Sell your car in Alaska — no notary, no state sales tax, no inspections
Alaska keeps a car sale simple: the whole transfer happens on the back of the title, nobody stamps anything, and there's no state sales tax waiting at the end. The one obligation that's genuinely yours is the 10-day notice to the DMV after the sale — a tear-off stub or a free online form that keeps the buyer's future problems off your record. Here's every rule, checked against the state's own instructions.
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How to sell a car in Alaska
- 01Get the Anchorage-issued title clear of any lender. Alaska issues one paper title, posted from Anchorage to you or to your lender, and the whole sale happens on it. If a lender is still named on the front, have it sign the release block on the title or send a notarized letter on its letterhead; a PAID stamp won't do (clearing a lien in Alaska). Lost it? Apply for an Alaska duplicate title on Form 809; sign it in front of a DMV representative and you skip the notary fee. No proof you own the car at all? That's the Alaska bonded title route, which starts with Form 824.
- 02Line up every owner the title needs, or a Form 847. Check the front of the title before anyone picks up a pen. OR between two names means either owner can sign alone. AND, any other word, or no word at all means every owner must sign. An owner who can't be there needs a Form 847 power of attorney, and the DMV accepts only the notarized original.
- 03Leave no blank on the assignment. In the Assignment of Vehicle Title by Owner on the back, print your name and sign on the separate lines for each. The Alaska DMV's selling instructions say to leave no blank spaces, because federal law bars it from completing an Alaska title transfer on an unfinished assignment. Don't erase or strike anything out: a slip costs you a notarized affidavit of explanation or a duplicate title. The assignment itself needs no notary.
- 04Certify the odometer under the 20-year rule in 2 AAC 92.220. Write the reading in whole miles in the odometer section beside your signature; the DMV warns it can't be changed. The DMV's selling page still says ten years, but that rule ended on December 31, 2020, and the regulation now covers every vehicle nineteen model years old or newer. Vehicles over 12,000 pounds unladen, or not self-propelled, are exempt. Use Form V6 only if the title's own odometer section is missing or already used. Only an owner named on the title, or that owner's legal representative, may sign it.
- 05Hand over the title and the registration, and leave the plates on. AS 28.10.271(b) requires you to give the buyer both the title and the registration certificate when the car changes hands. Standard Alaska plates stay on the car; the registration expires the moment you sign. Personalized and specialty plates come off, and the buyer gets a new set at no charge. Moving yours to your next vehicle costs $5 on that vehicle's V1, and handing it to someone else takes Form 814. A personalized plate that goes 60 days without being on a registered vehicle must be surrendered, so don't leave it in the garage.
- 06Tear off the Notice of Vehicle Sale for Transfer and file it within 10 days. It's the strip across the bottom of the title. Fill it in, tear it off before the title leaves your hands, and post it to the DMV in Anchorage (how to fill in the ten-day notice). If the strip has already gone with the buyer, file the same notice free on the DMV's online Report the Sale or Transfer of a Vehicle service with the VIN, the sale date and the buyer's name and address. There is no Alaska Form 820. The 10 days come from AS 28.10.271(c), and missing them is a class B misdemeanor, so file it the day you're paid.
- 07Your buyer files Form V1 within 30 days. The buyer signs their half of the assignment and takes the title and a Form V1, filled in ink, to a DMV office or DMV business partner, or mails it to Anchorage with a check or money order and allows about two months. Alaska has no county title offices. They pay the $15 title fee and registration ($100 for two years on a car, pickup or van, plus a local registration tax only where the municipality levies one). No state sales tax applies, and the V1 has no price box. A page that tells them to use Form 812 is out of date; the V1 is the current form.
If listing the car isn't for you, there's an instant cash offer form on this page. Checked against the Alaska DMV and Alaska's statutes and regulations in August 2026.
What Alaska requires when you sell
| Notary | Not required to sell. The DMV's instructions call for a fully completed title assignment — no blank spaces — plus an odometer certification on newer vehicles, and never mention a notary. Notarized paperwork only shows up outside an ordinary sale: a duplicate-title application (Form 809), which you can sign in front of a DMV representative instead of a notary; a power of attorney (Form 847), accepted only as the notarized original; a lender's release letter; or an affidavit explaining a mistake on the title. |
|---|---|
| The title form | There is no separate assignment form. Ownership transfers on the back of the Alaska title itself; the buyer then files a Vehicle Transaction Application (Form V1) for a new title and registration. The title fee is $15, and state law gives the buyer 30 days to apply in their own name. |
| Bill of sale | Recommended as a receipt, but it does not transfer the car. Alaska prints no bill-of-sale form for cars, and the Alaska DMV says a bill of sale is not valid for ownership transfer; the signed title does that. Keep one anyway: the DMV lists the vehicle's serial number and description, both printed names, the sale date and both signatures. The exception is off-road: Alaska doesn't title ATVs or snowmachines, so a bill of sale plus Form 808 is how they change hands. What goes on an Alaska bill of sale · Alaska DMV source |
| Lost your title? | Apply on Form 809, signed in front of a notary public or a DMV representative (sign it at a DMV office and there's no notary fee), plus a $15 fee, filed in person at any DMV office or mailed to headquarters at 4001 Ingra Street, Anchorage. The form limits who may sign it, and on a financed car the lienholder holds the title and is one of the parties who can apply, so call your lender first. You must have the duplicate in hand before ownership can transfer — start this before you list, not after you shake hands. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | Alaska law (AS 28.10.271(c)) requires you to notify the DMV of the transfer within 10 days. Two easy routes: tear off the Notice of Vehicle Sale for Transfer stub at the bottom of the title and send it in, or file free online through the DMV's Report the Sale or Transfer of a Vehicle service. Stub already gone with the buyer? Use that online service; it is where the DMV's own "Notice of Transfer Pending" link leads. There is no Alaska Form 820, whatever other sites say. |
| License plates | Standard Alaska plates stay with the vehicle — leave them on. Personalized and other special-issue plates are the exception: you remove those at sale, and the buyer gets a new set of plates at no additional charge. |
| Sales tax | Alaska has no state sales tax, so a private sale triggers no state tax bill for either side. Local governments can levy their own — Juneau's areawide rate is 5%, while Anchorage and Fairbanks charge none. Boroughs also collect a Motor Vehicle Registration Tax through the DMV at registration, which lands on the buyer, not you. |
| Inspections | No test for you to pass: there's no Alaska vehicle inspection or emissions test on the seller's side of a sale. The one hook is on the buyer's side. Under AS 28.10.271(d) an emissions certificate can attach to a transfer when the buyer lives in an area the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has designated. Whether a program is running there is DEC's call, and the DMV's own pages don't mention emissions, so check with DEC before you promise a buyer anything. |
Everything above is checked against the Alaska DMV's official instructions for selling a vehicle and the Alaska statutes and regulations behind them, as of August 2026. Where they disagree, the regulation wins: that DMV page still prints a ten-year odometer rule that ended on December 31, 2020, and 2 AAC 92.220 now sets twenty years. If a fee or form changes after August 2026, the DMV's current rules apply.
No notary needed here, unlike a handful of states; a replacement title runs $15 — compare all fifty; what protects you after handoff; selling when the title is gone; or price the Alaska transfer in the fee calculator.
Asked by Alaska sellers
Do I need a notary to sell my car in Alaska?
No. The DMV's selling instructions require a completely filled-out title assignment with no blank spaces, plus an odometer certification on newer vehicles — and a notary appears nowhere in that process. Notarized paperwork only comes in outside an ordinary sale: a duplicate-title application (Form 809), which you can sign in front of a DMV representative instead; a power of attorney (Form 847), which must be the notarized original; a lender's release letter; or an affidavit explaining a mistake on the title.
What happens if I don't tell the DMV I sold the car?
Under AS 28.10.271(c) you have 10 days to notify the DMV of the transfer, and missing them is more than a fee: under AS 28.10.493(a) an owner who transfers a vehicle without complying is guilty of a class B misdemeanor. Until the record changes, the vehicle is still tied to you — parking tickets, abandonment fees, whatever the buyer gets into. The fix takes minutes: send in the tear-off stub from the bottom of the title, or, if the stub already left with the buyer, file the same notice free on the DMV's online Report the Sale or Transfer of a Vehicle service. There is no Alaska Form 820.
Do Alaska license plates stay with the car or come with me?
Standard plates stay bolted to the vehicle when it sells — you leave them on and walk away. Personalized and special-issue plates work the other way: those are yours, you remove them before handoff, and the buyer is issued a fresh set of plates at no extra charge when they register.
Is there sales tax on a private car sale in Alaska?
There's no state sales tax at all, so at the state level a private sale is tax-free for both sides. Local option taxes are real in some places — Juneau's areawide rate is 5% — while Anchorage and Fairbanks levy none. Boroughs also collect a Motor Vehicle Registration Tax when the buyer registers, and that bill belongs entirely to the buyer.