The release of liability: the one filing that is yours after a Boise sale
The seller has a separate sale-reporting obligation: a Notice of Release of Liability, sent to the state within five days of handing over the car, that puts the sale date and the buyer's name on the record in case a ticket, a tow bill or an insurance letter arrives with your name on it later. The form offers an online route as well as paper filing. This page gives the statute, the form, the deadline as Idaho counts it, and the plates rule that goes with it.
Sources re-checked .
Short answer
Send the seller’s Notice of Release of Liability within five days of delivery. ITD 3858 gives a paper route with $3.50 and an online alternative using the VIN and title number. Use the calculator for reviewed 2026–2027 holiday dates, and save your filing confirmation. Remove and retain your plates.
What Idaho Code 49-526 requires of the seller
The statute is short. "The statement shall be forwarded to the department by the former owner, together with the proper fee as provided in section 49-202, Idaho Code, within five (5) days of delivery of the motor vehicle to a dealer, purchaser or other transferee." And what goes in it: "The statement shall include the motor vehicle identification number, vehicle description, name of seller, name and address of buyer or other transferee, date of sale, odometer reading, and sales price."
So the notice needs the buyer's name and address, which is one more reason never to hand over a car to someone whose name you do not have in writing. Keep the buyer's details from the bill of sale; they go straight into the form.
Source: Idaho Code 49-526.
ITD 3858: online, or on paper with $3.50
The form is ITD 3858, Notice of Release of Liability. Its own front page tells you the two routes. Paper: "Upon sale or transfer, you must sign the title over to the purchaser. According to Section 49-526, Idaho Code, you may also do the following within five (5) days of delivery to the purchaser: Fill out the top of this form; Attach a check or money order for THREE DOLLARS and FIFTY CENTS ($3.50) made payable to the DMV." Ada County's fee schedule lists the same $3.50 as the seller's filing fee.
Online: the form itself says, "WAIT! GO ONLINE! Instead of completing this form, submit your Notice of Release of Liability online at DMVonline.ITD.Idaho.gov, and your notice will be processed immediately!" You will need the VIN and the title number. Neither the form nor the online service page states a price for the online route, so this page does not state one; what the form promises is immediate processing, which is the point of filing within five days.
Source: ITD 3858, Notice of Release of Liability (PDF); Ada County Assessor: DMV fees.
How Idaho counts the five days
Idaho has a rule for counting any statutory period, and it is not "add five to the date". Idaho Code 73-109: "The time in which any act provided by law is to be done is computed by excluding the first day, and including the last unless the last is a holiday and then it is also excluded." The day you hand the car over does not count; day one is the next day; and if the fifth day is a legal holiday, it moves.
Idaho's legal holidays are listed in Idaho Code 73-108, and the list includes every Sunday as well as the named days, with an observance rule: "Any legal holiday that falls on Saturday, the preceding Friday shall be a holiday and any legal holiday enumerated herein other than Sunday that falls on Sunday, the following Monday shall be a holiday." The calculator includes Juneteenth under the Governor’s 2021 proclamation and applies the weekend observance rule. Its reviewed calendars cover 2026 and 2027. It gives no date for a year whose holidays it does not carry, and it says so. Filing online the same evening makes the arithmetic moot, which is the better answer.
Source: Idaho Code 73-109, computation of time; Idaho Code 73-108, holidays; Governor: Juneteenth proclamation, June 17, 2021; DHR: 2026 holiday calendar.
Plates off first: they are yours, and the fee is not refunded
Idaho Code 49-431 leaves the plate with the seller: "the registration card and license plate shall remain with and in the possession of the transferor, and before the license plate shall be displayed upon another vehicle owned by the transferor, the transferor shall have that vehicle registered as provided for in section 49-401A, Idaho Code." The release form repeats it as a note: "*Note: Remove your vehicle license plates upon sale or transfer! You may transfer the plates through a DMV office to another vehicle you own."
Two practical consequences. There is no refund of registration on a sold car: Idaho Code 49-402 says "Registration fees shall not be subject to refund." What you can do is keep the plate number or the unused time for your next car; ITD 3438, the License Plate Cancellation Request, has a box for exactly that: "Check this box if you wish to cancel the registration but retain the plate number, so that it can be transferred to another vehicle." And a buyer who plans to drive the car away needs their own lawful way to do it; leaving your plates on the car conflicts with Idaho’s seller plate rule.
Source: Idaho Code 49-431; ITD 3858, Notice of Release of Liability (PDF); Idaho Code 49-402; ITD 3438, License Plate Cancellation Request (PDF).
What the filing does, and what it does not
The notice records that you sold the car, to whom, and when. The notice does not replace the buyer’s title application. ITD gives an Idaho private-party buyer 30 days to file the title documents. It does not cancel your registration or your insurance by itself. What it does is give you a dated state record to point at when something arrives after the sale: a parking ticket from a lot the buyer used, a tow bill, or the insurance-verification letter the state sends when a registered car shows no policy, which the after-you-sell page covers. ITD's own insurance page points sellers at this form: "Recently sold or got rid of a vehicle? Please fill out a Release of Liability form. You will need the VIN and Title Number."
Source: Idaho Transportation Department: vehicle insurance; Idaho Transportation Department: Vehicle Titles.
Release of liability questions
Is the release of liability required, or optional?
The statute says the statement "shall be forwarded to the department by the former owner" within five days of delivery; the form describes it as what you "may also do" under that section. File it. The paper filing costs $3.50; this guide has not established the online fee or how long entering the information will take. Idaho Code 49-526.
Does it count business days or calendar days?
Calendar days, counted Idaho's way: the delivery day is excluded, and a last day that is a legal holiday, Sundays included, is excluded too. Idaho Code 73-109.
Do I get my registration money back?
No. "Registration fees shall not be subject to refund." You can move the plate or the remaining time to another car you own. Idaho Code 49-402.
Choose the next step
Filed and plates in hand, the rest of the after-sale list is on after you sell. If you are selling to the pickup buyer, the release is still yours to file once the truck has gone; the Boise line is (208) 441-4018.
Count your own five days
Idaho counts a statutory period by leaving out the day of delivery and, if the last day lands on a legal holiday, leaving that out too and moving on. Sundays are legal holidays in Idaho for this purpose, and a named holiday on a Saturday is observed on the Friday, on a Sunday on the Monday. Enter the day the buyer took the car.
Use the actual delivery date recorded with the sale. Reviewed calendar years: 2026 and 2027.
Five days: Idaho Code 49-526 ("within five (5) days of delivery of the motor vehicle to a dealer, purchaser or other transferee"). The count: Idaho Code 73-109 ("computed by excluding the first day, and including the last unless the last is a holiday and then it is also excluded"). Holidays and their observance: Idaho Code 73-108. Juneteenth is included under the Governor’s June 17, 2021 proclamation, which recognizes it under section 73-108; the DHR 2026 calendar confirms continued observance. A day the Governor or President later appoints as a holiday also counts and cannot be predicted here. No date is returned if the calculation leaves the reviewed years.
More on selling a car in Boise
- PaperworkSigning an Idaho title, the ITD 3738 bill of sale, the odometer line, and what your buyer files in the next 30 days.
- Title problemsLost title, a loan still on the record, a co-owner who is away, or a title in a late parent's name: the Idaho forms and who signs.
- Any conditionWon't start, hail, high miles, missing wheels: what each one means for the offer, in the buyer's own words, plus the emissions test Ada County ended.
- Where to sellPrivate sale, trade-in or a pickup offer, with the repair-or-sell arithmetic and Idaho's trade-in tax rule.
- Selling privatelyPayment you can verify, the buyer's name on every document, and what Boise and Idaho authorities have warned about.
- How the offer worksThe offer, the paper title the buyer needs, the check at pickup, and the alternatives, from the buyer's own pages.