How to Fill Out the Tennessee Multipurpose Title Application (RV-F1315201)

Tennessee’s Multi-Purpose Application, Form RV-F1315201, is the single form you use to title a vehicle, note a lien, request a duplicate title, or transfer a plate. You download it as a fillable PDF from the Department of Revenue or pick up a paper copy at any county clerk’s office, check the box for your transaction, fill in the vehicle and owner information exactly as it appears on your supporting documents, sign under penalty of perjury, and bring it to the clerk in the county where you live.¹

What the Form Handles

One page, one form, several transactions. Check the box that matches yours:

New title and registration after you buy from a private seller or dealer. Tennessee law requires every motor vehicle driven on a highway to carry a certificate of title and registration.²
Titling an out-of-state vehicle after you move to Tennessee.³
Noting a lender’s lien on the title.
Requesting a duplicate title if yours was lost, stolen, or damaged.⁴
Transferring an existing plate from one vehicle you own to another.

What to Gather Before You Fill It Out

Missing a document means leaving empty-handed, so pull everything together first.

Every Transaction

Bring a government-issued photo ID: a Tennessee driver’s license, learner’s permit, state ID, or handgun carry permit. If your ID is from another state, add two proofs of Tennessee residency, such as a utility bill, bank statement, or lease.³ Have the vehicle’s 17-digit VIN, make, model, year, body type, fuel type, and current odometer reading in front of you. Vehicles from model year 2006 and older are exempt from the federal odometer disclosure requirement and can be marked “exempt.” You’ll also enter your Social Security number or Tennessee driver’s license number so the state can link the vehicle to you as a taxpayer.¹

Buying From a Private Seller

Bring the properly assigned certificate of title. The seller must sign the back and fill in your name as buyer. Whiteout, erasures, or alterations void the title, and the seller will have to get a duplicate before the transfer can happen. Have the date of sale and purchase price ready. If the price looks low relative to the vehicle’s market value, the clerk may require an Affidavit of Non-Dealer Transfer (Form RV-F1301201) explaining why.⁵

Bringing a Vehicle From Another State

Surrender your original out-of-state title. If a lienholder holds it, bring a copy of the title or a current registration along with the lender’s name and mailing address.⁶

Duplicate Title

You need proof that every lien on the vehicle has been satisfied. If any lien is still open, only the lienholder can request the duplicate, and the replacement is mailed to them.⁴

If Someone Else Is Going for You

A representative can handle the transaction with a completed Tennessee Power of Attorney for Vehicle Transactions (Form RV-F1311401). Any blank field, erasure, or alteration voids it. Dealers transferring ownership when the original title isn’t available for odometer disclosure must use the secure power of attorney form (RV-F1316901) instead.⁷

Filling Out the Form

The form flows top to bottom: transaction type and vehicle details, then owner and lien information, then purchase details and signature.

Transaction Type and Vehicle Details

Check the box for what you’re doing: title, lien notation, duplicate title, or plate transfer. Enter the VIN, make, model, year, body type, fuel type, and odometer reading. For the odometer, select whether the reading is actual, not actual (if the odometer has been replaced or is known to be inaccurate), or in excess of mechanical limits (if it has rolled over). Verify the VIN character by character against the vehicle and the title. One wrong digit gets the application rejected and sends you back to square one.

Owner and Lien Information

Enter your full legal name and Tennessee residential address as they appear on your ID. If a lender is financing the vehicle, enter the lender’s exact business name and mailing address as they appear on your financing contract. A mismatch between the form and the lender’s records causes headaches when the lien needs to be released later.

Purchase Details and Signature

For a purchase, enter the date of sale and the purchase price. If you traded in a vehicle, note the trade-in value; it reduces the amount subject to sales tax, but only if the trade is the same general type as what you’re buying and the dealer’s invoice lists it as a trade-in with the model and serial number. A dealer who writes you a check for the old car while you pay full price for the new one doesn’t trigger the deduction.⁸

You sign under penalty of perjury. The form states that the Vehicle Services Division isn’t responsible for verifying the accuracy of the information you provide, so the burden of getting it right sits with you.¹

If the vehicle is a gift, the sales price is $0 and no sales tax is due, but the clerk will likely require the Affidavit of Non-Dealer Transfer documenting the relationship between the parties and confirming that no other consideration (services, loan payoffs, or other exchanges) was involved.⁵

Fees and Sales Tax

State fees are the same everywhere in Tennessee; county wheel taxes are added on top.

Title fee: $14⁴
Lien notation: $11 per lien, in addition to the $14 title fee¹
Standard passenger vehicle registration: $26.50⁹
Motorcycle registration: $19.50⁹

Passenger vehicle registration is flat, not weight-based. Weight-based rates apply only to commercial freight vehicles. Counties add their own wheel tax; Knox County, for example, charges $36 on all motorized vehicles.¹⁰ Call your county clerk for the exact local number before you go.

Sales tax on a purchase is 7% of the purchase price minus any qualifying like-kind trade-in. A local tax of 2.25% applies to the first $1,600 of the purchase price (capped at $36), plus a 2.75% state single-article surcharge that maxes out at $44, plus a $1 local collection fee.¹¹

Where to Submit and What to Expect

Take the completed form, your supporting documents, and payment to the county clerk in the county where you live, either in person or by mail. Lienholders and out-of-state applicants requesting a duplicate title use the clerk’s office in the owner’s last Tennessee county of residence.⁴

If you live in Davidson County, you’ll need to pass an emissions test before the clerk can process your registration. Davidson is the only county in the state that still requires it.

In person, the clerk typically issues a temporary tag or your permanent plate at the window. The certificate of title itself is printed and mailed to you or your lienholder within roughly two to six weeks while the state verifies everything against its databases.¹

Salvage Vehicles Take a Different Path

If the vehicle was declared a total loss (damage exceeding 75% of its retail value) and is less than 10 years old, the Multi-Purpose Application isn’t the starting point. You first apply for a salvage certificate or non-repairable certificate through the Department of Revenue’s Vehicle Services Division in Nashville. Converting a salvage title to a rebuilt title after repairs uses the Application for Motor Vehicle Identification Certification, with the salvage certificate, parts receipts, and before-and-after photographs. The fee is $75 for individuals or $85.50 for dealers.¹²

Why the Title Assignment Has to Be Clean

If the seller handed you a title without filling in your name as buyer, don’t drive off assuming you’ll sort it out later. Selling a vehicle without transferring the title into your own name first (title jumping) is a Class C misdemeanor for the transferor, and it’s also a misdemeanor to hold a signed title that doesn’t name a transferee. The violator owes sales or use tax on the vehicle’s full fair market value plus a 25% penalty. Law enforcement can impound the vehicle until ownership is proven, registered, and paid up, and if nobody establishes rightful ownership within 30 days the state treats it as abandoned.¹³

1
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Tennessee Multi-Purpose Application Form
2
Justia. Tennessee Code 55-3-101
3
Nashville.gov. Apply for Vehicle Title and Registration
4
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Duplicate Title
5
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Affidavit of Non-dealer Transfers
6
Knox County. New or Returning Residents
7
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Power of Attorney for Vehicle Transactions
8
Tennessee Department of Revenue. County Clerk Sales and Use Tax Guide
9
Tennessee Department of Revenue. VR-4 Registration Fees
10
Knox County. Motor Vehicle – County Clerk
11
Knox County. Tennessee Sales Tax and Other Fees
12
Tennessee Department of Revenue. Salvage Certificates and Rebuilt Vehicles
13
FindLaw. Tennessee Code 55-3-127