Real Property
Real Estate Taxes:
Real Property Conveyance (Transfer) Fees:
Amounts Collected, by County, Calendar Year 2006
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 2006, conveyance fees generated $152.7 million: $49.0
million mandatory fees and $103.6 million from the permissive
fees. The number of conveyances by county on which the
mandatory transfer fees were collected ranged from 350 in
Vinton County to 32,320 in Franklin County. The total
mandatory transfer fees collected by each county ranged from
$17,830 in Noble County to $6.8 million in Franklin
County. The average mandatory transfer fee collected by
each county ranged from $49.53 in Noble County to $447.20 in
Athens County*, with a statewide average of $156.47.
The average total transfer fee,
including both mandatory and permissive fees, collected by
each county ranged from $56.98 in Morgan County to $1,788.82
in Athens County*, with a statewide average of $487.18.
For those counties that charge both the mandatory and
permissive fees, the total collected (both mandatory fee and
permissive fee) ranged from $64,270 in Monroe County to $21.4
million in Cuyahoga County.
Ohio Revised Code Section 319.54(F)(3) exempts certain
conveyances from the mandatory transfer fee. During 2006, a
total of 226,702 (42.0 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 29.0 percent exempted. Wyandot County, with 63.2
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
2006, resulting in a very high average fee.