Free South Dakota Bill of Sale Template & Generator

South Dakota Bill of Sale Requirements

Additional Forms Required in South Dakota

• Form 1001 (Application for Motor Vehicle Title & Registration)
• Form 1025 (Bill of Sale)

South Dakota keeps vehicle transfers cheap and simple, with one significant piece of outdated guidance still circulating. Motor vehicles are taxed with a 4% motor vehicle excise tax rather than the general state sales tax, paid to the county treasurer along with a $10 title fee when the buyer files Form 1001 (the title and registration application) with the assigned title and Form 1025 (South Dakota's bill of sale).

The outdated part is damage disclosure. South Dakota's damage-disclosure statutes — SDCL 32-3-51.7 through 32-3-51.10 — were repealed in 2015. Guides that still tell you to complete a South Dakota damage disclosure are describing law that no longer exists. There is no such requirement in a private sale here today, and no notarization requirement either.

The deadline is 45 days for both the title application and registration, and South Dakota's penalties reward moving quickly: after 45 days interest accrues on the excise tax, a one-time 10% (or $10) penalty is added after 60 days, a $1-per-week late fee applies (a flat $50 at 26 weeks or more), and applying more than 90 days after the assignment is a Class 2 misdemeanor. All of it is avoidable.

Two exemptions are worth knowing and are narrower than commonly described. The family excise-tax exemption covers only vehicles transferred without consideration between spouses, between a parent and child, and between siblings — a paid sale between relatives is taxable, and the exemption does not extend to grandparents, grandchildren, or in-laws. Separately, a vehicle that is 11 model years old or older and sells for $2,500 or less (before trade-in) has its own exemption, which quietly covers a good share of the older pickups and farm vehicles that change hands privately across the state. Titling runs through the county treasurer, and South Dakota is notably mail-in friendly, so buyers in the rural west of the state can often finish the whole transfer without driving to a county seat.