Vehicles may be renewed during a three month window around your renewal month without penalty. This includes the month prior to your renewal month, your renewal month, and the month following your renewal month. If the last day of the three month window falls on a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, renewals can be completed on the first business day of the following month without penalty.
Following the three month renewal window a penalty is assessed at the rate of 5% of the fee due, per vehicle, per month, rounded to the nearest dollar, with a minimum penalty of $5.00 per vehicle. When the last day of the month is a Saturday, Sunday, or holiday, renewals can be completed on the first business day of the following month without added penalty. Vehicle owners receive an annual renewal notice sent from their County Treasurer. Penalty will still accrue and cannot be waived if you do not receive your notice.
On or before the "enforcement date", for large plates, Iowa law requires the registration validation sticker, often called a tag, to be affixed to the lower left side of the rear plate; for small plates the tags should be affixed to the upper left corner. Law enforcement defines the enforcement date as the first day of the second month following the registration month. It is recommended that the renewal be processed and the sticker be affixed to the license plate on or before the enforcement date.
Please visit the Iowa DOT Personalized & Specialty Plates page to complete your order through a NEW and EASY online process.
Or complete a Special Plate Application and mail it to: Iowa DOT Office of Vehicle Services PO Box 9278 Des Moines, IA 50306-9278.
The plates will be mailed to the Treasurer's Office. We will send you notification when the plates are in. You will need to surrender your old plates to receive your new plates.
If you are renewing a truck registered with 28 Ton or higher you will need a current 2290 Form that has the correct VIN of the vehicle being renewed. The form must also be stamped by the IRS with a received date. More information, including the form and instructions, can be found at the IRS website.
You can only renew semi-annually if your registration month is December. You can choose a different month for registration, however you will be required to pay one full year's registration fee.
You will need to come into the office to register the homemade trailer. We will need you to be sure that the trailer weighs 2000 pounds or less. We will need to know the color of the homemade trailer, and a description of the trailer. We will complete an application for registration that all owners of the homemade trailer will sign. It will be registered as a specially constructed small regular trailer. Small trailers are not issued titles, they are only issued a registration.
In order to store a vehicle the vehicle registration must be current. Bring in the plates and registration for the vehicle. We will place the vehicle in storage and stamp your registration with our "stored" stamp.
When you bring the vehicle out of storage a full years license fee will be due.
