Apollo's Templates
HomeBill of SaleGeorgia
Bill of sale · Georgia

Georgia Bill of Sale

Georgia taxes the book, once — 7% TAVT on assessed value at the county tag office, then never again. Form T-7 is the official bill of sale that carries the odometer disclosure and the title-exempt cases. Both are here.

The Georgia answer

One tax, one office, one form worth keeping.

A Georgia private sale converges on the buyer’s county tag officewithin 30 days: assigned title, Form T-7 where it applies, and the one-time 7% TAVT computed on the Department of Revenue’s book value. No notary is needed for the ordinary sale, plates stay with the seller, and once TAVT is paid there is no annual vehicle tax in Georgia at all — the birthday tax died with the old system.
Official state form
Form T-7 — Georgia Bill of Sale
Verified DOR copy — includes the odometer declaration; the form for title-exempt 1985-and-older vehicles.
Download
Photos tell the condition story
Build a photo bill of sale alongside the T-7
Since TAVT ignores your price anyway, the record that matters most is what the vehicle looked like at handover.
Start
TAVT, demystified

The tax that ignores your negotiation.

Georgia’s Title Ad Valorem Tax rewrote the usual rules: 7%, once, on the assessment manual’s value — the average of book wholesale and retail — regardless of the price you shook hands on, and with no trade-in credit in a private deal. Negotiating a great price still saves you money on the car; it just doesn’t save you a dime on the tax. Check the DOR’s TAVT estimate before agreeing on a number so the total cost is no surprise, and remember the two escape hatches: the 0.5% immediate-family rate (affidavit MV-16), and the pre-1986 title-exempt lane where the bill of sale plus T-22B inspection does the transferring.

Not legal advice. Verified against Georgia DOR sources in July 2026 — official links in our 50-state requirements table.
Peach State questions

Georgia specifics, answered.

Does Georgia require a bill of sale for a private sale?

Mostly for the older and odometer cases: Form T-7, published by the Department of Revenue, doubles as the federal odometer disclosure and is chiefly used when the title can't carry the transaction — including title-exempt vehicles. For a routine titled sale, the assigned title does the legal work and the T-7 is the receipt worth keeping.

Why doesn't my negotiated price change the Georgia tax?

Because TAVT — the one-time 7% Title Ad Valorem Tax — is charged on the state's assessment-manual value (an average of book wholesale and retail), not on what you paid, and private sales get no trade-in reduction. The upside of the deal: TAVT replaced both sales tax and the old annual ad valorem birthday tax, so you pay once at titling and never again.

What's the family discount on TAVT?

Immediate-family transfers pay a reduced 0.5% TAVT instead of 7% — provided the vehicle is already in the TAVT system — using notarized affidavit MV-16 to document the relationship. On any meaningful vehicle value, that's a serious saving worth the affidavit.

How do really old vehicles change hands in Georgia?

Vehicles of model year 1985 and older are title-exempt: they transfer on a bill of sale plus a Form T-22B inspection certification instead of a title. Everything runs through the county tag office in the buyer's home county — Georgia has no state DMV branches for this — within 30 days of purchase, after which a 10% penalty plus interest starts.