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Massachusetts car bill of sale Do you need one? And what else does Massachusetts require?

Needed for a title-exempt vehicle, or a title with no price space. Below: the title signature, the plates, telling the state, and the odometer — each with the source it came from.

Do you need a separate bill of sale?

Needed for a title-exempt vehicle, or a title with no price space

For a titled vehicle, the sale price must be filled in on the title. If the title has no space for a price, the buyer must submit a bill of sale showing it. For a vehicle exempt from titling because of its age, the buyer needs the previous owner's registration AND a bill of sale — so on an older car the bill of sale is not optional, it is the proof of ownership.

Source: Massachusetts RMV, apply for registration and title for a vehicle purchased from an individual

Does the title need a notary or witnesses?

Neither

Both buyer and seller are required to sign, hand print their names and date the transfer document. No notary. Where the vehicle is old enough to be exempt from titling, the previous owner's REGISTRATION and a bill of sale are what the buyer needs instead of a title.

Source: Massachusetts RMV, apply for registration and title for a vehicle purchased from an individual, checked Oct 12 2026

What happens to the plates?

Off — move them to your next car, or cancel and cut them in half

If you buy another vehicle of the same type, you can move the plates to it instead of canceling. Massachusetts is explicit that plates do NOT have to be returned to the RMV when the registration is canceled — and then tells you to destroy them: once canceled you must recycle or destroy your plates, cutting them in half and discarding them, or recycling them if your town's center accepts them. Once the registration is canceled the vehicle cannot be driven on any public way in the Commonwealth, so do it after the buyer has gone, not before. Moving the plates has a deadline: seven calendar days from the date you dispose of this vehicle.

Source: Massachusetts RMV, Cancel your vehicle registration (license plates)

Do you have to tell the state you sold it?

Cancel the registration — excise tax depends on it

Canceling the registration is the step the RMV asks of you. It is free, and it is what stops the excise tax bills being generated on a vehicle you no longer own. It does not cancel a bill already issued: for an abatement, your town's assessor needs proof you no longer own the vehicle. Two traps. You cannot cancel online if there are two registered owners. And a REVOKED registration is still subject to excise unless it is canceled — so if yours was revoked over an insurance obligation, canceling is still the step that ends the bills, and a reinstatement fee will be waiting when you next register. The law says more than the RMV page: on a sale you must forthwith return the registration to the RMV with a written notice of the sale date and the new owner's name and address.

Source: Massachusetts RMV, Cancel your vehicle registration (license plates); G.L. c.90 §2

Where does the odometer reading go?

On the transfer document, hand printed and dated

Federal and Massachusetts law both require the seller to state the mileage on transfer of ownership. Both parties sign, hand print their names and date the transfer document — Massachusetts asks for the printed name as well as the signature, which is the detail people skip.

Source: Massachusetts RMV; 49 CFR 580.5(c)

The forms Massachusetts publishes

  • Cancel registration / plates — Free, and it stops the excise tax. Download the Registration Cancellation Receipt. Where: mass.gov → Cancel your vehicle registration. Revision: online service.
  • Affidavit for Cancellation of Registration — The paper route — needed where there are two owners, or to cancel on an owner's behalf. Where: mass.gov → Forms. Revision: REG100_0922.

Selling here, registering somewhere else

These are the rules where you are selling, not where the buyer is taking it. The title is signed under Massachusetts’s rules, and the plate and the notice are yours to handle here.

Registering it and paying tax falls under the buyer’s own state’s rules.

How Massachusetts compares

Counted from the same answers, for all fifty states.

See how Massachusetts compares with the other 49 states
  • Massachusetts is with the majority: no notary or witnesses on the title signature. Only 7 states want one — Kentucky, Louisiana, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania and Wyoming.
  • In Massachusetts the plates do not go to the buyer. They stay with the vehicle in only 4 states — Alaska, California, Hawaii and Minnesota.
  • Massachusetts sets no day count for a seller’s notice to the state. 15 states do, from 5 days (California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Washington) to 30 (Florida, Missouri, Texas and Wisconsin).

Ready to handle the paperwork?

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What this page is

Every answer above was checked against Massachusetts’s own published material on Oct 12, 2026. It describes the rules; it is not advice about your sale. State forms get revised — the agency’s current page is what governs.