1157E Fillable Form: Sworn Statement for a Family Gift of a Used Vehicle

What the 1157E is for

When a used vehicle changes owners in Ontario, ServiceOntario normally collects retail sales tax from the new owner. A gift between close family members can be exempt, and the 1157E is how you ask for that: a sworn statement, made by both the person giving the car and the person receiving it, that the vehicle really is a gift.

The form is issued by the Ontario Ministry of Finance under the Retail Sales Tax Act. It is one page, and the current edition is marked 1157E (2022/10) at the bottom left. You bring the commissioned form to ServiceOntario together with the rest of the transfer paperwork; the official guide on ontario.ca lists what else to bring.

Which family members qualify

Item 4 of the form spells out the relationships it accepts: parents and step-parents, grandparents and step-grandparents, a spouse, children and stepchildren, grandchildren and step-grandchildren, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, fathers-in-law and mothers-in-law, brothers and sisters. Aunts, uncles, cousins and friends are not on the list, so a vehicle passed to them is a regular sale for tax purposes.

On our form you choose the relationship from that same list, so the word printed on item 4 is always one the Ministry expects. It describes the donor in relation to the recipient: if a father gives his car to his daughter, the donor is the "father" of the recipient.

The city and county lines, solved

The opening paragraph asks four things about each person: the type of municipality (City, Town, Township), its name, the type of the county or region above it, and that name. This is where most handwritten forms go wrong. People write "Canada" or "Ontario" as the county, or put "Vaughan" as both the city and the county.

Here you only type your city or town and pick it from Ontario's list of all 414 municipalities. The rest is filled in from the official structure: Vaughan becomes City of Vaughan in the Regional Municipality of York; Barrie, a single-tier city, leaves the county part empty, which is correct. Neighbourhoods are covered too: Woodbridge prints as Vaughan, Scarborough as Toronto.

Why 1157E forms get refused at the counter

1. The VIN does not match the permit. One wrong character and the form describes a different vehicle. Our field accepts only a valid 17-character VIN, without the letters I, O and Q that never appear in one.
2. Only one person signed in front of the commissioner. Both the donor and the recipient swear the statement. On our call you can each join from your own device.
3. The commissioner part filled in by the family. "SWORN before me at..." and the date belong to the commissioner. Leave them; on our version they are not even offered to you.
4. A second tax-free gift within a year. The statement confirms the vehicle was not given tax-free in Ontario in the previous twelve months. If it was, this form is not the right route.

Signing the 1157E by video

Press Book and Sign and the filled form travels with your booking. Choose "Two of us" for the signers, add the second person's email and both photo IDs, and pay. On the call the commissioner confirms each identity, both of you swear that the statement is true and sign on screen, and the commissioned form is emailed to both of you, ready to print for ServiceOntario.