Texas will no longer issue paper license plates. Here's what you'll get instead.
How will the new Texas license plate law work?
Starting July 1, car dealers will start giving car buyers a permanent metal license plate to end giving out temporary paper tags. Roshelle Salinas with Houston Auto Dealers association explains how it will work.
As of July 1, Texas will no longer issue paper license plates to people who buy a new vehicle.
New metal license plates
What we know:
TxDOT has issued about 67,000 license plates across the entire state.
When you purchase a car, you will drive off the lot with a new, black and white metal license plate.
In most cases, the new plates will be registered to the buyer of the vehicle and a window sticker will be mailed to the buyer.
If someone buys or sells a vehicle to a dealer, the dealer will be required to remove the existing plates from that vehicle. They can then be transferred to another vehicle of the same class that's sold within 10 days.
If the seller has a personalized or specialty license plate, then that plate is returned to them and can be transferred to the new vehicle or to another vehicle.
What they're saying:
"It is important to keep your buyer's receipt in your vehicle because if you do get pulled over, you do need show the proof of the purchase of the vehicle until you get that registration sticker that can go on your window," said Rochelle Salinas with the Houston Auto Dealers Association.
What do the colors of the metal license plates mean?
The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles has created four limited-use metal plates that will be given to new car buyers.
Cars at dealerships will have a blue and white dealer license plate for test drives and on the lot.
If you are from out of state and buy a vehicle in Texas you will receive a green and white plate.
There's also a provisional plate that's purple, in case the dealer does not have a black and white hard plate that day.
A red plate will be issued by the Texas DMV or county tax offices for temporary registration.
What if I am trading in a car?
If you are trading in a car and want to keep the same license plate, you can tell the dealer and have them transfer it to your new vehicle.
If you don't want to keep the license player, they will keep it and put it on a new vehicle or destroy it within 10 days.
What if I still have paper plates?
For anyone who purchased a vehicle before July 1, a 60-day grace period will be in place.
After that time period, failure to comply could result in fines or penalties.
What if I sell my car privately?
For people who are selling their vehicles privately, nothing changes.
The seller will still be required to remove the vehicle's plates and registration sticker and submit a vehicle transfer notification within 30 days.
Buyers will submit a title and registration application to their county tax assessor's office for new plates.
Why the change from paper license tags?
PREVIOUS COVERAGE: Fake paper tags costing Harris County $80 million
FOX 26 Reporter Natalie Hee explains why the fake paper tags are costing the county so much money.
The backstory:
During the 2023 legislative session, lawmakers passed House Bill 718 requiring paper license plates to be phased out by July 1, 2025.
Lawmakers pushed for the change because paper tags were easy to counterfeit and were being used in crimes.
Officials estimated 1.8 million fraudulent paper plates were on the roads in Texas in 2021.
Law enforcement officers from across the state testified in favor of the change.
Grand Prairie Police Chief Daniel Scesney was a big supporter of the legislation because he said paper tags caused the death of one of his officers.
Officer Brandon Tsia died while attempting to pull over a Chevy Malibu with a fake paper license plate. He lost control of his squad car and crashed into a utility pole.
At the time, Scesney said that the same fictitious tag had been swapped to different vehicles at least 200 times.
What they're saying:
"Somebody can just create a fake paper plate, put it on a stolen car, and essentially that car is now hidden, it's a ghost car now. We don't know what it is, which kind of complicates our investigations because, I mean obviously, it's got a paper plate, we don't know other than the make, model, and color of that car who it really belongs to," Austin Police Auto Theft Unit Sgt. Christian Maynes said. "I think it's going to help in the fact that the paper plates aren't going to be able to be forged and counterfeit anymore, but we still might have a problem with, yes, we're going to have new hard plates, but those can be stolen as well."
The Source: Information in this article comes from the Texas Legislature, TxDOT and interviews with Rochelle Salinas with the Houston Auto Dealers Association and Austin Police Auto Theft Unit Sgt. Christian Maynes.