Alaska title transfer cost and calculator

How much does it cost to transfer a title in Alaska?

The title itself costs $15 in Alaska. Add $15 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $30. That is the figure most people mean by a title transfer. Title and registration together, the way most people do it in one visit, come to about $115 on a used $20,000 car, before tax and before the Motor Vehicle Registration Tax (MVRT) and the local sales tax, which depend on where you live.

Alaska adds no statewide sales or use tax on the car, though a local rate can apply in some areas, so for many buyers the title fee is close to the whole cost of a transfer. Where a local tax does apply, it is worked out on the price.

Work out your own figure on the Alaska registration fee calculator, which itemizes every line and links to the source for each one.

How to transfer a car title in Alaska

1. Get the paperwork right. The seller signs the title over to you and you fill in an application to put it in your name. Alaska DMV lists the exact forms on its own site.
2. Where you go. Any DMV or DMV partner office, or by mail. If you bought from an Alaska dealer, the dealer usually submits the paperwork. source 1
3. Pay. The title fee of $15, plus the tax on the purchase unless the transfer is exempt.
4. Do it in time. File within 10 days of the sale; what being late costs is under the deadline section below.

Do both of you need to be there, and can you do it online?

Alaska DMV does not say whether both of you have to be there. As a rule the seller has to sign the title over and the buyer signs the application, and where a state wants both signatures notarized a notary can stand in for one party being present. Confirm it with the Alaska DMV before you both take time off.

Can you transfer a title online in Alaska?

Partly. Alaska lets you renew online. A first registration in your name can be done at any DMV or partner office, or by mail. source 1

Transferring a title to a family member, or as a gift

Alaska has no statewide sales tax, so a car given to you carries no state tax. Some boroughs and cities run a sales tax of their own, so if you live in one of them, ask its office how it treats a car that changed hands for nothing. source 3

In most states the reason to log a car as a gift is to escape the sales tax. Alaska does not charge that tax on a car in the first place, so a family transfer here is mostly about the paperwork rather than a saving. Fill in the title and the application the same way, note that it is a gift where the form asks, and the cost is the $15 title fee either way.

How long you have, and what late costs

New residents register within 10 days of entering the state or starting a job here. source 1

The clock starts on the sale date, not the day you get round to it, so a signed title left in a drawer is already running down. A transfer you never finish leaves the car in the seller's name, and tickets, tolls and abandoned-vehicle notices all follow the registered owner, so the 10-day window is worth keeping to.

When something is missing

Most of what people search here is a version of "can I still do this without". The honest general answer, worth confirming with Alaska DMV for your own case:

• No title. The seller applies for a duplicate before selling. A car sold without its title is not a car you can register, and a seller who cannot produce one is a seller to walk away from.
• There is still a loan on it. The lender holds the title or the lien is recorded against it, and it only moves cleanly once the loan is cleared. Never hand over money for a financed car before you have seen the lien released in writing. Alaska charges $15 to record a lien, so that line shows up on your own paperwork when you finance a car here.
• No bill of sale. Some states require one and some do not, but write one anyway. It is the only record of what you paid, and in Alaska what you paid is what any tax is worked out on.
• The owner has died. This goes through the estate rather than a normal transfer, and what is needed depends on whether there is a will and whether the estate goes to probate. It is the one case here where it is worth ringing Alaska DMV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where Alaska wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about Alaska title transfers

Once the title is in your name

The title is half of it. The plate and the registration are the other half, and the tax lands with them. The Alaska registration fee calculator works out the whole bill line by line, including what a dealer means when they quote a single tax, title and license number.

Other states

See car title transfer by state for all 51 we cover.

Where these numbers come from