My daughter just graduated from college and will be moving from Colorado to Indiana. I want to give her one of our cars. I would like to transfer the title to her, and she will have to register the car in IN. Is there a way to do this in one step, or does this require two steps?
I think we just need to fill out a bill of sale, and she can take the bill of sale and the CO title to the DMV in IN. Does anyone have any advice?
My son just sold his Mom's car to someone in another state so we just went through this.
On Idaho titles, when you sell the car you just fill out the buyer and seller information on the title itself. Idaho then also has a "release of liability" form that also gets filled out and gets sent in by the seller to the Idaho DMV. This lets them know that the car is no longer the seller's responsibility as of a certain date and time (for accidents or traffic tickets).
Sometimes sales tax is due on the sales price, so you might want to sell it to her for $1 or even $0.
In Idaho, the plates belong to the seller, so we took those off at time of sale since we were selling to a stranger. Since it's your daughter and someone's driving it across a number of state lines, it might make more sense to drive it with the existing plates and then have her mail them back to you at some point. You might have another vehicle that needs plates, and transferring plates is cheaper and faster than getting new ones.
She should be able to transfer the title and get it registered in Indiana with the title and the bill of sale. She may owe state sales tax to Indiana and should be prepared to pay that. Sales tax might be due on the value or on the sales price. Then there will be plates and registration. And of course she'll need car insurance on it.
Technically it is probably two steps but she should be able to do it all in one fell swoop at the Indiana DMV or whatever their equivalent is.
