The transfer tax isn't a property tax. It doesn't show up on the bill, Prop 13 has nothing to say about it, and nobody budgets for it until the closing statement arrives. San Francisco charges it on every recorded transfer, tiered by price, and the tier applies to the whole price, not the slice above the line. On a $2,000,000 home it's $15,000; on a $5,000,000 home it's $112,500. It funds the City's general fund, which is to say the services everyone in the city uses, and it's part of what a sale here costs.
The usual assumption is that it's the seller's problem. On a resale, by custom, it is. On new construction the developer writes the contract so it's yours, which is why a new-condo closing statement runs heavier than the one on a resale down the block. Either way it's negotiable, and in a slow market it gets negotiated.
Transfer Tax Calculator
Plug in the price. The default is a $2,000,000 resale. Toggle Mission Bay and the neighborhood's 0.25% Community Enhancement fee lands on the same line.
Rates per Article 12C of the San Francisco Business and Tax Regulations Code; the tax is $X per $500 or portion thereof, so the exact figure rounds up to the next $500. By custom the seller pays on a resale and the buyer on new construction, but it's negotiable. This is a planning tool from a real estate broker, not tax advice; the Assessor-Recorder collects the tax at recording.
Read on to learn:
- 🧮 The calculator: your transfer tax at any price, and what the Mission Bay fee adds.
- 📊 The six tiers, and why the whole price moves to the next rate at each line.
- 🤝 Who pays: resale custom, new-construction custom, and what's actually in the contract.
- 🚫 What's exempt: spouses, trusts, gifts, inheritance, refinancing, and the seismic/solar refund.
- 🏢 The transfers people don't expect to be taxed: LLCs, long leases, adding a co-owner.
- 📋 How it's paid, the affidavit, and the math worth doing before you set a price.