How to fill out Wisconsin MV1

The application that turns your signed-over certificate into a title in the buyer's name. It is theirs to complete and theirs to pay for, and it is on this page because two of its boxes are filled from your handwriting on the back of the title - the purchase price and the odometer reading - and because a seller who has seen Section E knows exactly what the buyer is about to be charged.

Written against MV1 (10/2025), issued under Chapter 340, s. 341.08 and s. 342.06, Wis. Stats.. The Title Fee line on the MV1 is printed rather than calculated, and it changed on 1 October 2025 - an older printout in a drawer carries the superseded figure on its face. Always take a fresh copy from WisDOT rather than reusing one.

Two documents, and they are not the same thing. Take the blank MV1 from the wisconsindot.gov copy so you get the revision that is current today.

Step 1 · the form itself Blank MV1 — Wisconsin Title & License Plate Application PDF at wisconsindot.gov · new tab

Filled in

What a completed one looks like

This is the actual MV1, rendered from the PDF the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicles 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

A completed Wisconsin Title & License Plate Application, form MV1, filled in for a 2016 Subaru Outback bought in Eau Claire: the buyer's name Bordeleau Emmett L in the comb across Section A, a Wisconsin driver licence number, the vehicle identification number, the plate type, the county the car is kept in, a title fee of 214.50, a purchase price of 17,400.00, state sales tax of 870.00, local sales tax of 87.00, an 85 dollar passenger plate fee and a 12 dollar issuance fee. — Rendered from WisDOT's own PDF and completed as the buyer would complete it. Note what is missing from the whole sheet: there is no seller block and no seller signature anywhere on it. Every name, number and address here is invented for the sample.

Field by field

Every line, in the order you meet it

1
The buyer fills this in
The brand ticks above Section A
Eleven boxes for salvage, flood, hail, police, taxi and the rest. On a clean car none of them is ticked.
Watch out: They have to agree with the brand disclosure you made on the title. A tick here that you did not disclose, or a disclosure with no tick, is the pair of documents that starts an investigation.
2
The buyer fills this in
Owner Legal Name
Last name, first name, middle initial, one character to a box across a thirty-one cell comb.
Watch out: This is the name that gets printed on the new title. A nickname here is a correction request later, on the MV1020.
3
The buyer fills this in
Driver licence number or social security number
One or the other, or a FEIN for a company. The form marks all three Required because at least one has to be there.
Watch out: Nothing on this line is yours to supply. If a buyer asks you for your social security number for the MV1, they have misread the form.
4
The buyer fills this in
Vehicle Identification Number
Seventeen characters, copied from the certificate you signed.
Watch out: Copy it from the title rather than from the dash or the door sticker. If the two disagree, that is a problem to settle before money changes hands.
5
The buyer fills this in
Vehicle is kept in County
Where the car will live, not where it was bought. It decides the local sales tax, any wheel tax, and whether an emission test is due.
Watch out: Seven counties have emission testing - Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Sheboygan, Washington and Waukesha - and the test is due within forty-five days of registering.
6
The buyer fills this in
Title Fee - $214.50
A fixed figure, printed on the form rather than worked out - it is a title fee and a supplemental title fee added together under s. 342.14(3) and s. 342.14(3m).
Watch out: It went up on 1 October 2025. WisDOT's own fee page still leads with the superseded figure and puts the current one in brackets after it, which is how a seller ends up quoting the buyer fifty dollars light.
7
The buyer fills this in
Purchase Price
Copied from what you wrote on the back of the title, with the trade-in allowance and the amount subject to tax below it.
Watch out: The line beneath it prints the warning in the department's own words: it is a crime to understate the purchase price.
8
The buyer fills this in
State Sales Tax and Local Sales Tax
5% of the taxable amount, plus the county and municipal rate for wherever the car is kept.
Watch out: You collect none of it. On a private sale the Department of Revenue's own fact sheet puts the tax on the buyer at the point of titling.
9
The buyer fills this in
Licence Plate Fee
One of three ticks - $85 passenger, $100 light truck at 4,500 or 6,000 pounds, $116.60 at 8,000 pounds - plus $12 to issue the plates.
Watch out: There is no charge at all to transfer plates the buyer already owns, which is why this line is sometimes blank on a legitimate application.
10
The buyer fills this in
ENTER FEE TOTAL
Everything above it, added up, and a cheque payable to Registration Fee Trust.
Watch out: The original title, the application and the cheque go together to P.O. Box 7949, Madison WI 53707-7949. A counter costs $5 more.

At a glance

What goes where

On the form	What to put in it
Check any that apply, across the top	Eleven tick boxes above Section A - title only, salvage, police, flood damaged, hail damaged, manufacturer buyback, for hire, taxi, replica, street modified, reconstructed, homemade. These are the brands, and they have to agree with what you disclosed on the title.
Section A, Owner Legal Name	A thirty-one character comb for the buyer's name as it will be printed on the new title, last name first.
Owner Social Security Number, or Wisconsin Driver License Number, or FEIN	One of the three, not all three. s. 342.06(1)(eg) is the authority for asking, and the form prints it.
Co-Owner Name, with an OR / AND tick	The word chosen here decides, for the next owner, whether one signature or two will be needed to sell the car again.
Section B, Vehicle Identification Number	A seventeen-character comb. It has to match the certificate you handed over, character for character.
WI License Plate to Transfer or Temporary Plate	An eight-character comb. If the buyer has no plate to move across, this is where the temporary plate number goes.
Date You First Drove This Vehicle in Wisconsin	The date the buyer took the car, which is the date the two-business-day clock starts.
Vehicle is kept in County, and City / Village / Town	Not where they bought it - where they keep it. It sets the local sales tax and the wheel tax, and on the seven emission counties it sets whether a test is due.
Section C, Non Operation	Two dates, from and through, certifying the vehicle was not driven on public highways between them. Blank on an ordinary sale.
Section D, Loan Information	The buyer's new lender, if there is one, with a secured party number. Nothing to do with the loan you paid off.
Section E, Title Fee - $214.50	Printed on the form as a fixed figure. Beside it the instruction reads: pay title fee if you are changing the owner(s) on the title.
Purchase Price	The figure you wrote on the back of the title, copied across. The form prints its own warning next to the box: it is a crime to understate the purchase price.
State Sales Tax, amount subject to tax x 0.05	5%, worked out on the form itself. Local sales tax goes on the line below it, county and municipality combined.
Licence Plate Fee, one of three ticks	$85 for a passenger vehicle, $100 for a light truck at 4,500 or 6,000 pounds gross weight or less, $116.60 at 8,000 pounds or less.
Licence Plate Issuance Fee - $12	Six dollars a plate, and only if plates are actually being issued rather than transferred.
ENTER FEE TOTAL	The buyer adds it up themselves. There is no calculator and no counter to check it if they post the application.

What gets this one rejected

•A photocopy of the title instead of the original. WisDOT asks for the original vehicle title, not a copy, in bold on the form and again on the eMV Public page.
•A purchase price that does not match the one written on the certificate. The Department of Revenue reads both.
•No lien release where a lien holder is printed on the front of the title. The buyer needs the release and the certificate together.
•A blank odometer line on a model year 2011 or newer. The reading belongs on the title, and the application is checked against it.
•An owner under eighteen with Section H left empty. The consent has to be signed by a parent, guardian or legal custodian and notarised, or witnessed by a DMV employee.
•Paying the old title fee. It rose on 1 October 2025, and WisDOT's own fee page still leads with the superseded figure before giving the current one in brackets after it.

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

•It is the buyer's form and the buyer's fee. Nothing on the MV1 asks for a seller's signature. Your part of a Wisconsin sale finished on the back of the certificate; this is the document that carries it to Madison.
•Two business days, if the car is going to be driven. The form's own instruction: to legally operate a car, light truck or autocycle you must display license plates within two business days of purchase.
•There is an online version and it is not the same route. eMV Public takes the application on screen and then still requires the original title and a printed eApplication/Receipt to be posted in. Applying online does not save the postage.
•The family exemption is a tick and a relationship. Tax exempt code 1 covers a vehicle previously titled in Wisconsin and bought from a spouse, parent, child, spouse's parent, child's spouse, stepparent or stepchild - and the form asks which one in writing.
•A second lender needs the MV2051 stapled to it. Section D holds one lending agency. The form says so itself: use form MV2051 to list second lender, attach to MV1.

Every line here was read off MV1 (10/2025) itself — the PDF is here — and off the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Division of Motor Vehicles 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 Wisconsin seller paperwork, or what selling a car in Wisconsin involves.

How to fill out Wisconsin MV1

What a completed one looks like

Every line, in the order you meet it

The brand ticks above Section A

Owner Legal Name

Driver licence number or social security number

Vehicle Identification Number

Vehicle is kept in County

Title Fee - $214.50

Purchase Price

State Sales Tax and Local Sales Tax

Licence Plate Fee

ENTER FEE TOTAL

What goes where

What gets this one rejected

Rules that decide whether it is accepted

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