Town guide · Massachusetts
Selling a junk or dead car in Taunton
A car that has sat untouched in a Taunton driveway for a year can still produce a tax bill. Massachusetts leaves the motor vehicle excise to cities and towns, not the RMV, and they bill $25 for each $1,000 of value on every car whose registration is still active. The only thing that stops the bill is cancelling. We could not locate Taunton's own junk-car ordinance online, which means the city may also regulate cars kept on private land in ways this page does not show. If the car has turned into nothing but a bill, we buy whole non-running and junk cars, with free pickup anywhere in the US.
Updated · 9 sources
Taunton, the short version
- Population
- 62,522 (Census estimate, July 2025)
- County
- Bristol
- Land area
- 46.712 sq mi
- City junk-car ordinance
- Not located online
- Motor vehicle excise
- $25 for each $1,000 of value, assessed locally
- Abatement deadline
- Taunton: whichever is later, 3 years after due or 1 year after paying
- No-title cars
- Taunton cars purchased prior to Nov. 26, 1990 and built for model year 1980 or older
- Plates
- Seller cancels and destroys them
Why the excise keeps coming
The bill tracks the registration, not the engine. If a Taunton car is registered for just part of a calendar year, the bill covers the month registration started and each month after it that year. Even a revoked registration keeps owing until somebody cancels it, which is why the state advises sellers to cancel at the moment of sale.
Waiting has another cost. When a registration was revoked over an insurance lapse, a reinstatement fee comes due before the car can be registered again.
Getting excise back
If excise kept arriving for months after the car left, abatements are decided by the local board of assessors. In Taunton, file by whichever date comes last, 3 years after the excise due date or 1 year after you paid. Your cancellation receipt is the proof of when the registration ended.
State law on a dead car
With no city code to point to, two state laws set the floor. In Taunton, Section 22C of Chapter 90 has three tests. The car seems abandoned. For over 72 hours it has been parked on a Taunton street or on land without the owner's consent. Its value falls below the cost to haul and dispose of it. Then a street officer may remove it. It may then be thrown out as refuse. The junkyard statute, Chapter 140B, regulates junkyard businesses, not one owner's idle car. Neither one rules out a local bylaw, so a car in plain view is worth a call to City Hall.
Title, or registration for an older car
Most sales run on the title. In Taunton the seller writes down the mileage. Next, the Taunton buyer and seller each sign, print their names and date the title's transfer section. No price line on the title? Then the Taunton buyer's application goes in with a bill of sale that lists the price. Taunton sellers need no notary under the RMV's seller steps.
A few old Taunton cars were never titled. That covers a passenger car with a model year up to 1980 if it was purchased prior to Nov. 26, 1990, so the buyer turns in the prior owner's registration plus a bill of sale.
Plates come home with you
In Massachusetts the seller keeps the plates. Cancel online, save the receipt, and then destroy the plates or send them to a recycler, since the RMV takes nothing back. A Taunton owner getting a replacement vehicle can move the plates to it within a 7-day grace window. The remaining steps are on after you sell.
Getting an offer
Call (877) 421-6008 or use the form. Our offer form covers Taunton cars with a title or, for older ones, the last registration. A driver can load it from a Taunton driveway, a side yard or a shop lot. Measured straight from Taunton, Bridgewater Town is 7.6 miles off and Easton 9.4. See the Massachusetts page for state rules.
Questions people ask
- The car has not run in a year. Why does Taunton still send an excise bill?
- Massachusetts excise attaches to a registration, not to whether the car runs. Taunton keeps sending an excise bill of $25 per $1,000 of value as long as the registration is active. A lapsed or revoked registration keeps owing.
- Can I recover excise I paid after the car was gone?
- Taunton's board of assessors rules on abatement requests. Taunton takes the filing for 3 years after the excise was due, or for 1 year after you paid if that runs longer.
- An old car of mine never had a title. Is it sellable?
- Yes, if the Taunton passenger car is a 1980 or older model and the purchase came prior to Nov. 26, 1990. Those were never required to carry a title and change hands on the previous registration with a bill of sale.
- Has Taunton passed its own junk-car rule?
- Taunton's ordinances were nowhere online for us, so state law is the basis of this page. A local rule on unregistered or broken cars may exist, and the city is the one to confirm it.
Sources
Every fact on this page comes from one of these. Checked October 11, 2026.
- U.S. Census Bureau: city and town population estimates, 2020-2025 www2.census.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau: 2025 Gazetteer, places (land area) www2.census.gov
- Mass.gov: Motor vehicle excise mass.gov
- Mass.gov: Cancel your vehicle registration and plates mass.gov
- M.G.L. c. 90 s. 22C (abandoned vehicles) malegislature.gov
- M.G.L. c. 140B (junkyards) malegislature.gov
- Mass.gov: Registration and title for a vehicle bought from an individual mass.gov
- Mass.gov: Vehicle certificate of title mass.gov
- Mass.gov: Transfer your registration to a vehicle bought from an individual mass.gov