Vermont title transfer cost and calculator

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

Vermont charges $42 for the title. Add $14 to record a lien if the car is financed, which brings the paperwork to $56. 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 $133 on a used $20,000 car, not counting tax.

The tax is the number that matters. A $20,000 purchase in Vermont carries roughly $1,200 in Purchase and Use Tax, several times the title fee.

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

How to transfer a car title in Vermont

1. Get the paperwork right. The Vermont Registration, Tax and Title Application, the title signed over to you, and proof of insurance. A gift or an out-of-state tax credit is claimed on the Certification of Tax Exemption (VT-014). source 8
2. Where you go. A Vermont DMV office, or myDMV online for renewals. You need a Vermont driver license or non-driver ID to register, unless you qualify as a part-time resident, student or contracted employee. source 6
3. Pay. The title fee of $42, 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?

Vermont 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 Vermont DMV before you both take time off.

Can you transfer a title online in Vermont?

Partly. Renewals are online. A first title and registration in your name is done at the DMV. source 1

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

A gift is tax-free if the car is titled or registered in the giver's name and goes to a spouse or ex-spouse, parent or parent-in-law, child or child-in-law, grandparent, grandchild, sibling or stepsibling, stepparent or stepchild, or a trust for one of them. source 9

Writing $1 on the form does not help in Vermont. On a private transfer the tax is charged on the higher of your price and the J.D. Power clean trade-in 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

New residents register within 60 days of moving to Vermont. source 1

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 60-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 Vermont 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. Vermont charges $14 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 Vermont 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 Vermont DMV before you turn up.
• The other person cannot come. Where Vermont wants both people, a notarized power of attorney is usually the way round it.

Questions about Vermont 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 Vermont 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