Free Mississippi Bill of Sale Template & Generator

Mississippi Bill of Sale Requirements

Additional Forms Required in Mississippi

• Application for Certificate of Title (Form 78-002)

Mississippi runs vehicle transfers through the county Tax Collector's office, not a central DMV, and the deadline is 30 business days from purchase — a rule that replaced the state's older, much-repeated 7-day window. If you buy a vehicle outside your home county, you get 48 hours to transport it home, and then the 30-business-day clock to title and register applies. Missing the registration window triggers penalties that start at 5% and escalate by 5% every 30 days to a 25% cap.

The tax on a private sale is easy to misread. A sale between private parties owes a 5% casual sales tax — not use tax — assessed on the vehicle's value in the DOR's official assessment schedule rather than on the price you agree. The buyer pays it at the Tax Collector's office when registering the vehicle. Vehicles 10 or more years old are exempt, and so are transfers between spouses, parent and child, grandparent and grandchild, or siblings.

Titling is inexpensive: the standard certificate of title is $9, or $39 for a Fast Track title processed within 72 hours. First-time registration adds $14 (renewals are $12.75). Mississippi has titled motor vehicles since 1969, so nearly every car and truck on the road is titled; pre-1969 vehicles may be titled voluntarily, and since 1999 trailers over 5,000 lbs GVW and manufactured homes must be titled. The buyer's title application is Form 78-002 — not Form 78-006, which is the replacement-title application (a common mix-up).

The seller has one Mississippi-specific duty that protects them directly: remove the license plate at the time of transfer and surrender it to the Tax Collector's office. Once the plate is surrendered, the state no longer shows the vehicle as currently registered to you, which cuts off liability for whatever the buyer does next. The DOR's steps for an ordinary transfer don't list a notary — both parties sign the title assignment (and a bill of sale, if you use one) and keep their copies.