How to Fill Out the New York DTF-820 Certificate of Nonresidency

The DTF-820 form is the certificate you hand a New York vehicle or boat dealer so they don’t collect New York sales tax on your purchase. It’s your sworn statement that you live outside the state (or outside the local taxing jurisdiction) and won’t register the vehicle, trailer, or vessel in New York. Download it from the Department of Taxation and Finance’s DMV transaction forms page, fill in a single page, sign it, and give it to the dealer before you take delivery.¹

Who Can Use the Form

New York Tax Law Section 1117 sets four conditions, and all four must be true at the moment you take delivery. You are a nonresident of New York. You have no permanent place of abode in the state. You are not using the vehicle or vessel in any New York employment, trade, business, or profession. And neither you nor the dealer will register the purchase in New York before it is registered somewhere else.²

A “permanent place of abode” is a dwelling you maintain, or that someone else maintains for you, on more than a temporary or transient basis.³ A year-round apartment or house in New York disqualifies you, even if you spend most of your time elsewhere. A seasonal cottage or camp suitable only for vacation use doesn’t count against you; New York’s regulations draw that line explicitly.⁴

If any of the four conditions fails, the dealer must collect sales tax at the combined state and local rate for the sale location.

Filling Out the Form

The DTF-820 fits on one page. Work through it in order.

Your Information

Enter your full legal name and your out-of-state home address, including street, city, state, and ZIP. This is the address that establishes you as a nonresident, so it should match your driver’s license. The form also asks for your driver’s license number and the state that issued it.³

Two more address fields catch people out. If you have any New York local address, even a temporary one such as a hotel or a relative’s home, enter it in the New York State local address field. If the vehicle, trailer, or vessel will be used in any employment, trade, business, or profession, complete the business address field. Leaving business use blank when it applies creates an incomplete certificate.

Describing the Vehicle or Vessel

Check the box for the type of property: motor vehicle, trailer, or vessel. Fill in the year, make, model, and VIN for cars and trailers, or the HIN for boats. For vessels, also enter the length in feet.³ Verify every character of the VIN or HIN against the title or manufacturer’s plate. One wrong digit can invalidate the exemption for that sale.

Box 1 or Box 2

You check one box, not both. This is the part that decides what tax, if any, the dealer collects.

Box 1 is the full exemption from state and local sales tax. By checking it, you certify that you are not a New York resident, you have no permanent place of abode anywhere in the state, you will not use the vehicle or vessel in a New York business, and you will not register it in New York, including any temporary registration.³ This is the box most out-of-state buyers use.

Box 2 is narrower. It exempts only the local portion of the sales tax, so the dealer still collects the 4% state rate. It applies when you live in New York but outside the local taxing jurisdiction where the sale takes place, for example a buyer from a lower-tax county purchasing from a dealer in a higher-tax one. You certify that you don’t reside in or maintain a permanent place of abode in that jurisdiction and won’t use the vehicle or vessel in a business there.

Signing

The signature block is a sworn declaration that everything on the form is true and complete. The declaration states in plain terms that willfully filing a false certificate to evade tax can be a felony, carrying “a substantial fine and a possible jail sentence.”³ Sign and date it before handing the form to the dealer.

What Happens After You Hand It Over

Give the completed form to the dealer before taking delivery. Under Section 1117, the dealer cannot release the vehicle or vessel without first obtaining the certificate.² Once the dealer accepts a properly completed form in good faith, the dealer is shielded from liability for the uncollected tax.

Good faith has teeth. The form’s instructions give three examples of a certificate that is not accepted in good faith:

You checked Box 1 but entered a New York address anywhere on the form.
You checked Box 1 and the dealer processes a courtesy New York registration (including a temporary one) with the DMV or a county clerk.
You checked Box 2 and the dealer knows you actually maintain a permanent place of abode in the local jurisdiction where the sale occurs.³

A dealer who spots any of these and still skips the tax loses the protection. So expect the dealer to ask for backup, usually a copy of your out-of-state driver’s license and sometimes a utility bill. The request isn’t suspicion; it’s the dealer protecting their own exposure.

The dealer keeps the original certificate and ties it to the specific sales invoice.⁵ Ask for a photocopy of the signed form before you leave the dealership, and keep it with your purchase records.

You Still Owe Tax at Home

Skipping New York sales tax doesn’t make the purchase tax-free. When you register the vehicle or vessel in your home state, that state’s DMV will almost certainly assess a use tax, which exists specifically to catch purchases made where no sales tax was collected. The rate is usually the same as the home-state sales tax rate on vehicles.

Most states give you a dollar-for-dollar credit for sales tax already paid elsewhere, but because DTF-820 means you paid zero in New York, there’s no credit to apply and you’ll owe the full home-state amount. Check your own state’s titling and registration deadlines before you buy so nothing lapses on the way home.

Penalties for a False Certificate

New York treats false exemption certificates seriously. A fraudulent DTF-820 can trigger a civil penalty of 100% of the tax you should have paid, plus $50 for each false certificate issued.⁶ Interest runs on top of that.

Intentional fraud can also bring criminal charges. Tax Law Sections 1801 through 1807 cover tax fraud acts, and using false representations to evade sales and use taxes can produce fines and jail time.⁷ Vehicle and vessel purchases are high-dollar, easy-to-trace transactions, and auditors look for mismatches between the address on a DTF-820 and later DMV registration records.

Common Mistakes

Most problems with this form are preventable:

Checking Box 1 while listing any New York address on the form. The dealer can’t accept the certificate in good faith, and the sale gets taxed.
Letting the dealer issue a temporary New York registration or tag. Section 1117 bars any New York registration before the vehicle or vessel is registered in another state, and the exemption dies with it.²
Transposing a VIN or HIN digit. The exemption is tied to the specific item described, so a mismatch leaves the sale uncovered.
Leaving the business address blank when the vehicle or vessel will be used in a trade or profession.

If you notice a mistake after the sale, contact the dealer right away. Correcting the record before an audit turns up the discrepancy is far easier than explaining it afterward.

1
Department of Taxation and Finance. DMV Transaction Forms
2
New York State Senate. New York Consolidated Laws, Tax Law – TAX 1117
3
Auctions International. Form DTF-820 Certificate of Nonresidency of New York State
4
New York Codes, Rules and Regulations. 20 CRR-NY 105.20 – Resident Individual
5
Department of Taxation and Finance. Recordkeeping Requirements for Sales Tax Vendors
6
New York State Senate. New York Tax Law Section 1145 – Penalties and Interest
7
Department of Taxation and Finance. Sales and Use Tax Penalties