Free Iowa Bill of Sale Template & Generator

Iowa Bill of Sale Requirements

Additional Forms Required in Iowa

• Form 411007 (Application for Certificate of Title and/or Registration)
• Form 411108 (Damage Disclosure Statement — vehicles under 7 model years old)

Iowa is one of the few states where the vehicle "tax" is not a tax at all, and the distinction changes what you pay. Iowa charges no sales or use tax on a vehicle purchase. Instead, Iowa Code §321.105A imposes a "fee for new registration": a flat $10 plus 5% of the purchase price, collected by the county treasurer when the buyer titles. Most guides round this to "5% use tax," which quietly drops the $10 and mislabels the charge — and the label matters if you are ever reconciling paperwork or claiming an exemption.

The second Iowa detail that circulates wrongly is the damage disclosure. It is an age test, not a damage-dollar test: Iowa requires a damage disclosure statement for vehicles less than seven model years old, full stop. There is no "damage exceeding $X" threshold, and vehicles seven model years old or older need no disclosure at all. If you are selling an older car in Iowa, that is one less form to chase.

Titling runs through the county treasurer rather than a state DMV office, using Form 411007 alongside the assigned title and your bill of sale. The buyer has 30 days, and missing it costs a flat $10 penalty under §321.49 — a one-time charge, not the per-month accrual some sources describe. Nothing in the chain requires notarization.

Iowa also does not impose a seller notice-of-sale filing, which is unusual among Midwestern states and means the seller's only real protection is documentary: a properly signed title assignment and a dated bill of sale showing the price, the odometer (required for model-year-2011-and-newer vehicles under the federal 20-year rule), and both signatures. Keep your copy. In a state with no seller filing and a county-level counter, that piece of paper is what establishes when the vehicle stopped being yours.