Florida Documentary Stamp Tax

The two doc stamp taxes in a Florida sale

"Doc stamps" is shorthand for a state excise tax on documents that transfer an interest in Florida real estate or create a debt. In a home purchase it shows up twice on the settlement statement:

• Deed doc stamps: charged on the consideration paid for the property, which for a normal sale is the purchase price.
• Note doc stamps: charged on the promissory note signed with the mortgage, based on the loan amount.

A third tax often sits next to them: the nonrecurring intangible tax of 0.2% of the mortgage amount. It is a separate tax, but the title company collects all three at closing and pays them when the documents are recorded with the county clerk.

The tax is computed per $100 or fraction of $100, so the taxable amount is rounded up to the next hundred before the rate is applied. On a $375,361 price, the deed tax is figured on $375,400.

Deed stamps: rate, examples and who pays

Outside Miami-Dade, the deed rate is $0.70 per $100, which works out to 0.7% of price. Using Zillow county values:

• Calhoun County, $166,734: about $1,168.
• Florida overall, $375,361: about $2,628.
• Palm Beach County, $475,754: about $3,331.
• Monroe County, $962,885: about $6,740.

Miami-Dade uses $0.60 per $100 for a single-family home. For any other property type, including condos and townhomes, a $0.45 surtax is added, for $1.05 per $100. At Miami-Dade's typical value of $523,240, that is about $3,140 on a single-family house and about $5,495 on a condo at the same price.

Under the standard Florida Realtors/Florida Bar contract the seller pays deed stamps. That default can be changed in negotiation. Builders often write their own contracts in which the buyer pays them, so look for that paragraph before you sign on new construction.

Mortgage stamps and the intangible tax

If you finance, you pay two taxes based on the loan amount:

• Note stamps: $0.35 per $100 of the loan, or 0.35%.
• Intangible tax: 0.2% of the loan.

With 20% down on a $375,361 home, the loan is about $300,289. Note stamps are about $1,051 and intangible tax about $601. With 3.5% down on the same price, the loan is about $362,223, and the two taxes rise to about $1,268 and $724.

The rate is the same in every county. Unlike the deed side, there is no special Miami-Dade rate for notes. A larger down payment reduces both taxes, and a cash purchase avoids them completely.

Refinancing triggers the taxes again on new money. A renewal of an existing note with no new money is generally exempt, and when a loan is increased, the tax is usually owed only on the added principal.

Transfers that are not a sale

People search doc stamps most often when they want to add a spouse to a deed, move a house into a trust or give property to a child. The tax follows consideration, and consideration is broader than cash.

• Gift with no mortgage: when no money changes hands and the property is free of debt, the tax is usually the minimum.
• Transfer of mortgaged property: the outstanding mortgage balance can count as consideration, so a deed adding someone to a house with a loan may owe tax on part or all of that balance.
• Transfer to your own revocable trust: generally treated as a nominal transfer when there is no change in beneficial ownership, but the facts matter.

These are the transfers where a real estate attorney earns the fee. This isn't legal or tax advice, and the Florida Department of Revenue's rules decide edge cases.

Where doc stamps sit in the buyer's budget

For a buyer, mortgage taxes are one of the few closing costs you can calculate exactly on day one. I add them first when I estimate cash to close, then layer on lender fees, title, insurance and prepaid taxes, which move around more.

Doc stamps also matter in negotiation. In a buyer-friendly stretch like the past year, when Zillow shows Florida values down 0.9% overall and condos down 3.9%, sellers are more open to covering costs. A seller credit can absorb your note stamps and intangible tax. The deed stamps are already the seller's by default, so asking a seller to cover them is rarely a concession worth trading for.

On new construction, check three things: who pays deed stamps, whether the builder's closing fee duplicates title charges, and whether incentives require the builder's lender. A credit that covers deed stamps you wouldn't have paid on a resale is not much of a gift.

Checking the doc stamp lines on your Closing Disclosure

Errors here are rare, but the lines are easy to verify, and I check them on every file. Here is how to read them:

• Find the right section. On the federal Closing Disclosure, transfer taxes and government recording fees appear under taxes and other government fees. The deed tax may show in the seller's column, the note tax and intangible tax in yours.
• Recompute from the loan amount. Round the loan up to the next $100, multiply by 0.0035 for note stamps, and multiply the loan by 0.002 for the intangible tax. If the figure is off by more than rounding, ask the title agent.
• Watch for seller credits. If the contract says the seller covers part of your costs, the credit appears as a lump sum. It doesn't change the tax itself, only who funds it.
• Watch the property type in Miami-Dade. A condo or townhouse should show the surtax on the deed side. A single-family house should not.
• Watch loan changes late in the deal. If your loan amount changes after a reappraisal or a change in down payment, the note stamps and intangible tax change with it. Ask for an updated estimate the same day.

Paying and recording

You don't file anything yourself in a normal purchase. The title agent or closing attorney calculates the tax, collects it on the settlement statement, and pays it when the deed and mortgage are recorded. The recorded deed shows the tax paid, which is why doc stamps on public records are used to estimate past sale prices.

That last point is useful when you're shopping. Dividing deed doc stamps by 0.007 gives an approximate sale price in most counties, a quick way to check what a neighbor paid. In Miami-Dade, divide by 0.006 for single-family homes. If you'd rather see recent sales pulled together for the homes you're watching, ask for a shortlist and I'll include them.