Bill of sale · New Hampshire

New Hampshire Bill of Sale Form

New Hampshire wrote its bill-of-sale requirements directly into statute, skipped sales tax entirely, and stopped titling anything older than model year 1999. The process runs through your town clerk — here's how it fits together.

The New Hampshire answer

The statute tells you exactly what to write.

RSA 261:148, III makes New Hampshire refreshingly concrete: a valid bill of sale carries the date of sale and the name, signature, and legal address of both parties — a street address, not a PO box. For title-exempt older vehicles it pairs with official form TDMV 22A, which the DMV distributes on its own site (their servers block third-party downloads, so grab it directly from dmv.nh.gov).

RSA-compliant by design

Build a New Hampshire bill of sale — free, with photos

Date, names, signatures, addresses — the statutory elements, plus the VIN, price, and photos a careful sale wants anyway.

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Live free, register local

Town clerks, the 1999 line, and zero sales tax.

Registration in New Hampshire is a town affair: the buyer takes the paperwork to the town or city clerk, pays the town’s share and the state’s, and — thanks to the absence of any sales tax — walks out having paid fees, not a percentage of the price. The other Granite State signature is the fixed title cutoff: model year 1999 and older vehicles simply have no titles here, so the bill of sale plus a registration or old title IS the ownership paper trail. Sellers of older vehicles should write the bill of sale carefully and keep a copy forever — it’s the chain of ownership.

Not legal advice. Verified against NH DMV and RSA sources in July 2026 — official links in our 50-state requirements table.

Granite State questions

New Hampshire specifics, answered.

What must a New Hampshire bill of sale contain?

It's one of the few states that answers by statute: RSA 261:148, III requires the date of sale plus the name, signature, and legal address (no PO boxes) of both buyer and seller. No notarization. Any bill of sale with those elements — including one from our builder — satisfies the law.

Why does my 1998 pickup have no title — and how do I sell it?

New Hampshire doesn't title vehicles of model year 1999 or older — a fixed cutoff, not a rolling age. To sell one, the seller provides a bill of sale plus proof of ownership: a current or expired NH registration, or a title from NH or another state. Form TDMV 22A (Report of Sale of a Non-Titled Motor Vehicle) is the official companion for these sales. One exception: heavy trucks over 18,000 lbs GVW always need titles regardless of age.

Is there sales tax on a private sale in New Hampshire?

No — New Hampshire has no general sales tax, on vehicles or anything else. The buyer pays title and registration fees (the title fee is $25, with registration costs split between the town and the state), which makes the total cost of a private transfer among the lowest in the country.

How does the buyer get home legally before registering?

With the Private Sale 20-Day Temporary Plate: $20, available to NH residents from the DMV with a copy of the signed title or a fully detailed bill of sale. It buys 20 days to complete registration — which happens at your town or city clerk's office, not a state DMV counter.

Not a car?

Every item type, New Hampshire rules applied.

The New Hampshire rules above apply to whatever you are selling. Pick the item type to get a form with the right identifying fields on it.