• Find DMV Offices
  • Find Service Providers
  • U.S. Passports

Missouri Buying a Vehicle

Home 9 US State 9 Missouri DMV Services 9 Missouri Buying a Vehicle
( people found this content useful.) 4 min read
When you buy a vehicle in Missouri, you have 30 days to pay the taxes and title the vehicle from the date when you make that purchase. You will need to go to the local Missouri Department of Revenue office to do this.

Obtaining a Title and Registration For a Vehicle Bought from a Car Dealership

To complete your vehicle purchase, you should ask the dealership if they will take care of the titling for you or not. If not, you will need to submit the same paperwork as you would with a private sale along with the Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin form. Usually, dealerships do handle the titling and registration of a new vehicle for you.

Obtaining a Title and Registration For a Vehicle Bought from a Private Party

If you’re buying your vehicle from a private party, you need to obtain the certificate of title with the seller’s signature, an odometer reading and the date of the sale listed. The seller should complete a safety inspection and have a safety inspection certificate available for you. It should not be more than 60 days old. This is only needed if the vehicle is older than 10 years old. An emissions inspection should also be performed if the vehicle is in St. Louis, Jefferson, St. Louis, St. Charles, or Franklin County.

Filling Out The Title

If you are filling out a Missouri title as a buyer, you need to fill in your name in the Purchaser(s) Name section. You also have to include your address, the date of sale, and the model of the vehicle. The sale price should be indicated, and an odometer reading should be filled in as well. Both the signatures of the sellers and buyers need to be included, as do their hand-printed names.

Registering the Purchased Vehicle

To register your vehicle, you will need to go to the Missouri Department of Revenue. You will need to submit a completed title filled out by the seller or a Manufacturer’s Statement of Origin form if you got your vehicle from a car dealership. Complete the Application for Missouri Title and License, and make sure to let the DOR know if you need new license plates or not.

After you do this, you will need to submit a Notice of Lien, Lien Release, or Authorization to Add/Remove Name from Title form with your proof of insurance. You’ll need a safety or emissions inspection in some cases, too. The seller should have filled out an odometer disclosure statement, so submit that with your vehicle if it’s newer than 20 years old.

You do need to pay for the titling fees and taxes.

Submitting Payment

To pay for the title, you will need to cover $14.50 for the title and processing fee, state tax of 4.225% on the cost of the vehicle, and sales tax (based on local rates). If you don’t register your vehicle within 30 days, you will need to pay $25 extra on the 31st day. For every month (30 days) after that, you’ll pay another $25 until the maximum fee of $200.

How useful was this content?

Click on a star to rate it!

Since you found this page useful...

Share it on social media!

We are sorry that this post was not useful for you!

Let us improve this post!

Tell us how we can improve this post?

Last Verified:
Feb 2, 2023