Sell your car in Mississippi — no notary, no inspections, no separate form
Mississippi keeps a private car sale about as lean as it gets: your side of the transfer is the assignment printed on your title, no notary signs it, and inspection stickers went away in 2015. The rule that actually trips people is subtler — hand over a title with the buyer's name left blank and you've broken state law, not just etiquette. Here's the full picture, then a local playbook for five very different Mississippi markets.
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Jackson is Mississippi's busiest market, and the Jackson page covers selling a car there. The title and tag steps above are the same in every city; only the buyer's ad valorem tax changes from county to county.
How to sell a car in Mississippi
- 01Replace a lost title first, by mail or Fast Track. A Mississippi sale can't go ahead without the certificate. If yours is lost, get a Mississippi duplicate title from DOR Motor Vehicle Services (the Mississippi DMV) first: Form 78-006 by mail for $9, or the 78-026 Fast Track for $39, processed within 72 hours of receipt. If your title is electronic and there is no paper to sign, the transfer runs on Form 78-033 instead.
- 02Fill in all of the back except the buyer's two blanks. There's no separate Mississippi title transfer form for you. Complete every section of the assignment except the buyer's printed name and signature. No notary is involved. Write carefully: a strikeover needs a sworn 78-008 Affidavit of Correction, and anything blotted out with correction fluid can't be saved, so you would need replacement documents.
- 03Write the true mileage: there's no exempt box. Write the odometer reading in the assignment in whole miles, no tenths. Use the separate 78-015 Odometer Disclosure Statement only if the certificate has no room for it. There's no box to claim an exemption, so write the true reading even on an older car.
- 04Have the buyer print and sign before the title leaves your hand. Their printed name and signature are the two blanks left for them, in their own hand. Handing over a title with the buyer's name blank is a violation of Mississippi law. Selling to your spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild or sibling? Complete an Affidavit of Relationship too. It takes the 5% sales tax off.
- 05Put the price in writing for the buyer's 5% tax. A Mississippi bill of sale is required only for a pre-1969 car that was never titled, or a lost- or bonded-title case. Still, the buyer's 5% tax is figured on the net purchase price, and they have to prove that price at the counter. A signed, dated bill of sale does that and gives you a record too.
- 06Unbolt the tag: it can't go on your next car. Remove the plate before the car leaves. A Mississippi tag is registered to both the car and you, so it can't stay on this car or move to your next one. Before the title goes, copy its front and back and keep the copy with your records, as the DOR advises.
- 07Turn the tag in at your county Tax Collector. Mississippi has no notice-of-sale or release-of-liability form. Surrendering the plate at the tag office is the filing: once it's in, your ownership record is no longer current with the state. Until then, tolls and tickets still point at you. There are no refunds, but the unused registration becomes credit toward your next Mississippi tag, good in any county, counted from the first day of the month after you turn it in. So don't let it sit in the garage. The sale needs no notary, but the 76-903 affidavit that claims the credit is signed before one.
- 08Send the buyer to their own county within 30 business days. The buyer takes the title to the Tax Collector in the county where they live within 30 business days of the purchase. The 78-002 title application is prepared there and signed by the buyer and the Tax Collector as the state's designated agent. The buyer pays the 5% sales tax, $9 for the title, $14 for a first registration and the county's ad valorem tax. Their copy of the application is their permit to drive until the new title comes, typically within six weeks.
Checked against the Mississippi Department of Revenue's Motor Vehicle Services in August 2026.
What Mississippi requires when you sell
| Notary | No. Mississippi doesn't notarize title assignments. The DOR's transfer instructions have the seller fill in everything on the assignment except the buyer's printed name and signature, and nowhere in those steps does a notary appear. |
|---|---|
| The title form | There isn't a separate one for you. Your whole part of the transfer is the assignment on the back of the certificate of title. The application that actually moves the title, Form 78-002, is prepared at the buyer's county Tax Collector counter and signed by the buyer and the designated agent, not by you. Two DOR warnings deserve bold print: never deliver or accept a title that's incomplete or improperly assigned, and never leave the buyer's name blank to fill in later. That's a violation of Mississippi law. Selling to a spouse, parent, child, grandparent, grandchild, or sibling? Complete an Affidavit of Relationship alongside it. |
| Bill of sale | Only in a few cases. Mississippi requires a bill of sale only when there's no title to sign over: a pre-1969 car that was never titled, or a lost-title or bonded-title case. The DOR publishes no bill-of-sale form of its own, and in an ordinary sale the signed title does the job on your side. A signed bill of sale showing the price is still useful paper, because the buyer's 5% sales tax is figured on the net purchase price. What to put on one · DOR Motor Vehicle FAQ. |
| Lost your title? | Mail Form 78-006 with $9.00 to DOR Motor Vehicle Services, P.O. Box 1383, Jackson, MS 39215-1383; standard replacements typically issue in about six weeks. The Fast Track route — Form 78-026, $39.00 — issues within 72 hours of reaching the DOR. Forms and details. |
| Protect yourself after the sale | There is no notice-of-sale or release-of-liability form in Mississippi. The DOR's title-forms list contains no such form. Your tag is the filing: surrender it to your county Tax Collector, and once it's surrendered your ownership record is no longer current with the state. Until then, tolls and tickets still go to the name on the registration. Keep a copy of the signed title, front and back, as the DOR advises, plus a dated bill of sale. The forms list. |
| License plates | The tag comes off the car and goes back to the county, not onto your next vehicle. The DOR tells the previous owner to remove the plate once the title is assigned, and because a Mississippi tag is registered to both the vehicle and the owner, it can't be transferred to another car. Surrender it to your county Tax Collector. There are no refunds for unused registration, but the remainder becomes a credit toward your next Mississippi registration, good in any county from the first day of the following month, and forfeited if you leave the state. Registration FAQs. |
| Sales tax | A buyer-side cost, collected by the county Tax Collector at titling along with the title fee. Mississippi car sales tax on a private (casual) sale is 5% of the net purchase price, or 3% for trucks over 10,000 lbs. carrying property. The car's age doesn't exempt it. The only exemptions are family ones: spouses, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, and, since July 1, 2019, siblings, shown with an Affidavit of Relationship. Cousins, aunts, uncles and in-laws are taxed like strangers. DOR tax FAQ. |
| Inspections | No Mississippi vehicle inspection or emissions test stands between you and a private sale. The annual inspection sticker has been gone since July 1, 2015. The only inspections left belong to the Department of Public Safety: a bonded-title vehicle ten model years old or newer, before its title application, and a rebuilt salvage vehicle, before it can be retitled. |
Every fact above was checked against the Mississippi DOR's motor vehicle title pages in August 2026 — and if the DOR or your county Tax Collector says otherwise tomorrow, they outrank us.
No notary needed here, unlike a handful of states; a replacement title runs $9 — compare all fifty; what protects you after handoff; selling with a loan still on it; or price the Mississippi transfer in the fee calculator.
Asked by Mississippi sellers
Do I need a notary to sell a car in Mississippi?
No — and this surprises people arriving from notary states. Mississippi's title assignment is complete when you've filled in the seller sections and both parties have signed; no stamp, no witness, no extra trip to a bank.
Who pays the sales tax when I sell my car privately in Mississippi?
The buyer does, at the county Tax Collector's counter when they title and tag it. Mississippi taxes a private sale at 5% of the net purchase price (3% for trucks over 10,000 lbs. carrying property), whatever the car's age. The only exemptions are spouses, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, and, since July 1, 2019, siblings, shown with an Affidavit of Relationship. Sales between cousins, aunts, uncles or in-laws are taxed like a sale to a stranger.
What should I do with my license plate after the sale?
Take it off the car once the title is signed over. The DOR requires it, and a Mississippi tag can't move to your next vehicle because it's registered to both the car and the owner. Surrender it at your county Tax Collector's office. That surrender is what takes your name off the state's record, and it turns the unused registration into credit toward your next Mississippi tag, usable in any county and counted from when you turn it in. There are no cash refunds, and the credit is worthless if you move out of state.
I can't find my title — how do I get a replacement in Mississippi?
Send Form 78-006 and $9 to the DOR's Motor Vehicle Services box in Jackson and a standard replacement arrives in roughly six weeks. If a buyer is waiting, Form 78-026 — the Fast Track application — costs $39 and the title issues within 72 hours of the DOR receiving it.