it looks like part of the same form produces a declaration about a vessel that does not exist.
7
You fill this in
The notarisation block
State, county, date, name of the person signing, and the notary's or agent's details.
Watch out: Take the form to a licensing office and the agent certifies it while you wait, which costs nothing extra and saves finding a notary.
At a glance
What goes where
On the form
What to put in it
License plate/Registration number
The plate on the vehicle, or the registration number where there is no plate.
Vehicle identification number (VIN) / Hull identification number (HIN)
One box serving both vehicles and vessels.
Model year, Make, Model
Three boxes on the same row as the identification number.
Comments
A free-text block, and the form tells you what belongs in it: describe conditions that may affect the value, i.e. mileage, dents, etc.
Vehicle - Declaration of original value
A single sentence with two gaps in it - an estimate, to the best of the owner's knowledge, of the original value of the vehicle, and the year it had that value.
Owner signature and Title if signing for a business
One line, printed and signed.
Vessel - Declaration of original value
Three ticks and a four-line sum. It is the vessel half of the form and stays empty for a car.
Notarization / Certification
Identical to the block on the main application: a place, a date, the signer named, and the witness identified by signature, printed name, title and number.
What gets this one rejected
•Using it for a vehicle that is in the schedules. The form is for one not listed in excise tax schedules or other available sources - if the department has a value, this is not the way to argue with it.
•An empty comments block on a vehicle whose condition is the reason for the declaration.
•A vessel section completed for a car, which is what happens when the form is filled in from the bottom up.
•An unsupported figure. The instruction is to attach any supporting documents, and a declared value with nothing behind it is an assertion.
•An unwitnessed signature. This one carries a notarisation block and it is not decorative.
Rules that decide whether it is accepted
•Original value, not today's value. The vehicle sentence asks what the vehicle was worth when it was new, and in which year - the opposite question from the one a private seller is used to answering.
•It goes to a counter, not to a tax office. The instruction is to take or mail this to any vehicle licensing office and attach any supporting documents.
•A homemade vessel needs a notary by name. The vessel half prints the requirement on its own line: is homemade, your signature must be notarized.
•Certification counts here too. The block at the foot carries the same sentence as the rest of the set - a WA vehicle licensing agent can certify the signature instead of a notary.
Every line here was read off 420-737 (R/2/18) 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.
