50-state table · statutes checked
Which states actually require a bill of sale?
Only 12 states require one for an ordinary titled-car sale — far fewer than the template industry implies. Every state’s real rule, sourced.
Mostly optional, occasionally mandatory, always worth having
The internet sells bill-of-sale templates as if every state demanded one. The statutes say otherwise: only 12 states require a bill of sale for an ordinary sale of a titled car, 20 more require one in specific situations — a title-less older car, a gift, a missing price on the title — and the rest either publish an optional official form (7 states) or leave it to you entirely (11). What no state does is object to one, and since it is the only receipt both parties sign, the practical advice does not vary: write one anyway, whatever the table says your state demands.
| State | Bill of sale | The rule, in one line |
|---|---|---|
| Alabama | Sometimes required | AL mandates a bill of sale only for untitled cars (over 35 model years old); on titled sales the county still wants one for the 2% casual sales tax. ↗ |
| Alaska | No official form | AK: a bill of sale is not valid to transfer a titled car and AK prints none; it's only a recommended receipt (required for ATVs/snowmachines). ↗ |
| Arizona | Sometimes required | AZ's Title Transfer Bill of Sale (38-1306) substitutes for a title only if it's missing/electronic; the plain Bill of Sale (48-2004) is optional. ↗ |
| Arkansas | Required | AR requires a bill of sale (VIN, date, price, both signatures) to register; DFA's 10-313 covers it and the odometer statement in one sheet. ↗ |
| California | Official form, optional | CA publishes REG 135 but it's optional; the signed title carries the sale and REG 135 is used mainly to fix price/date when needed. ↗ |
| Colorado | Sometimes required | CO: no bill of sale needed if date+price are on the title back; otherwise one is required (plain sheet OK; secure DR 2173 is for edge cases). ↗ |
| Connecticut | Required | CT requires a bill of sale in every sale — handed over with the signed title — but any self-drafted sheet works; the H-31 form is optional. ↗ |
| Delaware | No official form | DE: no bill of sale needed in an ordinary titled sale — 'the certificate carries the sale on its own' — and no bill-of-sale form is published. ↗ |
| Florida | Sometimes required | FL needs a bill of sale only to fix a blank/altered price or buyer name on the title; HSMV 82050 doubles as one when both parties complete it. ↗ |
| Georgia | Sometimes required | Georgia's Form T-7 bill of sale is optional on a titled vehicle and required only on an untitled one — model year 1985 or older. ↗ |
| Hawaii | Official form, optional | Honolulu CS-L(MVR)40: optional in an ordinary sale; notarized for a double transfer (seller POA also works) or for an unreleased out-of-county title. ↗ |
| Idaho | Sometimes required | ITD 3738 Bill of Sale is skippable only if seller writes price, date and signs directly on the title, which then also serves as the 72-hour permit. ↗ |
| Illinois | No official form | Illinois publishes no bill-of-sale form and does not require one; the SOS checklist runs on the assigned title, VSD 190 and RUT-50 tax form instead. ↗ |
| Indiana | Sometimes required | State Form 44237 cannot transfer a titled car; it is ownership proof only in 8 title-exempt cases or supplies a missing price/date on a certificate. ↗ |
| Iowa | Required | No official IA form, but Admin. Code r.701-250.2(3) mandates a seller-signed bill of sale (or equivalent) on every sale to establish purchase price. ↗ |
| Kansas | Sometimes required | TR-312 transfers nothing in an ordinary sale; needed if the price isn't on the title, for the 120-day tax offset, or a no-title 35+yr antique. ↗ |
| Kentucky | No official form | No standalone bill-of-sale form; the notarized affidavit of total consideration on the title's back (TC 96-182 for pre-2000 titles) is the price doc. ↗ |
| Louisiana | Sometimes required | Louisiana's notarized Bill of Sale of a Movable is required only when the selling price isn't entered in the title assignment, per OMV's rule. ↗ |
| Maine | Required | BMV lists a signed bill of sale as a requirement for private-sale registration, alongside the assigned title, and publishes the form itself. ↗ |
| Maryland | Sometimes required | Notarized VR-181 is needed only to prove price on a car under 7 model years sold $500+ below book value; otherwise the title assignment suffices. ↗ |
| Massachusetts | Sometimes required | MA needs a bill of sale only for title-exempt vehicles or when the assigned title shows no sale price; the RMV publishes no bill-of-sale form. ↗ |
| Michigan | No official form | MI requires no bill of sale for a car — the signed title assignment is the transfer document; its only BOS form (TR-207) excludes vehicles. ↗ |
| Minnesota | No official form | MN requires no bill of sale for a car sale, only a Notice/Report of Sale to DVS within 10 days; DVS publishes no official BOS form. ↗ |
| Mississippi | Sometimes required | MS requires a bill of sale only for pre-1969 never-titled cars or lost/bonded-title cases; DOR publishes no dedicated BOS form otherwise. ↗ |
| Missouri | Official form, optional | MO publishes Bill of Sale Form 1957, but it's optional — Form 5049 or the title's tear-off notice equally satisfy the 30-day notice-of-sale duty. ↗ |
| Montana | Official form, optional | Montana's MV24 Bill of Sale is offered "for your convenience" — optional, a generic BOS is accepted, and no BOS can transfer a Montana title itself. ↗ |
| Nebraska | Required | Nebraska requires a bill of sale (or Form 6) at time of sale; the DMV's own courtesy Bill of Sale form is not the mandatory document. ↗ |
| Nevada | Official form, optional | Nevada does not mandate a bill of sale for an ordinary titled sale; VP 104 is an optional proof-of-sale record you keep, not a filing requirement. ↗ |
| New Hampshire | Sometimes required | A bill of sale is required only for non-titled (1999-or-older) vehicles, via TDMV 22A or an equivalent form under RSA 261:148 / Saf-C 1904.05. ↗ |
| New Jersey | Required | NJ MVC requires a bill of sale (buyer name/address, date, odometer, price) alongside the signed title; it publishes no bill-of-sale form. ↗ |
| New Mexico | Sometimes required | New Mexico's MVD-10009 is needed only when the title's assignment lacks price, odometer statement or a signature, or its reassignments are used up. ↗ |
| New York | Required | New York requires a bill of sale (MV-912) with the signed title assignment on every private sale — the DMV asks for one even when the car is a gift. ↗ |
| North Carolina | No official form | NCDMV's documents table asks for a bill of sale only when the car came from a dealer — a private-sale transfer needs none, and NC publishes no form. ↗ |
| North Dakota | Official form, optional | North Dakota publishes SFN 62502, but the manual takes any dated bill of sale — or a dated title copy — as the buyer's 5-day proof, so it's optional. ↗ |
| Ohio | No official form | Ohio needs no bill of sale for a private sale — the notarized title assignment carries the price; BMV names one only for out-of-state dealer buys. ↗ |
| Oklahoma | Sometimes required | Oklahoma requires one only for an electronic title: notarized Form 718 stands in for the paper title; paper titles assign on the certificate's back. ↗ |
| Oregon | Sometimes required | Oregon: not required — signing the certificate is the release; a bill of sale (735-501 or equivalent) is needed only when the title can't carry it. ↗ |
| Pennsylvania | No official form | Pennsylvania has no bill of sale: Section A on the title's back, signed before a notary or agent, plus agent-prepared Form MV-4ST transfer the car. ↗ |
| Rhode Island | Required | Rhode Island requires a bill of sale on every private sale — the DMV publishes its own form and lists it in the buyer's checklist beside the title. ↗ |
| South Carolina | Required | SCDMV requires a signed bill of sale showing total price less trade-in on all title transactions; no downloadable state form — any signed one works. ↗ |
| South Dakota | Required | SDCL 32-5B-4(3) makes buyer and seller submit a bill of sale (state Form 1025; other adequate price evidence accepted) or 4% tax hits book value. ↗ |
| Tennessee | Sometimes required | Not required for an ordinary sale (the price goes in the title assignment); a notarized BOS only for missing/lien-held-title and casual-sale cases. ↗ |
| Texas | No official form | No BOS in an ordinary sale (assigned title + Form 130-U suffice); TxDMV's only BOS form, VTR-203, is restricted to dealers and licensed recyclers. ↗ |
| Utah | Required | Utah's DMV checklist puts a bill of sale under 'Required for All Transactions'; TC-843 is the state form, but a handwritten BOS also counts. ↗ |
| Vermont | Required | Vermont requires a bill of sale in every private sale — VT-005 (odometer disclosure on its back) or any sheet with the six items VD-119i names. ↗ |
| Virginia | Sometimes required | No official VA BOS form — the price the seller writes on the title IS the bill of sale; SUT-1/BOS (>5 yr) or notarized SUT-1A (≤5 yr) if missing. ↗ |
| Washington | Sometimes required | WA DOL asks for its 420-065 Vehicle/Vessel Bill of Sale unless the sale price and date are already written on the certificate itself. ↗ |
| West Virginia | Sometimes required | WV's notarized DMV-7-TR isn't needed in an ordinary sale (the title's price line works) but is mandatory when price is under 50% of NADA Clean Loan. ↗ |
| Wisconsin | Official form, optional | WisDOT's MV2928 carries a bill of sale it calls 'for your convenience, not a required form' — the sheet itself prints DO NOT SUBMIT THIS TO DMV. ↗ |
| Wyoming | No official form | No statewide WY BOS form — county clerks (e.g. Natrona) publish their own notarised ones; W.S. 31-2-104(h)(ii) is only for bank/auction-held titles. ↗ |
What a good bill of sale says, whatever your state demands
Strip away the letterheads and every agency version in the table asks for the same seven things: the VIN, the year, make and model, the sale price in numbers, the date, both parties’ printed names and addresses, and both signatures — plus the odometer reading where the vehicle still requires federal disclosure. Write it twice and each party keeps an original. The price line is the one to take seriously: buyers’ use tax is usually assessed on it, and a “$1 sale” written to dodge that tax is the oldest flag in the auditor’s deck — several states simply substitute book value and tax that instead. Where your state publishes a form, the row above names it; where it doesn’t, a plain sheet carrying those seven items is exactly as good.
How this table was built
Each verdict was checked against the state’s statute or its titling agency’s instructions, with the official form number named wherever one exists — the row links the source. The state name links our forms walkthrough, where the bill-of-sale form itself is shown filled in for the states that publish one.
Related: the notice-of-sale filings that actually are mandatory · every state’s seller forms, box by box.
Form numbers change more often than the statutes behind them; if a linked form 404s, the row’s statute citation is the stable reference to search for its successor.