New Hampshire title transfer cost and calculator

How much does it cost to transfer a title in New Hampshire?

The title itself costs $35 in New Hampshire. Add $20 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $55. 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 $451 on a used $20,000 car, before tax.

Here is what makes New Hampshire unusual: there is no state sales tax on the car, so once the title fee is paid you are close to done. In most states the tax on the purchase dwarfs the title fee. In New Hampshire the title fee is most of what a straightforward transfer costs.

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

How to transfer a car title in New Hampshire

1. Get the paperwork right. The title signed over to you (or the dealer's blue title application copies), proof of residency for your town, and, for a title-exempt vehicle, a bill of sale and proof of the VIN. Your town clerk collects the town permit fee first; the state part can be done there if the clerk is a municipal agent. source 1
2. Where you go. Your town or city clerk's office. If the clerk is a municipal agent of the state they can complete the whole registration there; otherwise the state part is done at a NH DMV office. New residents register within 60 days of moving in. source 1
3. Pay. The title fee of $35, with no purchase tax to add in New Hampshire.
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?

NH 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 NH DMV before you both take time off.

Can you transfer a title online in New Hampshire?

Partly. Many towns offer renewal online. A first registration in your name is done at the town clerk's office. source 1

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

New Hampshire charges no sales tax, so a gift costs nothing in tax to hand over. What it does not change is the town permit fee: your city or town charges it when the car is registered to you, worked out from the maker's list price and the model year, not from anything paid. source 2

In most states the reason to log a car as a gift is to escape the sales tax. New Hampshire 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 $35 title fee either way.

How long you have, and what late costs

New residents register within 60 days of establishing a domicile in New Hampshire. source 7

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 60-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 NH 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. New Hampshire charges $20 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 New Hampshire 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 NH DMV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where New Hampshire wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about New Hampshire 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 New Hampshire 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