A transfer tax affidavit is the sworn statement you submit with your deed at the county recorder’s office to declare the sale price and other details the local government uses to calculate the transfer tax owed on a real estate transaction. In jurisdictions that impose a transfer tax, the recorder will not accept your deed for recording without it. The affidavit is also where you claim any exemption, so filing it correctly is what keeps an unexpected tax bill off the new owner’s file.
Roughly 14 states impose no transfer tax at all. If your property sits in one of them, you can stop here. Everywhere else, the affidavit is part of closing.
What Goes on the Form
The form differs by county, but the required fields are consistent. You’ll enter the property identification number, sometimes called the assessor’s parcel number, which ties the transaction to the correct parcel in county records. You’ll list the full legal names and mailing addresses of the seller (grantor) and buyer (grantee). Many forms also require a legal description of the property when the parcel number alone isn’t enough to identify it.
The field that causes the most trouble is the consideration — the total value exchanged for the property. How consideration is defined varies. Some counties count the full purchase price, including any mortgage or lien the buyer assumes. Others tax only the amount above and beyond existing liens. Enter the wrong figure and you either overpay or trigger an underpayment notice, so confirm your jurisdiction’s rule before writing the number in. Whatever you report has to match your final closing documents exactly. Discrepancies between the affidavit and the recorded deed are a common reason filings get rejected.
Who Signs and What the Signature Means
Either the buyer or the seller can sign the affidavit. In most jurisdictions an attorney or authorized representative with direct knowledge of the transaction can sign on behalf of a party. A power of attorney usually grants that authority, provided the document specifically covers real property.
The signature is made under oath. Everything on the form is being certified as accurate, and material misrepresentation can be charged as a misdemeanor in many counties. Recorders reserve the right to refer suspect filings to the district attorney, so treat the numbers and the exemption code with the same care you would treat a tax return.
How the Tax Itself Is Calculated
Transfer tax rates are set at the state or local level and vary widely. At the low end, some states charge as little as $0.01 per $100 of value. At the high end, rates exceed 1.5% of the sale price, and a handful of cities layer their own tax on top of the state rate. On a $400,000 home, the total bill can run from a few hundred dollars to several thousand depending on the address.
Who pays also depends on local law and custom. The seller usually covers the transfer tax, but some states split it between buyer and seller, and in competitive markets the responsibility sometimes shifts to the buyer through negotiation. Your purchase agreement should say who pays, and the closing agent will collect the tax before submitting the deed for recording.
Claiming an Exemption
Most jurisdictions that impose a transfer tax carve out exemptions for transactions where ownership doesn’t really change or no money changes hands. The affidavit is where you claim the exemption by citing the applicable statutory provision. Skip that step, even on a legitimately exempt transfer, and the county will bill the new owner for the full tax.
The most widely recognized exempt categories are:
- Transfers between spouses, including transfers required by a divorce decree.
- Transfers into a revocable living trust, and distributions from the trust to beneficiaries after the creator’s death.
- Property passing through a will or intestate succession.
- Gifts where no money or value is exchanged, provided you can demonstrate no consideration.
- Conveyances to or from federal, state, or local government entities.
- Corrective or confirmatory deeds re-recorded solely to fix a clerical error, where no new consideration is involved.
Each jurisdiction keeps its own list of exemption codes. Your title company or closing attorney should know which one applies, but check the form before signing. An incorrect or missing code is one of the most common reasons affidavits come back.
Filing the Affidavit
The affidavit goes to the county recorder in the county where the property sits, submitted at the same time the deed is presented for recording. The recorder won’t stamp the deed until the affidavit and any tax owed are in hand. Three filing methods are standard:
- In person. You or your representative hand the documents to the clerk, who reviews them on the spot and can flag problems before you leave. It’s the fastest way to catch formatting issues.
- By mail. Certified mail works, but the package needs the exact filing fees, the tax payment, and a self-addressed return envelope. Errors discovered after arrival mean the whole thing gets mailed back.
- E-recording. Title companies and attorneys increasingly submit electronically. E-recording is available in thousands of jurisdictions and generates an immediate digital timestamp. It’s now the most common method for professional closings.
Beyond the transfer tax, expect a separate recording fee for processing the document, typically $10 to $25 for the first page with additional pages costing a few dollars each. Notarization, where required, adds a small fee. The recorder issues a stamped copy or receipt confirming the tax was paid and the deed recorded. Keep that receipt with your closing file. Your mortgage lender will want a copy.
Fixing an Error After Recording
If you discover a mistake on the affidavit after it’s been recorded — a wrong parcel number, an incorrect sale price, a missing exemption code — contact the recorder’s office as soon as you can. The usual fix is an amended or corrective affidavit. If the error caused an underpayment, you’ll owe the difference plus any penalties or interest. If you overpaid, you can generally request a refund, though the process and timeline vary.
Corrective deeds filed only to fix clerical errors are usually exempt from additional transfer tax, but you still need to follow the correction procedure and cite the right exemption code. Quietly re-recording a document without going through the process creates conflicting entries in the chain of title, and that’s a bigger problem than the original error.
A Note on Federal Taxes
A local exemption doesn’t clear federal obligations. If you transfer property as a gift and its fair market value exceeds $19,000 — the annual gift tax exclusion for 2026 — the donor must file IRS Form 709, even if no gift tax is ultimately owed. The $19,000 threshold is per recipient, per year. Married couples can elect gift-splitting to double it to $38,000 per recipient without touching their lifetime exemption.
Gift recipients also inherit a basis consequence. When you receive property as a gift and its fair market value at the time of the gift equals or exceeds the donor’s adjusted basis, your basis is the donor’s original basis, not the current market value. If parents bought a house for $150,000 and gift it when it’s worth $500,000, the recipient will owe capital gains tax on $350,000 of appreciation at sale. That carryover basis rule catches many people off guard.
Records to Keep
The IRS advises keeping records related to a real property purchase until at least three years after the due date of the return for the year you sell the property, not the year you buy it. In practice that means holding the transfer tax affidavit, closing statement, and deed for as long as you own the home, plus three years after you sell.1Internal Revenue Service. Publication 523 (2025), Selling Your Home Some states impose longer retention periods for property tax matters, so check your state’s rule before discarding anything.
These records establish your cost basis. If the IRS questions your basis at sale and you can’t produce the closing documents, you may end up paying tax on a larger gain than you actually realized. A scanned copy in the cloud alongside your paper originals is cheap insurance.