You may cancel your tag registration online and obtain a receipt to keep for your records and to send to your insurance company to cancel your vehicle insurance.
You should cancel your vehicle tag registration prior to canceling your insurance to avoid insurance lapse fees. Below is a list of different reasons why you may need to cancel your vehicle tag registration:
- One or both of the tags have been lost or stolen
- You sell your car or donate it to charity and do not transfer your vehicle tags to another vehicle
- You obtain disability, personalized or organizational tags
- You move out of DC
Online tag cancellation is only available for vehicles registered to individuals and not for vehicles registered to businesses. Also only the primary owner of the vehicle can cancel the tag registration online. If the vehicle is co-owned, then the primary owner is the person listed first on the vehicle registration card. If you do not meet these requirements, your tags need to be surrendered by mail or in person at a DMV service center.
When cancelling your tags, you may be eligible for a refund for the unused portion of your vehicle registration. The system will calculate how much time is remaining on your registration and determine if you are eligible for a refund, based on a six month increment and not to exceed eighteen months.
For example, a refund can be issued if you have six months remaining on a 1 year or 2 year registration and a refund can be issued if you have 12 or 18 months remaining on a 2 year vehicle registration.
If you are eligible for a refund, allow 6-8 weeks for the processing of your refund. Also, if you are eligible for a refund, the online transaction will allow you to provide a temporary address so your refund check is mailed to the correct address.
After cancelling your tag registration online, you are responsible for properly and permanently disposing of your tags. Please completely mark through the tag number with a permanent marker prior to disposal or recycling. The following options are available for tag disposal:
- You may take the tags to the Fort Totten Transfer Station on the first Saturday of each month for recycling.
- You may mail your old tags to the DMV to be shredded and disposed at:
DC DMV
Vehicle Registration
P.O. Box 90120
Washington, DC 20090
OR, if sending by certified mail, mail the tags to:
DC DMV
Processing Center
95 M Street, SW
Washington, DC 20024
Regardless of the method you use to cancel your tags, you should always retain the tag cancellation receipt for your records in case there is a need to adjudicate a ticket erroneously issued to your cancelled tag.