Kansas title transfer cost and calculator

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

Putting the title in your name runs $10 in Kansas. Add $1.50 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $11.50. That is the figure most people mean by a title transfer. Doing the title and the registration in the same trip costs about $52.75 in fees on a used $20,000 car, before any tax and before the county property tax and the local sales tax, which depend on where you live.

On a $20,000 car the sales or use tax in Kansas comes to about $1,300, so that, not the $10 title fee, is what a transfer really costs unless it is exempt.

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

How to transfer a car title in Kansas

1. Get the paperwork right. The original title or certificate of origin (no copies), proof of Kansas insurance, a Kansas Highway Patrol VIN inspection if the title is from out of state, the sales tax receipt if you bought from a Kansas dealer, and a bill of sale if the price and date are not on the title. source 6
2. Where you go. Your county treasurer's motor vehicle office, where the vehicle property tax is paid and the car registered. Register a purchased vehicle within 60 days, and new residents within 90 days. source 6
3. Pay. The title fee of $10, plus the tax on the purchase unless the transfer is exempt.
4. Do it in time. File within 60 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?

Kansas DOV 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 Kansas DOV before you both take time off.

Can you transfer a title online in Kansas?

Partly. Kansas lets you renew online through iKan or your county. A first title and registration in your name is done at the county treasurer's office. source 3

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

A gift is not taxed in Kansas whoever gives it, unless you have to pay off a loan on the car. Parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren and their spouses use form TR-215, the Affidavit of Relationship. Anyone else, brothers and sisters included, uses form TR-12, the Vehicle Gift Certification. Either way, write gift where the title asks for the price. source 7 source 8

Do not write $1 on the form to dodge the tax. Kansas taxes what you actually paid, which is exactly why an understated price is treated as fraud rather than a smart move. If it truly is a gift, claim it as one on the proper form at the time of the transfer.

How long you have, and what late costs

Register a newly purchased vehicle within 60 days. source 3

What being late costs in Kansas: a vehicle you buy has to be registered within 60 days of the purchase date on the title; from day 61 interest and penalties can apply.

Late fees here come from waiting for a payday or a day off, not from anything complicated, so the fix is simply to go early. 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 60-day window is worth keeping to.

When something is missing

The common thread in these questions is something missing from the deal. The honest general answer, worth confirming with Kansas DOV 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. Kansas charges $1.50 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 Kansas 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 Kansas DOV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where Kansas wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about Kansas 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 Kansas 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.

Nearby states

Or see car title transfer by state for all 51.

Where these numbers come from