Your father will need to return the Florida license plate to Florida since that is where the tag and registration on the car was issued. The Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles (HSMV) states that when you have sold a car, are taking insurance off of a car or moved out of state and registering the car there you must return the license plate may to a Florida driver license or tax collector office.

The license plate must be turned in to a driver license office or tax collector in FL to prevent a driver license suspension when Florida insurance is taken off of a vehicle. The vehicle registration will be printed indicating license plate canceled (when the license plate is returned to a tax collector's office) or the registration will be stamped "canceled" (when the license plate is returned to a driver license office).

Massachusetts' Registry of Motor Vehicles would not be able to accept or process your father's license plates since they are from out of state and have out of state registration associated with them. Your father doesn't have to go to Florida to return the plates though, the state of Florida does accept license tags returned in the mail. Your father may want to send the plate certified mail or in a different way that has verification that the FL HSMV received the plates so that in the future he can have proof he sent the plates back when he cancelled his insurance.

The FL HSMV site lists the address for returning license plates for disposal as: Division of Motor Vehicles, Neil Kirkman Building, Mail Stop 63, Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0500 and request the license plate be cancelled and recycled. Before your father sends in his plate though he may want to contact the FL HSMV customer service center at 850-617-2000 to see if this address is correct for his needs and if he needs to send any paperwork with the plates so that he can than cancel his insurance without any penalties.

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