Interpretation ID: aiam3857
Assistant Director
Bureau of Revenue
Mississippi State Tax Commission
P.O. Box 960
Jackson
MI (sic) 39205;
Dear Mr. Partridge: This is in response to your letter of June 8, 1984 requesting a copy o the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's regulation regarding odometer disclosure, 49 CFR Part 580. A copy is enclosed.; You also ask whether the language that Mississippi uses (lines 184-96 and, in particular, the third statement (lines 192-93) is proper. All three statements should begin with the phrase 'I hereby certify that to the best of my knowledge ....' The Agency believes that this language is important because it requires that the transferor certify his disclosure statement. For this reason, it is also important that the phrase precede each of the three statements. As an alternative, you might reword the entire form so that the introductory certification encompasses all alternative statements.; The language is otherwise proper. You sated, in your telephon conversation with Heidi Lewis Coleman of my staff, that you recalled that at one time, the disclosure statement required the transferor to certify that the mileage is unknown, rather than that it is not accurate. Your recollection is correct. The original rule, 38 FR 2978 (Jan. 31, 1973), promulgated by NHTSA, required:; >>>if the transferor knows that the odometer reading differs from th number of miles the vehicle has actually travelled, and that the difference is greater than that caused by odometer calibration error, he shall include a statement that the actual vehicle mileage is unknown.<<<; This statement, however, was changed in 1977 to that in the presen rule (42 FR , Feb. 14, 1977), 42 FR 38906 (Aug 1. 1977)). The Agency found that the statement, that the actual mileage is unknown had been improperly used. In the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking we stated:; >>>This statement has provided a loophole for individuals who hav actually been guilty of rollbacks. Those persons merely check this statement, thereby hoping to exonerate themselves from blame if the mileage is later discovered to be greater than they stated it to be at the time of sale. In order to close this loophole, and at the same time not force transferors to certify a mileage to be correct which they know to be false, NHTSA proposes to adopt a new S580.4(c)(3) to allow transferors to indicate that the milage is not true and should not be relied upon. 42 FR at 9046.<<<; If you have additional questions, please feel free to call or write t our attention.; Sincerely, Kathleen DeMeter, Assistant Chief Counsel for General Law