Sell your car in Illinois — no notary, no inspection, no runaround.
Illinois keeps private car sales refreshingly simple: sign the title, drop one stub in the mail, take your plates off — no notary, no inspection station, no county-by-county maze. Wherever the car sits, from a Rogers Park alley to a Metro East cul-de-sac, the process is the same and the offer comes to you.
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What Illinois requires when you sell
| Notary | None needed. The Secretary of State's own seller checklist — sign and date the title, mail the notice of sale, write a bill of sale — never mentions a notary stamp. Source: ILSOS guide SOS DOP 141. |
|---|---|
| The title form | There is no separate seller's form. You complete the Assignment of Title section printed on the certificate itself; the buyer then files Form VSD 190 and has 20 days to get the title into their own name. Source. |
| Lost your title? | A duplicate costs exactly $50, filed on the same VSD 190 — by mail to Springfield or in person at a Secretary of State facility. Source. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | Mail the Seller's Report of Sale (Form VSD 703) — often attached to the bottom of your paper title as a Notice of Sale stub — to the Vehicle Services Department in Springfield. The form's instruction is immediately, and in its own words this "will release your responsibility for the vehicle." Source. |
| License plates | Plates stay with you. Per the state, "license plates belong to an owner, not the vehicle" — pull them before the buyer drives off (it's illegal for them to run on your plates), and move them to another car you own for a $25 transfer fee ($190 total if that car also needs a $165 new title). Source. |
| Sales tax | The buyer's bill, not yours. Private sales are taxed on Form RUT-50 within 30 days of purchase: under $15,000 it follows an age table ($465 for a year-old car, sliding to $100 at 11+ years); at $15,000 or more it's price-based, starting at $850. Source. |
| Inspections | No safety test stands between you and a sale — Illinois' program covers second-division vehicles (trucks, trailers, buses, heavy diesels), not passenger cars. Emissions testing exists only around Chicago and Metro-East St. Louis, and it's enforced at plate renewal, never at the point of sale. IDOT · Illinois EPA. |
Every fact above was checked against the Illinois Secretary of State's official used-vehicle guide and the linked state pages as of August 2026. Fees and forms change — the links are there so you can verify. Every form above lives with the Illinois Secretary of State’s Vehicle Services division, the agency that handles vehicle titles and registration statewide.
Asked by Illinois sellers
Do I need a notary to sell a car in Illinois?
No. The Secretary of State's seller checklist is three items — sign and date the title, mail the Notice of Sale, write up a bill of sale — and notarization isn't one of them. Anyone telling you otherwise is thinking of a different state.
Who pays the sales tax on a private sale?
The buyer, on Form RUT-50, within 30 days of the purchase. Under $15,000 the tax follows an age table from $465 down to $100; at $15,000 and up it's price-based, starting at $850. None of it comes out of your pocket as the seller.
What do I do with my license plates?
Take them off before the buyer drives away — Illinois plates belong to you, not the car, and it's illegal for the new owner to run on them. You can move them to another vehicle you own for a $25 transfer fee.
How do I make sure the car is no longer my problem after the sale?
Mail the Seller's Report of Sale — Form VSD 703, often printed as a stub on the bottom of the title — to the Secretary of State in Springfield right away. In the state's own words, that's what releases your responsibility for the vehicle.