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what all papers are needed when doing vehicle trades

What exactly do you mean...trades?

Do you mean two of you are selling each other your cars? Trading cars in a sense?

Anytime you sell a car, there is an ownership change, and the paperwork is the same. You are simply selling each other your car, no different than if you were just selling one. Sign each others title, fill out the mileage, date it, and then take the title to DMV to process the title/ownership change. Pretty simple.
 
i've done it before but i dont remember what was used. i do remember that when i went to the DMV they told me jus to write down what i thought the vehicle was worth.

but i dont remember what papers exactly are used..
 
Nothing but the title you have to the car. Are you selling or buying?

The title has a place for the owner to sign, and a place to fill out the mileage, which you also sign.........so fill in the miles and two signatures, that's it. Then there is a bill of sale stub attached to the top of the title. You fill this in with the buyer and sellers names and addresses, the date of sale, the mileage, and the price. The seller keeps this as evidence of the sale and that the car isn't yours anymore. You can mail that in to the DMV to make sure the buyer transfers title properly (but I'd keep a copy).

You can both agree to write down a lower price, so the buyer doesn't have to pay so much sales tax when they change ownership at the DMV.
 
I thought if you were "trading" then the taxes would be nothing, since you are basically trading two things of equal value that both parties had already paid taxes on. Think about it like this... when you buy a new car at a dealer, and trade in a car towards the purchase. You only pay taxes on the price AFTER the trade, not the full amount. I am pretty sure here in Arkansas they have a form for this. On the back of the title it has a bill of sale that you can fill out, and it actually has a blank for "Value of trade" so that you do not have to pay taxes on that amount.
 
I thought if you were "trading" then the taxes would be nothing, since you are basically trading two things of equal value that both parties had already paid taxes on. Think about it like this... when you buy a new car at a dealer, and trade in a car towards the purchase. You only pay taxes on the price AFTER the trade, not the full amount. I am pretty sure here in Arkansas they have a form for this. On the back of the title it has a bill of sale that you can fill out, and it actually has a blank for "Value of trade" so that you do not have to pay taxes on that amount.

Sorry, but this is a CA forum, and in CA you pay sales tax on the whole purchase price when buying a car. If you trade in another car, it does not reduce the sales tax amount in CA, like it does in some other states.
 
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