In NC, there's a month sticker and a year sticker on the license plate. The month sticker is permanent, indicating when during the year the registration expires. The year sticker is replaced once a year to indicate that you've paid the state your $25 (or whatever) for registering the car. Then there's a sticker on the windshield (driver's side lower corner) that indicates that you've had your car inspected (safety and emissions stuff) each year. In reality, a report is now submitted to the DMV (or whoever) that your car's been inspected, so that if you have a registered car that's not inspected, they send you a nasty note. They also changed the sticker itself so that it's impossible to see from a distance, rendering it basically useless. I wish they'd just get rid of them altogether. We used to have stickers for city taxes or something, too, but that was gotten rid of well before I started driving.