Kentucky Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Form 71A101: Exemptions, Deadlines, and Penalties

Kentucky Form 71A101, the Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Multi-Purpose Form, is the sworn document you file with your county clerk when a vehicle transaction qualifies for a usage tax exemption or involves a special circumstance the standard affidavit does not cover. You complete only the sections that match your situation, have every signature notarized, and submit the form with the rest of your title paperwork within 15 days of the purchase date.¹

When You Actually Need Form 71A101

Most private sales and dealer purchases do not use this form. To report what you paid for a vehicle in an ordinary sale, you use Form 71A100 (Affidavit of Total Consideration) or the Transportation Cabinet’s TC 96-182.²

Form 71A101 is for the transactions those standard forms don’t handle:

Family transfers between spouses, parents and children (including stepparents and stepchildren), or grandparents and grandchildren.
Active-duty military purchases from an authorized Kentucky dealer.
Modified or converted vehicles — trucks with dump bodies, wreckers, tanks, bus conversions, bucket lifts, ambulance bodies, and similar additions where the book value doesn’t describe what you actually bought.
New vehicles fitted with adaptive equipment for a person with a disability, where that equipment’s cost can be separated from the vehicle price.
Transfers between an LLC and one of its members.³

If none of those describe your transaction, you probably need Form 71A100 instead.

Who Qualifies for Each Exemption

KRS 138.470 sets the eligibility rules. The categories that run through Form 71A101 have specific conditions, and the clerk will deny the exemption if any one of them is missing.

Family Transfers

Spouse to spouse, parent to child, and grandparent to grandchild transfers are exempt. Step-relationships count. All parties must be Kentucky residents, and the transfer must be between living family members — this is not the form for inherited vehicles. Each person claiming the exemption signs the form in front of a notary. If more than one person is claiming the exemption in a single transaction, each needs a separate notarized signature.³

Active-Duty Military

Active-duty service members stationed in Kentucky on U.S. government orders can claim the exemption, but only when the vehicle is purchased from an authorized Kentucky dealer. National Guard members and reservists on federal orders qualify too. New and used vehicles both count. Kentucky residents attach a copy of their military orders; non-residents stationed in Kentucky attach a current Leave and Earnings Statement less than 120 days old.³ Leased vehicles do not qualify, and the exemption does not extend to vehicles titled in a family member’s name rather than the service member’s.⁴

Business, Trust, and Other Categories

A vehicle moving between an LLC and one of its members qualifies. Transfers between corporations and their officers no longer qualify under current law. Transfers to a trustee, or from a trustee to a beneficiary, are exempt if a direct transfer from the grantor to the beneficiary would have been exempt. Vehicles titled to a government agency, public charity, or educational institution are exempt; churches are not, and an individual who receives a donated vehicle from a charity is not exempt either. Vehicles passing through a will, by descent and distribution, or by court order are exempt if the vehicle was titled in Kentucky on or after July 1, 2005, or was previously registered in the state.³

Filling Out the Form Section by Section

Download Form 71A101 from the Kentucky Department of Revenue site or pick one up at your county clerk’s office.⁵ You complete only the sections that fit your transaction and leave the rest blank. Use blue or black ink. Starting over with a fresh form is almost always easier than fixing an error on a sworn document.

Section A: Vehicle Information and Family Exemptions

Every filer completes Section A. Enter the plate number (if any), title number, full VIN, registration county, year, make, and model. Verify the VIN against the title; a single wrong digit will hold up the registration. If you are claiming a family transfer exemption, check the correct relationship box in this section and both parties sign here.⁵

Sections B and C: Military

Section B captures your Kentucky residency status and identifies the supporting military documentation. Section C is where the service member fills in their name, service number, grade, and military base, then signs the statement confirming active-duty status under U.S. government orders. Both sections need your signature, and the orders or Leave and Earnings Statement must be attached before you hand the form in.

Section D: Modified and Converted Vehicles

Section D is for vehicles with added major equipment: dump bodies, tanks, wreckers, bus conversions, bucket lifts, ambulance bodies, and similar modifications. Enter the purchase price and check the vehicle type from the list on the form. You must attach supporting documentation such as a contract, bill of sale, or the front and back of a cancelled check. Without that paperwork the clerk will not accept the form. The taxable value for a modified vehicle cannot be less than the book value of the base vehicle before modification.⁶

Section E: Handicapped Equipment

If a new vehicle has been fitted with adaptive equipment for a person with a disability, Section E lets you separate that cost from the taxable price. Enter the vehicle price before trade, then the portion of the price attributable to the adaptive equipment. Attach documentation showing what you paid for that equipment.

Signatures and Notarization

Every signature on this form must be notarized. If the form arrives incomplete or without the required attachments, the Department of Revenue can deny the exemption, and you’ll owe the full 6% tax plus any applicable penalty and interest.⁶ Many county clerk offices have a notary on staff, but call ahead instead of assuming.

What to Bring to the County Clerk

You file Form 71A101 in person at your county clerk’s office as part of the title transfer. The clerk cannot register the vehicle or issue tags until the usage tax is paid or the exemption is accepted.⁷ Along with the notarized form, bring:

The original vehicle title, signed over by the seller. Photocopies are not accepted.
Proof of Kentucky insurance in the buyer’s name. Trailers are the only exception.
Valid identification.
Payment for the registration and license fees, and for any tax owed. Most clerks accept cash, personal checks, money orders, and credit or debit cards, usually with a processing fee on card payments.
The supporting documentation that matches the section you filled out: military orders or a Leave and Earnings Statement, a bill of sale and cancelled check for a modified vehicle, or receipts for adaptive equipment.

The clerk verifies the notarized signatures, checks the information against state records, calculates the tax or confirms the exemption, and collects the fees.⁸

The 15-Day Deadline and Late Penalties

Kentucky gives you 15 days from the purchase date to apply for the title.¹ You can still register after that, but the usage tax starts collecting penalties and interest. Tax paid within 30 days of becoming delinquent carries a 3% penalty. After 30 days the penalty rises to 10%, and interest accrues at 15% per year from the date of delinquency.

Penalties for False Statements

Form 71A101 is a sworn document, and the state treats dishonesty on it as a felony rather than a paperwork problem. Under KRS 190.990(5), anyone who willfully and fraudulently submits a false statement about the total consideration paid for a motor vehicle is guilty of a Class D felony, with a fine of at least $2,000 per offense.⁹ The most common trigger is understating the purchase price to reduce the tax. The Department of Revenue compares reported values against NADA book values, and a sale price that looks implausibly low will draw a closer look.

1
McCracken County Clerk. Kentucky Transfer
2
Cornell Law Institute. 103 KAR 44:060 – Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Valuation
3
Kentucky Department of Revenue. Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Exemptions Guide
4
Fort Knox Army. Legal Briefs – Motor Vehicle Registration and Kentucky Sales, Use, and Personal Property Tax
5
Commonwealth of Kentucky Department of Revenue. Kentucky Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Multi-Purpose Form 71A101
6
Campbell County Clerk. Motor Vehicle Usage Tax Multi-Purpose Form
7
Kentucky Department of Revenue. Motor Vehicle Usage Tax
8
Taylor County Clerk. Vehicle Transfer
9
Kentucky Legislative Research Commission. Kentucky Code 190.990 – Penalties