Massachusetts title transfer cost and calculator

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

Massachusetts charges $75 for the title. Add $25 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $100. That is the figure most people mean by a title transfer. If you are plating the car at the same time, the title, registration and plate fees add up to about $105 on a used $20,000 car, not counting tax.

The tax is the number that matters. A $20,000 purchase in Massachusetts carries roughly $1,700 in sales or use tax, several times the title fee.

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

How to transfer a car title in Massachusetts

1. Get the paperwork right. The Registration and Title Application, stamped and signed by a Massachusetts insurance agent, and the previous owner's title signed over to you with the mileage and the sale price. If the title has no space for a price, bring a bill of sale. source 8
2. Signatures. Both buyer and seller have to sign, print their names and date the transfer on the title, and the seller has to state the mileage. Erasures or white-out on the title or the application get it rejected. source 8
3. Where you go. Your insurance agent first, then an RMV Service Center. The agent stamps and signs the Registration and Title Application, which is how Massachusetts checks insurance. Many agents and dealers can finish the registration for you electronically. source 8
4. Pay. The title fee of $75, plus the tax on the purchase unless the transfer is exempt.
5. 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?

Both buyer and seller have to sign, print their names and date the transfer on the title, and the seller has to state the mileage. Erasures or white-out on the title or the application get it rejected. source 8

Can you transfer a title online in Massachusetts?

Partly. A dealer can do the whole thing electronically. A private sale is an RMV transaction. source 1

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

A real gift is exempt from sales tax on Form MVU-24 if the giver already paid Massachusetts tax on the car, and a sale or transfer to a parent, spouse, child or sibling is exempt on Form MVU-26. source 3

Writing $1 on the form does not help in Massachusetts. On a private transfer the tax is charged on the higher of your price and the book value, so a low number buys you nothing and is fraud if it is deliberate. 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

Ten days from buying the car to file the Registration and Title Application and pay the tax at the RMV. The 6.25% tax itself is due by the 20th of the following month, and interest and penalties run after that. source 3

The countdown runs from when the title was signed, not from your first free afternoon, so do not sit on it. 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

A lot of these searches start with "what if I do not have". The honest general answer, worth confirming with Massachusetts RMV 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. Massachusetts charges $25 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 Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts RMV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where Massachusetts wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about Massachusetts 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 Massachusetts 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