HB 718: Texas Replaced Paper TagsWith Dealer-Issued Metal Plates
For two decades a Texas buyer drove off the lot with a printed paper tag. That era ended at midnight on June 30, 2025. This page is written from the other side of that deadline — what actually changed, the five-plate system that replaced the printer, how the sale-to-title workflow runs now, and why the change quietly rewired where your Texas dealer bond is most exposed. If you want the law that set the bond amount, that is a separate story we cover in our HB 3533 explainer.
- Paper tags eliminated. Dealers issue metal plates at the point of sale instead.
- webDEALER is mandatory. The dealer submits every buyer's title and registration electronically.
- eTAG became ePLATE. The plate-issuance portal kept the system, dropped the “tag.”
- Plate inventory & liability. Plates ship to your lot, stay under lock, and you are liable for missing or misused ones.
What HB 718 Eliminated — and the Paper Permits That Survived
The single most common mistake in the coverage of HB 718 is treating it as “no more paper.” That is not quite right. SECTION 32 of the enrolled act repealed the specific buyer and dealer temporary-tag provisions and the temporary-tag database — the things that were being abused. Several narrow paper permits were left in place because nothing in them invited fraud. Here is the clean mapping a Texas dealer actually needs.
Texas Dealer Documents: Eliminated vs. Still Valid Under HB 718
Effective July 1, 2025
| Document | Status | What replaced it / who issues it now |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer's Temporary (paper) Tag | Eliminated | Dealer-issued General Issue metal plate at point of sale |
| Dealer's Temporary (paper) Tag | Eliminated | Blue Dealer Temporary metal plate (reusable, DLR prefix) |
| 30-Day Permit | Eliminated | Red Temporary Registration plate from county / TxDMV regional center |
| One-Trip Permit | Eliminated | Red Temporary Registration plate (the only option for exports) |
| 72-Hour & 144-Hour Permits | Still valid | Unchanged |
| Vehicle Transit Permit | Still valid | Unchanged |
| Temporary Registration Insignia (specialty plates) | Still valid | Unchanged |
| 30-Day Factory Delivery Permit | Still valid | Unchanged |
Paper tags issued on or before June 30, 2025 remained valid until their printed expiration. Example: a Buyer's Temporary Tag issued June 30, 2025 expired August 29, 2025. After that date no paper buyer or dealer tags exist.
Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 668 (HB 718), Sec. 32; TxDMV HB 718 Implementation guidance
One operational consequence trips up dealers who skim: exports. If you sell to a buyer taking the vehicle out of the country, TxDMV is explicit that the red Temporary Registration plate is the only instrument available — there is no export plate and no work-around. It is purchased in person at a county tax office or TxDMV Regional Service Center with proof of insurance and a photo ID, for a $25 fee plus a non-refundable $4.75 processing-and-handling fee.
The Five Metal Plates, in Plain English
HB 718 did not create one plate — it created a small system. Get the wrong plate on a vehicle and you have an enforcement problem, not a paperwork problem. Each plate has a color, a serial prefix, and a use case. Four of the five are marked “LIMITED USE PLATE.” Only the General Issue plate is the permanent plate that stays with the car.
Texas Dealer-Issued Metal Plates Under HB 718
Color, serial prefix, and validity window for each plate type
General Issue
Black on white
The permanent plate the retail buyer keeps. Issued in sequential order — the dealer cannot hand-pick a number.
Buyer Provisional
Purple · BYR prefix
A limited-use plate used when a General Issue plate cannot be assigned at the exact moment of sale.
Dealer Temporary
Blue · DLR prefix
The reusable plate a dealer puts on stock, demo, and drive vehicles. Costs $10; prohibits personal use; no emissions test required.
Out-of-State Buyer
Green · OSB prefix
Issued for a vehicle a non-resident is taking out of Texas. Validity was raised from 30 to 60 days; the fee is $3; one per vehicle.
Temporary Registration
Red · TMP prefix
Not issued by dealers from inventory — obtained in person from a county tax office or TxDMV regional center for exports and gap situations.
TxDMV ENF HB 718 FAQ Dealer Handout (March 2025); Tex. Transp. Code 503.063, 503.065, 503.068, as amended by HB 718
Mounting and the “no front bracket” rule
The dealer is responsible for displaying the plates per TxDMV rules. If a passenger car or light truck has no factory front plate-mounting feature — meaning the dealer would have to drill into the bumper — the dealer mounts the rear plate and hands the buyer the unmounted front plate rather than damaging the vehicle.
Dealer plate vs. Dealer Temporary plate
The older metal Dealer Plate runs about $90 for the two-year license-aligned term ($40 plate fee plus a $50 Plate Use Tax) and allows personal use. The new blue Dealer Temporary plate is $10, prohibits personal use, needs no emissions test, and is reusable. Many lots run both depending on how a vehicle is being used.
How a Retail Sale Runs Now, Step by Step
The cleanest way to understand HB 718 is to walk one retail sale from handshake to registered title. Notice where the work moved: away from a printer and a runner, and onto the dealer's webDEALER obligation. The customer never comes back to your lot for plates or a sticker.
Internet entry at the point of sale
Before a dealer-issued plate can be displayed, you enter the buyer’s information into the dealer-issued-plate database over the internet and complete and sign the department form attesting to that entry. Section 503.0631 requires 24-hour internet access at your place of business. If the connection is down at the moment of sale, you sign an internet-down form and submit the buyer information no later than the next business day.
Assign and mount the metal plate
You assign a General Issue plate set (two identical plates) from your sequential inventory and mount them per the display rules. The buyer keeps the dealer-provided form in the vehicle until registration is complete and the windshield sticker is received and affixed. You charge the buyer the $10 plate fee, which is sent on to the tax office with the title application.
Stamp the title and submit through webDEALER
You mark the surrendered title with a "Surrendered" stamp and submit the title and registration application electronically through webDEALER under Section 520.0055. You sign up with each county tax office where you title vehicles. Dealer Deputy status is not required to process the title transaction; salvage and non-repairable transactions are not affected by HB 718.
County processes and issues the sticker
The county tax office (or a Dealer Deputy with county-allocated sticker inventory) approves the transaction and issues the windshield registration sticker, which may be mailed, delivered, or picked up depending on the county. The buyer does not return to your lot. You also complete a Vehicle Transfer Notification within 30 days for vehicles transferred to the dealership.
The wholesale and auction lane is different
On a vehicle coming into a dealer, you remove the existing General Issue plates and file a Vehicle Transfer Notification; those plates go into your IMS inventory under lock. To drive a unit to auction you attach a metal Dealer or Dealer Temporary plate (no plate is needed if it is trailered). After the auction sale, the selling dealer defaces and recycles the removed General Issue plates and notes the destruction in IMS, and the purchasing dealer assigns a new General Issue plate at the eventual retail sale. If you run a wholesale operation, see our Texas wholesale dealer bond page for how the GDN and bond sit on top of this.
Plate Inventory: Allocation, Reorders, and the 10-Day Rule
Under the old system a dealer kept a roll of paper and a printer. Now a dealer holds physical state property — metal plates produced by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, shipped from a central warehouse directly to your licensed location instead of through a county office. That changes how you manage stock and what happens when stock runs low.
How your allocation is set
- Distribution began in May 2025. For an existing dealer, the initial delivery was based on the previous year's sales volume.
- A new dealer's initial delivery is set by rule (43 TAC Chapter 215).
- You verify received plates against the Inventory Management System (IMS) before issuing any — and could not issue metal plates before July 1, 2025.
- General Issue plates must be distributed in sequential order; you cannot give a buyer a chosen number from inventory.
Storage, reorder, and the destruction rule
- Plates must be secured in a locked room or closet, or in a securely constructed safe or steel cabinet bolted to the floor or wall, with controlled employee access.
- TxDMV references a 50% reorder threshold in IMS — reorder before you run dry, because a shipment is not instant.
- A General Issue plate that comes in with inventory can be reassigned to an appropriate vehicle class within 10 days of receipt. If it is not reassigned within 10 days, it must be destroyed — and that requirement is enforceable through administrative action.
A note on the 10-day rule's history. As HB 718 was originally enacted, plates that came in with a trade-in had to be reassigned to a subsequent retail purchaser. The 89th Legislature's SB 1902 (also effective July 1, 2025) reshaped that into the current 10-day reassign-or-destroy regime that TxDMV now enforces. If you read older 2025 articles describing a different inventory-transfer rule, this is what superseded them.
Why the Legislature Killed the Paper Tag
Paper temporary tags were trivially easy to forge or mass-produce from a cloned or stolen dealer login. A tag printed on a home printer looked, at a glance, like a tag printed on a legitimate one. That gap is what the Legislature targeted.
The official House bill analysis for HB 718 put the rationale in unusually blunt terms, citing national reporting: it described a temporary-tag system that gave criminals “an easy way to disguise vehicles, avoid prosecution, and inflate a public safety problem in Texas,” tied to law-enforcement deaths and to what the analysis called a black-market industry of more than $200 million.
TxDMV frames its own purpose more plainly: the Legislature enacted HB 718 “to address concerns related to the fraudulent use of paper license tags.” A metal plate solves the forgery problem in a way tighter eTAG controls never could — its validity can be confirmed in the field by law enforcement through the TLETS and NLETS systems, which a paper rectangle never allowed.
Official Texas Requirements
"A motor vehicle dealer shall use the electronic system designed by the department and made available by a county assessor-collector under Section 520.005 to submit a title and registration application in the name of the purchaser of a motor vehicle."Texas Transportation Code, Section 520.0055 (added by HB 718) • Tex. Transp. Code 520.0055 (Acts 2023, 88th Leg., Ch. 668, Sec. 29)
How HB 718 fits the larger Texas timeline. In 2021 the 87th Legislature doubled the dealer bond from $25,000 to $50,000 (HB 3533) and capped temporary-tag issuance (HB 3927) — both reactions to the same fraud. Those tag controls policed a system HB 718 then retired entirely two years later. The bond got bigger first; then the thing being abused was removed. We trace the bond half of that arc in the HB 3533 explainer.
What HB 718 Did to Your $50,000 GDN Bond
This is the part of HB 718 that no dealer-facing page covers, and it is the part that matters most for a bonded dealer. HB 718 did not touch the bond amount. It changed the conduct the bond now backstops — by statute, not by speculation. Follow the chain.
It guarantees good title
The $50,000 GDN bond is conditioned on the dealer transferring good title and meeting the obligations of a licensed dealer. A buyer harmed by a title that never properly transfers can make a claim against it.
The dealer owns the title step
Section 520.0055 makes the dealer the mandatory submitter of every buyer's title and registration application through webDEALER. The buyer no longer carries their own paperwork to the county — the dealer does, on the deadline, every time.
The exposure moved, it didn't shrink
Tag-fraud claims fade with the paper tag. But a late webDEALER submission, an unremitted title or registration fee, or a missing General Issue plate is now the dealer's documented responsibility — the precise conduct a GDN bond is written to cover.
The statutory through-line, in order
The practical takeaway for an underwriter and a dealer alike: the compliance surface the bond sits on top of is now the title-and-registration pipeline, not the paper tag. If you want the full obligee, claim-process, and cancellation picture, our Texas GDN bond guide maps the bond inside the license, and our guide to avoiding bond claims covers the habits that keep a claim from landing.
Penalties and Enforcement Under HB 718
HB 718 did not create a wave of new crimes — the bill analysis says as much. Its teeth are administrative and they build on penalties that already existed. But the consequences for ignoring it are real, and the enforcement apparatus is new.
What the statute prohibits and penalizes
- Section 503.0671: you may not operate a vehicle displaying dealer-issued plates in violation of the registration chapters, and you may not sell or distribute a dealer-issued plate (or anything represented to be one) unless you are the dealer issuing it with a sale.
- Chapter 503 general penalty: a violation is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than $50 and not more than $5,000. HB 718 left this backstop intact.
- Missing or misused plates: per Section 503.063(d) and TxDMV's own enforcement statement, dealers are “liable for and subject to sanctions for missing/misused plates as well as the misuse of the dealership's access to TxDMV systems.”
Who is watching, and what they can take away
- A new Dealer Compliance Services Section in the TxDMV Enforcement Division inspects dealer locations for plate and premises compliance and periodically reviews metal-plate inventory.
- TxDMV can cancel a GDN under Section 503.038 for the title-document failures above; a canceled dealer must surrender every license, plate, sticker, and receipt within 10 days.
- Plate-database access can be denied for fraudulent use under Section 503.0633, subject to a hearing under Chapter 2301, Occupations Code.
- The 10-day reassign-or-destroy rule for incoming General Issue plates is itself enforceable through administrative action.
The Transition Was Rough — Here Is Where It Snagged and How to Escalate
Writing a year out from the July 1, 2025 cutover, it is fair to be honest: the launch was not smooth for everyone. East Texas dealers reported plates landing in the wrong IMS inventory location, manual plate logs filling the gap, and state support lines that were hard to reach in the first days. Most of that has stabilized, but if you are licensing or renewing today, here is the pain-point-to-fix map.
Plates show as received but are not in the right IMS inventory location.
Verify physical plates against IMS at delivery, before issuing any. If counts or locations do not match, document it and contact TxDMV through the dedicated HB 718 support channels rather than issuing from a mismatched record.
You are about to run out and a reorder will not arrive in time.
Reorder at the 50% IMS threshold, not when you hit zero. For a true gap, obtain a red Temporary Registration Plate from the county tax office so a sale is not blocked.
webDEALER training and county sign-up are unfamiliar.
The April 30, 2025 training deadline for webDEALER 101/102 has passed, but TxDMV still requires the training to receive plates if you have not completed it. Sign up with each county where you title vehicles, and lean on TxDMV’s recorded webinars and bilingual materials.
Staffing burden went up because the dealer now does the title submission.
Build the webDEALER submission into the close, not a back-office afterthought. Confirm the equipment checklist (computer, printer, scanner, internet, account, "Surrendered" stamp) is in place at every selling location so a sale is never held up.
What HB 718 Quietly Changed About Underwriting and Renewals
HB 718 is a registration law, not a bonding law — so its real effect on the bond shows up sideways, in how applications and renewals behave. A few patterns worth knowing before you file.
The bond form did not change — so don't let a surety upsell you a “new HB 718 bond”
The $50,000 GDN bond instrument, its obligee (TxDMV), and the TxDMV-approved form are the same before and after July 1, 2025. There is no special “HB 718 bond.” If a renewal quote frames the metal-plate change as a reason to re-paper your bond at a new rate, that is a sales angle, not a legal requirement. What underwriters price is unchanged: personal credit, business financials, ownership, and time in business.
Where eLICENSING actually trips dealers up
The most common reasons a GDN bond filing bounces in eLICENSING have nothing to do with HB 718 — they are the same ones we see every cycle: a bond uploaded at the wrong face amount, a one-year term where TxDMV requires the two-year GDN cycle, a missing or unsigned attorney-in-fact power of attorney, or a surety not authorized in Texas. HB 718 simply added more steps around the bond (training, county sign-up, plate verification), so a clean, correctly executed bond is the one piece you want to take off the table early.
Plate liability is now a credit-conversation topic
Because Section 503.063(d) makes a dealer personally liable for missing or misused plates, the locked-storage and IMS-reconciliation discipline that used to be a housekeeping detail is now a real source of potential exposure that the bond can be called on to address. For thin-credit applicants, that is one more reason underwriters care about operational controls, not just the FICO. Tighten the controls before you need the bond to absorb a mistake. Our breakdown of getting a Texas dealer bond with challenged credit covers how that conversation goes.
HB 718: Dealer Questions
Direct, source-cited answers to what a Texas dealer actually asks after the paper tag
Are Texas paper temporary tags really gone, or can dealers still print them?
They are gone. Effective July 1, 2025, HB 718 repealed the buyer and dealer temporary paper-tag sections of the Transportation Code, and TxDMV shut off the temporary-tag database that dealers used to print them. A dealer cannot legally print a paper buyer tag today. Paper tags issued on or before June 30, 2025 stayed valid until their printed expiration — a Buyer Temporary Tag issued June 30, 2025 expired August 29, 2025 — but no new ones exist. A handful of paper permits survived: the 72-hour and 144-hour permits, the Vehicle Transit Permit, the Temporary Registration Insignia for specialty plates, and the 30-day Factory Delivery Permit. Everything a retail buyer used to leave the lot with is now a metal plate.
How many metal plate types are there, and which one does a retail buyer get?
There are five. A standard retail buyer of a titled, registrable vehicle receives a General Issue plate (black on white) — the permanent plate that stays with the car. The other four are limited-use plates marked "LIMITED USE PLATE": the Buyer Provisional plate (purple, BYR prefix, used when the General Issue plate cannot be assigned at the moment of sale), the Dealer Temporary plate (blue, DLR prefix, the reusable plate a dealer puts on stock and demo vehicles), the Out-of-State Buyer plate (green, OSB prefix, for a vehicle leaving Texas, valid 60 days), and the Temporary Registration plate (red, TMP prefix, issued by a county tax office or TxDMV regional center for exports and gap situations). Vendor and news pages routinely list only three or four of these, or get the colors wrong.
What does "webDEALER mandatory" actually change in how I process a sale?
Before HB 718, many independent dealers handed the buyer a printed paper tag and let the buyer or a runner take the title work to the county whenever. New Transportation Code Section 520.0055 now requires the dealer — not the buyer — to submit every retail title and registration application electronically through webDEALER. You sign up with each county tax office where you title vehicles, mark the surrendered title with a "Surrendered" stamp, and file the application in webDEALER. The county processes it and issues the windshield registration sticker; the customer no longer comes back to your lot for plates or stickers. The operational shift is that the dealer now owns the title-submission step end to end, on the deadline, every time.
Does HB 718 change my $50,000 Texas dealer bond?
No — HB 718 left the bond amount alone. The $50,000 General Distinguishing Number (GDN) surety bond set by HB 3533 in 2021 is untouched. What HB 718 changed is the conduct most likely to trigger a claim against that bond. The bond guarantees the dealer transfers good title and pays what is owed on a sale. Because the dealer is now the mandatory webDEALER submitter for every buyer (Section 520.0055), a late or failed title submission, an unremitted title or registration fee, or a botched General Issue plate assignment is now squarely the dealer’s responsibility — and squarely inside the bond’s coverage. The paper-tag-fraud era is over; the title-and-registration-processing era is what your bond now backstops.
What happens if I issue an expired paper tag or misuse a metal plate after July 1, 2025?
It is enforceable conduct. HB 718 added Transportation Code Section 503.0671, which prohibits operating a vehicle that displays dealer-issued plates in violation of the registration chapters and prohibits selling or distributing a dealer-issued plate (or anything represented to be one) unless you are the dealer issuing it with a sale. The general Chapter 503 penalty remains a misdemeanor with a fine between $50 and $5,000. Beyond fines, TxDMV can cancel your GDN under Section 503.038 for title-document failures, and the dealer is statutorily liable for missing or misused plates under Section 503.063(d). The new Dealer Compliance Services Section in the TxDMV Enforcement Division inspects lots and reviews metal-plate inventory.
What does HB 718 require me to keep on-site to process a sale now?
Per TxDMV, a compliant dealer needs a computer, a printer, a scanner, internet access, a webDEALER/eTAG account, a "Surrendered" stamp for marking titles submitted for transfer, and a distributed inventory of metal plates stored under lock. The plate-security rule adopted by the TxDMV Board in October 2024 requires plates to be kept in a locked room, closet, or a securely bolted safe or steel cabinet, with employee access controlled so plates are only used for legitimate sales. If your internet is down at the moment of sale, you sign an internet-down form and submit the buyer information no later than the next business day.
My plates have not arrived, or I need to move an export — what plate do I use?
For a gap situation — a pre-July-1 tag that was lost or damaged, or new metal plates that have not yet shipped — TxDMV directs the dealer to obtain a red Temporary Registration Plate from the county tax office. It is purchased in person with proof of insurance and a current government-issued photo ID, for a $25 fee plus a non-refundable $4.75 processing-and-handling fee per permit. For exports specifically, TxDMV is explicit that the red Temporary Registration plate is the only option — there is no other plate or work-around. The old 30-Day Permits and One-Trip Permits were eliminated on July 1, 2025.
Official HB 718 Sources
TxDMV HB 718 Implementation
txdmv.gov — the official implementation hub, plate guidelines, and FAQs
Enrolled HB 718 (88R)
capitol.texas.gov — full enrolled bill text, effective July 1, 2025
Transp. Code Chapter 503
Dealer plates, penalties, and the amended sections HB 718 touched
Statutory citations on this page reflect the enrolled act, Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 668, and TxDMV implementation guidance current as of the review date above. Always confirm the current text and forms with TxDMV before filing.
Keep Going on Texas Dealer Compliance
Texas Auto Dealer Bond
The $50,000 GDN bond itself — requirements, eLICENSING filing, and same-day approval.
Texas GDN Bond Guide
How the bond sits inside the General Distinguishing Number, classification by classification.
How to Get a Texas Dealer License
The full GDN path — now including webDEALER training and plate setup under HB 718.
HB 3533 Explained
The 2021 law that doubled the dealer bond to $50,000 — the bond half of the fraud story.
Texas Dealer Bond Calculator
Estimate your $50,000 GDN bond premium by credit tier before you apply.
Auto Dealer Bond Requirements
How Texas' requirements compare to the other 49 states, side by side.
All content is researched from official state and federal sources (.gov) and verified before publication. BuySuretyBonds.com works with Treasury-certified, A-minimum rated surety carriers serving all 50 states.
New Plates, Same $50,000 Bond — Handled Same Day
HB 718 added training, plate inventory, and webDEALER to your plate. The bond is the one piece we take off it. Two-year term, TxDMV-formatted, upload-ready for eLICENSING.