Ohio Real Estate Transfer Tax Calculator

Ohio's transfer tax has two components with very different footprints. The mandatory state conveyance fee, set at $1.00 per $1,000 (0.1%) under R.C. 319.54(G)(3), applies everywhere without exception. The much larger piece is the county's permissive real property transfer fee, capped at $3.00 per $1,000 (0.3%) under R.C. 322.02, and 87 of Ohio's 88 counties have chosen to levy that maximum rate, making the 0.3% county add-on the practical norm rather than an outlier.

Combined, a typical Ohio transaction owes roughly 0.4% total, split between the mandatory state fee and the near-universal county maximum. By common practice, the seller pays the conveyance fee at closing, though the purchase contract can specify a different arrangement. Because all but one county sits at the ceiling, Ohio's real variation is narrower than a state like Maryland, where local rates span a full 0% to 1.5% range.

On the calculator's $380,000 baseline, that combined rate produces $1,520 in total conveyance fees due, a figure that holds steady across 87 of Ohio's 88 counties regardless of whether the sale closes in Columbus, Cleveland, or a rural township.

1. Input Normalization: The sale price is converted to an exact Decimal value and floored at zero.
2. State Rate Lookup: The engine reads Ohio's mandatory stateRate of 0.001 (0.1%) from the statutory rate table.
3. County Average Rate Lookup: The engine reads Ohio's avgLocalRate of 0.003 (0.3%), reflecting that 87 of 88 counties levy the maximum permissive fee.
4. Combined Flat-Rate Multiplication: The sale price is multiplied by the combined 0.4% rate (state plus average local) using arbitrary-precision Decimal arithmetic to avoid rounding drift.
5. Net Proceeds: The sale price minus the computed combined transfer tax due yields the modeled net proceeds figure.

At the calculator's baseline sale price of $380,000: - Sale Price: $380,000.00 - Mandatory State Conveyance Fee (0.1%): $380.00 - County Permissive Fee at the common maximum (0.3%): $1,140.00 - Combined Transfer Tax Due: $1,520.00 - Net Proceeds After Transfer Tax: $378,480.00

Moving to the higher-value scenario of $1,500,000: - Sale Price: $1,500,000.00 - Combined Transfer Tax Due (0.4%): $6,000.00 - Net Proceeds After Transfer Tax: $1,494,000.00

These totals are confirmed by the calculator's verified test vectors: $380,000 at the combined 0.4% rate yields exactly $1,520.00, and $1,500,000 yields exactly $6,000.00. If your transaction happens to fall in the single Ohio county that has not adopted the maximum permissive fee, your actual combined rate could be lower, closer to the 0.1% mandatory minimum plus whatever lower permissive rate that county has adopted.

• The one Ohio county that has not adopted the maximum permissive fee. This calculator models the common 0.4% combined rate that applies in 87 of 88 counties; confirm your specific county's adopted rate if it is the outlier.
• Exemptions for certain transfers. Ohio law exempts specific transfer types, including transfers between spouses and certain governmental conveyances, from the conveyance fee.
• Title insurance and settlement fees. These closing costs are separate from the state and county conveyance fees modeled here.
• Real estate commissions. Agent commissions are negotiated separately and are typically the largest single cost at closing.
• Recording fees charged by the county recorder. These are distinct, flat per-page fees for filing the deed itself, unrelated to the conveyance fee.

• Using only the 0.1% mandatory state rate. This dramatically understates the real cost in the 87 counties that add the full 0.3% permissive fee, for a combined 0.4%.
• Assuming the permissive fee is optional or rarely used. In practice it is used almost everywhere in Ohio, so treating it as an edge case produces inaccurate estimates for the overwhelming majority of transactions.
• Confusing the conveyance fee with recording fees. Ohio counties charge separate, flat recording fees to file the deed itself, on top of the percentage-based conveyance fee.
• Assuming the buyer pays the conveyance fee. By common Ohio practice, the seller pays the conveyance fee, though the purchase contract ultimately governs the allocation.
• Assuming every county's permissive rate is identical. While 87 of 88 counties use the $3.00 per $1,000 maximum, the outlier county's rate should be verified directly rather than assumed to match.

• Ohio Department of Taxation, Real Property Conveyance Fee (R.C. 319.54(G)(3) and R.C. 322.02).