Real Property
Real Estate Taxes:
Real Property Conveyance (Transfer) Fees:
Amounts Collected, by County, Calendar Year 2005
Ohio Revised Code Section 319.54(F)(3) establishes a
mandatory transfer fee on the conveyance of real property.
The fee is one dollar per thousand dollars of value of real
property transferred. In addition, Ohio Revised Code Section
322.02 allows the board of county commissioners of each
county to levy a permissive real property transfer fee of up
to three dollars per thousand dollars of value of real
property transferred. In simple terms, both the mandatory fee
and the permissive county fee (a combined maximum of 4 mills)
apply to the selling price of real estate at the time of
sale. The revenue from both the mandatory fee and the
permissive fee is deposited in the general fund of the
county--none of the revenue goes to the state.
In 2005, conveyance fees generated $152.1 million: $52.0
million mandatory fees and $100.1 million from the permissive
fees. The number of conveyances by county on which the
mandatory transfer fees were collected ranged from 310 in
Vinton County to 34,197 in Franklin County. The total
mandatory transfer fees collected by each county ranged from
$17,693 in Vinton County to $7.2 million in Franklin County.
The average mandatory transfer fee collected by each county
ranged from $40.87 in Meigs County to $427.62 in Athens
County*, with a statewide average of $142.28. The average
total transfer fee, including both mandatory and permissive
fees, collected by each county ranged from $50.77 in Morgan
County to $1,710.47 in Athens County*, with a statewide
average of $416.45. For those counties that charge both the
mandatory and permissive fees, the total collected (both
mandatory fee and permissive fee) ranged from $58,547 in
Monroe County to $21.0 million in Cuyahoga County.
Ohio Revised Code Section 319.54(F)(3) exempts certain
conveyances from the mandatory transfer fee. During 2005, a
total of 237,671 (41.5 percent of the total) transfer fee
statements filed with the county auditors were exempted from
the fee. The lowest percentage exempted was in Warren County
with 28.1 percent exempted. Wyandot County, with 67.1
percent, had the highest percentage exempted.
Table PC-1 shows the revenues collected by each county from
both the mandatory transfer fee and the permissive real
property transfer fee. The data presented in the table were
compiled from a survey of county auditors conducted by the
Ohio Department of Taxation.
* Several high value properties were sold in Athens County in
2005, resulting in a very high average fee.