How to register a car in DC, if that car was gifted to me from a parent out-of-state?

[Anonymous]

My parents live in Arizona and their 2022 car is at the end of its 3-year lease, and they decided to buy it and gift the car to me. They can sign the title over to my husband and me. I'm trying to figure out how to register the car in DC. Do I need to pay some kind of excise tax when I register the car in DC? Do we need a gift affidavit? This whole thing has been incredibly confusing - I see references to needing a gift affidavit - but cannot tell if that is from Arizona or DC.

Thanks for any tips/advice.

[Anonymous]

We live in DC and we were gifted a used car from our MIL last year in MD.

We just needed the MD title hard copy with it signed by MIL transferring to us. To register it in DC, you’ll need a DC drivers license, proof of insurance, clean inspection from DC, hard copy of the AZ title signed over to you, and the application form filled out.

From there, I had to go down to Half Street DMV facility to get it inspected. Then once you are done with inspection, you go to the Maine Ave SW DMV office to get it titled, registered, and plated. You will need to pay the transfer tax to DC for the vehicle based on KBB value.

For us to do all this, we had to pay about $900 in fees and taxes for a 16 year old Lexus worth about $5K. That included transfer taxes levied by DC between parties, 2 year registration, and 2 year parking permit. It will cost a lot more in transfer taxes for basically a new car. The only way to avoid the transfer taxes is to get the car titled/registered in your name in AZ. DC does not give a break on transfer taxes for a “free” car from a family member.

[Anonymous]

I did this a few years ago. You take the title that your parents signed over to you to the DMV to get the car titled and registered in DC. You will have to pay an excise tax based on the value of the car, which is determined by the make, model, and year. What you paid or didn’t pay for the car is irrelevant in this situation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I did this a few years ago. You take the title that your parents signed over to you to the DMV to get the car titled and registered in DC. You will have to pay an excise tax based on the value of the car, which is determined by the make, model, and year. What you paid or didn’t pay for the car is irrelevant in this situation.

One way to get around the (sizable) DC excise tax is for her parents to add her name on the title of the vehicle while it’s still registered in AZ.

Then when she retitles it here in DC, she will simply be doing so as a current owner of the vehicle. DC only levies the excise tax when the vehicle is changing ownership.

[Anonymous]

Do you happen to know if it costs money to add my name to the title in Arizona?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I did this a few years ago. You take the title that your parents signed over to you to the DMV to get the car titled and registered in DC. You will have to pay an excise tax based on the value of the car, which is determined by the make, model, and year. What you paid or didn’t pay for the car is irrelevant in this situation.

One way to get around the (sizable) DC excise tax is for her parents to add her name on the title of the vehicle while it’s still registered in AZ.

Then when she retitles it here in DC, she will simply be doing so as a current owner of the vehicle. DC only levies the excise tax when the vehicle is changing ownership.

No, this doesn’t work. My parents added me to the title in another state and when titling it in DC I had to pay excise tax.

[Anonymous]

In MD, there is no excise tax if the car is gifted from a family member, FYI.