Mississippi Window Tint Law 2026

Mississippi names no inches and no AS-1 line. Its windshield rule is absolute — no tinted film, glazing or darkening material "of any kind" on the windshield — with a single exception for material replacing or providing the sun shield in the uppermost area, and the extent of that shield is fixed by what vehicle manufacturers are federally authorised to install, not by a Mississippi measurement. Encoding this as a number would invent one; encoding it as the AS-1 line would attribute to Mississippi a marking its statute never mentions.

BASIS: `net_assembly`. The certified quantity is "a light transmittance of twenty-eight percent (28%) or more" measured on "the windows of the vehicle" — the glazing as installed, including whatever has been applied to it — and subsection (6) confirms it by directing the inspection station to "conduct a test to determine that the window complies". Nothing in the section regulates the film in isolation. The 28 percent rule does not reach every vehicle. § 63-7-59(3) exempts school buses, other public-transport buses, nonprofit-owned buses and vans, funeral home services vehicles, limousines, and government law-enforcement, fire department and volunteer fire department vehicles; and separately exempts glass tinted before factory delivery as federal law permits.

BASIS: `net_assembly`. The certified quantity is "a light transmittance of twenty-eight percent (28%) or more" measured on "the windows of the vehicle" — the glazing as installed, including whatever has been applied to it — and subsection (6) confirms it by directing the inspection station to "conduct a test to determine that the window complies". Nothing in the section regulates the film in isolation. Mississippi states ONE figure for "all the windows of the vehicle" and draws no front/rear line for ordinary cars. But note the class carve-out below, which functions as a rear-glass concession for larger vehicles without ever naming a percentage. The 28 percent rule does not reach every vehicle. § 63-7-59(3) exempts school buses, other public-transport buses, nonprofit-owned buses and vans, funeral home services vehicles, limousines, and government law-enforcement, fire department and volunteer fire department vehicles; and separately exempts glass tinted before factory delivery as federal law permits.

READ THE EXEMPTION CAREFULLY — IT IS NOT AN UNLIMITED REAR-GLASS ALLOWANCE, WHICH IS HOW IT IS USUALLY REPORTED. For a pickup, van, motor home, RV, SUV or multipurpose vehicle, windows behind the front two side windows escape the 28 percent rule only if they are tinted to a level that "meets the minimum light transmittance requirements authorized to be installed for that window and for that vehicle under federal law" — that is, the aftermarket tint must land where the manufacturer would have been federally permitted to tint it, which under FMVSS 205 is unrestricted for glazing rearward of the driver in vehicles other than passenger cars. The row is kept at 28 percent with the condition attached rather than restated as a second number, because the statute states no second number: it points at a federal standard. A reader is told the exemption exists and what it is conditioned on, and no figure is invented to fill it.

BASIS: `net_assembly`. The certified quantity is "a light transmittance of twenty-eight percent (28%) or more" measured on "the windows of the vehicle" — the glazing as installed, including whatever has been applied to it — and subsection (6) confirms it by directing the inspection station to "conduct a test to determine that the window complies". Nothing in the section regulates the film in isolation. The rear window of an ordinary passenger car is one of "all the windows of the vehicle" and carries the same 28 percent. For pickups, vans, motor homes, RVs, SUVs and multipurpose vehicles the rear window falls under the § 63-7-59(3)(b) carve-out recorded on vlt_back_side. The 28 percent rule does not reach every vehicle. § 63-7-59(3) exempts school buses, other public-transport buses, nonprofit-owned buses and vans, funeral home services vehicles, limousines, and government law-enforcement, fire department and volunteer fire department vehicles; and separately exempts glass tinted before factory delivery as federal law permits.

THIS IS A RESTRICTION STATED WITHOUT A NUMBER, AND IT IS RECORDED AS ONE RATHER THAN CONVERTED INTO ONE. No maximum reflectance percentage appears anywhere in § 63-7-59. The test is whether the glazing "causes a mirrored effect", which is an appearance standard an officer applies by eye, not a meter reading. Any source publishing a Mississippi reflectance percentage is supplying a figure the statute does not contain. Note the reach: unlike the 28 percent rule, this one names the front windshield expressly and extends to side wings and rear windows.

See reflectivity_front. The prohibition is drafted as one sentence covering "the front windshield, side wings or side or rear windows of the vehicle", so the rear glass carries the identical standard and, likewise, no percentage.

THE OPTOMETRIST IS THE 2026 CHANGE. Laws, 2026, sb2453, § 1 — effective 1 July 2026 — added optometrists to what had been a physicians-only certification since 2015, and that is the ONLY substantive amendment it made to this section. Mississippi sets no permitted percentage for exempted vehicles: the exemption is from the section generally, not a relaxed figure, which distinguishes it from Tennessee (where a medical review board fixes a degree) and Arkansas (which prints explicit medical figures). The certificate is issued FREE OF CHARGE through the county tax collectors' offices, and the applicant must present both an affidavit attested by the physician or optometrist and proof of vehicle ownership. Under (9) it is a separate offence to alter or reproduce a certificate to mislead an officer or inspection station.

MISSISSIPPI'S LABEL IS NOT A FORMALITY — IT IS THE MECHANISM. Subsection (2) makes tinted driving unlawful UNLESS the windshield carries this label or the owner holds a medical certificate, so the label is the operative permission rather than evidence of one. It is issued by the Department of Public Safety to official tint inspection stations, goes on the LOWER LEFT CORNER of the windshield, must be pressure-sensitive, self-destructive upon removal and no larger than one inch square, and may only be affixed after the station has actually tested the window. The test costs a statutory $5.00, of which the station keeps $2.00 and remits $3.00 to the Department, and no fee may be charged unless a test is actually performed. Installing tint that would put the vehicle out of compliance, and issuing a label for a vehicle not entitled to one, are separate offences under (7) and (8) carrying up to $1,000 and three months in the county jail.