Real Property
Real Property Conveyance (Transfer) Fees: Amounts
Collected, by County, Calendar Year 2008
Ohio Revised Code Section 319.54(G)(3) establishes a
mandatory transfer fee on the conveyance of real property.
The fee is based on the value of the property that is
transferred: one dollar per thousand dollars of value. 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: 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.
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. It should be noted that a
couple Ohio counties did not submit data for tax year 2008:
Perry and Vinton. Prior year data was used in place for those
counties.
In 2008, conveyance fees generated $99.0 million: $31.4
million mandatory fees and $67.6 million from the permissive
fees. The number of conveyances on which the mandatory
transfer fees were collected ranged from 327 in Noble County
to 29,707 in Cuyahoga County. The total mandatory transfer
fees collected by each county ranged from $14,877 in Morgan
County to $4.5 million in Franklin County. The average
mandatory transfer fee collected by each county ranged from
$41.79 in Morgan County to $291.73 in Delaware County, with a
statewide average of $132.88.
For those counties that charge both the mandatory and
permissive fees (all excluding Ross county), the total
collected, including both mandatory and permissive fees,
ranged from $44,631 in Morgan County to $13.3 million in
Cuyahoga County. The average total transfer fee
collected by each county ranged from $125.37 in Morgan County
to $878.58 in Delaware County, with a statewide average of
$419.22.
Ohio Revised Code Section 319.54(G)(3) exempts certain
conveyances from the mandatory transfer fee. During 2008, a
total of 197,690 (45.5 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 36.0 percent exempted. Wyandot County, with 69.0
percent, had the highest percentage exempted.