On a $450,000 single-family purchase in Miami-Dade with 5 percent down Hometown Heroes closing cost assistance , Florida's stamp and intangible taxes add $5,051.25 to the closing table before a single lender fee, title premium, or per-page recording charge is counted. About $2,351 of that sits in the buyer's column, and almost none of it appears in the "budget 2 to 5 percent for closing costs" rule of thumb most first-time buyers arrive with.
Florida has no state income tax, and it collects a meaningful share of the difference at the recording desk. Three separate levies attach to a financed purchase: documentary stamp tax on the deed, documentary stamp tax on the promissory note, and the nonrecurring intangible tax on the mortgage.
The deed tax is customarily the seller's line. The other two are the buyer's, and because they are measured against the loan amount rather than the sale price, your down payment moves them.
Florida charges $0.35 per $100 of the note in documentary stamp tax and a 2-mill nonrecurring intangible tax on the mortgage. On a $427,500 loan, that is $1,496.25 plus $855.00, both due at recording.
Rates verified September 2026. Every figure below comes from the Florida Department of Revenue's documentary stamp tax and nonrecurring intangible tax pages, Form GT-800014, and the Miami-Dade Clerk of the Court and Comptroller's recorder fee schedule.
These rates live in Chapters 199 and 201, Florida Statutes, with the Miami-Dade surtax in County Code section 29-7(D) — confirm the current schedule at floridarevenue.com and with your county clerk before you wire funds.
The Documentary Stamp Tax On Your Note
Florida taxes the promise to pay, not only the transfer of the property. The rate is $0.35 for each $100, or any portion of $100, of the obligation the document evidences.
On a purchase, that obligation is your promissory note, and the tax is collected when the mortgage securing it is recorded in the county where the property sits. You will see it labeled "doc stamps on the note," "state tax/stamps — mortgage," or simply "documentary stamps" depending on whose worksheet you are reading, and all three describe the same charge.
Two details drive the arithmetic. First, the tax is charged per $100 or portion thereof, so a note of $427,540 is taxed as though it were $427,600 — the clerk rounds the taxable amount up to the next full hundred.
Second, the base is the note amount, not the purchase price. A financed FHA upfront mortgage insurance premium or a financed VA funding fee rides inside the note and gets taxed along with it, which is why an FHA file and a conventional file at the same sale price rarely produce the same stamp figure.
Doc stamps on the note run $0.35 per $100, or any portion of $100, of the loan and are collected when the mortgage is recorded. The taxable amount rounds up to the next full hundred dollars.
Keep in mind that the widely quoted $2,450 maximum does not apply to a purchase mortgage. That cap governs unsecured notes and other written obligations to pay money; a note secured by a mortgage recorded against Florida real property is taxed on the full amount secured, with no ceiling.
The Nonrecurring Intangible Tax On Your Mortgage
The second buyer-side levy is the nonrecurring intangible tax, imposed under Chapter 199 on an obligation to the extent it is secured by a lien on Florida real property. The rate is 2 mills — $0.002 per dollar, or $0.20 per $100, or $2 per $1,000, depending on which form your closing agent prefers.
Unlike doc stamps, the intangible tax is calculated on the actual amount secured with no rounding, a distinction the Miami-Dade recorder's schedule states explicitly. A $427,500 mortgage therefore produces exactly $855.00.
The Department of Revenue names the lender as the taxpayer liable for this one, and expressly permits the lender to pass the amount through to the borrower. In residential practice it is passed through essentially every time, which is why it lands as a borrower charge on your disclosure.
"Nonrecurring" is the operative word, and it is narrower than it sounds. You pay the tax once when a given mortgage is recorded — but a new mortgage is a new lien, and a new lien generally means the tax runs again.
The nonrecurring intangible tax is 2 mills, or $0.002 per dollar of the amount secured by the mortgage. It is charged on the exact loan amount with no rounding and is due once, at recording.
Deed Doc Stamps And The Miami-Dade Exception
The third levy attaches to the deed and is measured by the total consideration paid, or to be paid, for the transfer. Statewide the rate is $0.70 per $100 or portion thereof, with a single county carved out.
In Miami-Dade the rate drops to $0.60 per $100 when the deed transfers a single-family residence. If the property is anything other than a single-family residence — a duplex, a commercial building, vacant land — a $0.45 per $100 surtax stacks on top of the $0.60, taking the effective rate to $1.05.
| Deed transferring a $450,000 property | Rate per $100 | Tax due |
|---|---|---|
| Any Florida county except Miami-Dade | $0.70 | $3,150.00 |
| Miami-Dade, single-family residence | $0.60 | $2,700.00 |
| Miami-Dade, anything other than a single-family residence | $0.60 plus $0.45 surtax | $4,725.00 |
Note that "consideration" reaches further than the cash price. The Department of Revenue counts money paid, the discharge of an obligation, any mortgage or lien encumbering the property, and property exchanged — so a buyer taking over a seller's existing loan pays deed stamps on that balance as well.
That matters if you are shopping an assumable FHA or VA mortgage, where the assumed balance plus the cash to the seller equals the taxable consideration. It matters on intra-family transfers too: a deed between spouses on a mortgaged property is generally taxed on half the outstanding balance, while an unmortgaged transfer or a marital-home transfer incident to divorce generally is not.
Deed doc stamps are $0.70 per $100 statewide. Miami-Dade charges $0.60 per $100 on a single-family residence, plus a $0.45 per $100 surtax when the property is anything else.
Who Pays Which Line
Florida law makes documentary stamp tax payable by any party to the taxable transaction, which means the statute does not decide your settlement statement — your contract does. If one party is exempt, such as a government agency, the tax falls entirely to the non-exempt party.
Under the standard FAR/BAR residential contract, the seller pays the documentary stamp tax on the deed while the buyer pays the documentary stamp tax on the note, the intangible tax on the mortgage, and the recording fees on the mortgage. All of it is negotiable, and in a slower market a seller credit can absorb the buyer's side entirely.
Be aware that this is a separate question from who pays for the owner's title policy, where Miami-Dade and Broward follow the opposite custom from most of the state. The two get conflated constantly during negotiation because both are county-flavored, and only one of them is a tax.
A $450,000 Miami-Dade Purchase, Dollar By Dollar
Take a single-family house at $450,000 with a conventional loan at 5 percent down. The down payment is $22,500 and the note is $427,500.
| Line item | Calculation | Amount | Customarily paid by |
|---|---|---|---|
| Deed doc stamps, Miami-Dade single-family | 4,500 hundreds at $0.60 | $2,700.00 | Seller |
| Doc stamps on the note | 4,275 hundreds at $0.35 | $1,496.25 | Buyer |
| Nonrecurring intangible tax | $427,500 times 0.002 | $855.00 | Buyer |
| Buyer's state tax total | Note stamps plus intangible | $2,351.25 | Buyer |
| Both sides combined | All three levies | $5,051.25 | Split |
Recording fees sit outside those figures and are charged per page, generally $10 for the first page and $8.50 for each additional page under section 28.24, Florida Statutes. A twenty-page mortgage and a two-page deed add roughly $200 more to Section E.
Run the identical house in Orange or Hillsborough County and the buyer's side does not move at all — $2,351.25 either way — while the seller's deed stamps climb to $3,150.00. The Miami-Dade single-family rate is one of the few closing line items in that county that comes in cheaper than the rest of the state.
Now change the financing instead of the address. At 20 percent down the note falls to $360,000, and the buyer's two taxes fall to $1,260.00 in stamps plus $720.00 in intangible tax, or $1,980.00 combined.
That is $371.25 less than the 5 percent-down version, which is a useful reminder of how these taxes behave. They follow leverage, so every dollar of additional down payment shaves 0.55 cents off the tax bill — small, but real, and worth knowing when you are deciding between putting cash into the down payment or into reserves you can tap later.
On a $450,000 Miami-Dade single-family purchase with 5 percent down, the buyer owes $1,496.25 in note stamps and $855.00 in intangible tax. The seller's deed stamps add $2,700.00.
The Same Loan As A Refinance
A refinance drops one of the three taxes outright. No deed is recorded, no interest in real property changes hands, and therefore no deed documentary stamp tax is due — which is the single biggest reason a Florida refinance closes cheaper than a purchase of the same size.
The other two survive, because a refinance with a new lender means a new note and a new mortgage lien to record. Say the borrower above refinances two years later with a different lender at a $410,000 balance.
| Refinance scenario | Doc stamps on note | Intangible tax | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rate-and-term, new lender, $410,000 note | $1,435.00 | $820.00 | $2,255.00 |
| Cash-out, new lender, $460,000 note | $1,610.00 | $920.00 | $2,530.00 |
| Same-lender modification, $50,000 in new money | $175.00 | $100.00 | $275.00 |
That third row is the one worth asking your loan officer about. Section 201.09, Florida Statutes, exempts a qualifying renewal note from additional documentary stamp tax where the renewal is executed by the original obligor, extends only the unpaid balance of the already-stamped obligation, and is accompanied by proof that the tax on the original was paid.
Where new money is advanced, the tax applies to the increase rather than to the whole balance, because the exemption exists to prevent principal from being stamped twice. The conditions are strict and the documentation is specific, so ask early whether your file is being written as a renewal or modification of the existing note or as a brand-new obligation.
This is also where the choice between a line of credit and a cash-out refinance picks up a Florida-specific wrinkle. Intangible tax on a HELOC is generally paid at recording on the full face amount of the line, after which no additional tax is due on draws against it.
A refinance owes no deed doc stamps, because no deed is recorded. A new note with a new lender still owes $0.35 per $100 in stamps plus 2 mills of intangible tax on the new mortgage.
Where Each Tax Lands On Your Closing Disclosure
All three levies appear on page 2 of the Closing Disclosure in Section E, "Taxes and Other Government Fees." Line 01 of that section carries recording fees broken out as Deed and Mortgage, and the lines beneath it carry the transfer taxes, split across the Borrower-Paid and Seller-Paid columns.
Read the columns, not just the section total. Seller-paid deed stamps appear in Section E but settle on the seller's side of the Summaries of Transactions on page 3, so a buyer scanning the section total alone can easily count a charge that is not theirs.
Transfer taxes carry a zero tolerance under the TRID disclosure rules, meaning the amount disclosed on your Loan Estimate cannot increase at closing absent a valid changed circumstance. Recording fees sit in the 10 percent aggregate bucket instead, so a modest per-page variance there is permitted while an unexplained jump in stamp tax is not.
One practical consequence follows from that. If your loan amount changes after the Loan Estimate — a smaller down payment, a switch to FHA, a funding fee rolled in — the stamp and intangible figures move with it, and you should receive a revised disclosure showing the new Section E lines.
Doc stamps and intangible tax appear in Section E, "Taxes and Other Government Fees," on page 2 of the Closing Disclosure. Read the Borrower-Paid and Seller-Paid columns separately.
What Else Moves The Number
A handful of situations change this arithmetic in ways worth flagging before you sign a contract. Each one is a question for your closing agent rather than a calculation to attempt on your own:
- Unrecorded documents. Doc stamp tax is still due on a note signed, executed, or delivered in Florida even when nothing is recorded, and it is reported to the Department on Form DR-225 or DR-228. Intangible tax on an unrecorded mortgage becomes payable directly to the Department if recording does not happen within 30 days.
- Nominal-consideration deeds. Because the tax is charged per $100 or portion thereof, a deed reciting $10 in consideration still generates $0.70 in stamps. Recite the wrong consideration on a mortgaged property, though, and you have understated a tax the Department can assess later with penalty and interest.
- Condominium classification. Whether a unit is treated as a single-family residence for the Miami-Dade surtax is a recording-desk determination, and the $0.45 spread is worth $2,025 on a $450,000 transfer. Confirm it before closing, particularly in the mixed-use and investor-heavy buildings covered in our guide to Florida condo financing.
- Seller financing. A purchase-money note held by the seller is taxed exactly like a bank note at $0.35 per $100. The mortgage securing it owes intangible tax at recording in the same way a lender's mortgage does.
- Basis, not deduction. Transfer taxes on a residence are generally added to basis by the buyer or netted against the sale price by the seller rather than deducted on a return. Confirm the treatment with a CPA before you file.
All of these come back to the same principle. The taxable number is the amount stated on the instrument being recorded, and the classification of the property being transferred — get both right on the front end and your closing figure is predictable weeks in advance.
How To Confirm The Rates Before You Sign
Do not carry a rate from a calculator page, including this one, into a wire instruction. The Florida Department of Revenue publishes the current documentary stamp and nonrecurring intangible rates on its own site, and Form GT-800014 restates them in plain language with examples.
For Miami-Dade specifically, the Clerk of the Court and Comptroller publishes a recorder fee schedule and an online recorder calculator that applies the $0.60 deed rate, the $0.45 surtax, the $0.35 mortgage stamp rate, and the $2-per-$1,000 intangible tax to a specific amount. Run your actual note amount through it, then set the output next to Section E of your Loan Estimate.
If the two disagree by more than a few dollars, the usual culprits are the rounding rule on stamps, a financed insurance premium sitting inside the note, or a surtax classification you did not expect. All three deserve a call to the closing agent before the file moves to docs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who pays the documentary stamp tax on the deed in Florida?
Florida law makes doc stamp tax payable by any party to the transaction, so the contract decides. Under the standard FAR/BAR residential contract the seller pays deed stamps and the buyer pays note stamps, intangible tax, and mortgage recording fees.
Is Florida documentary stamp tax capped at $2,450?
Only for unsecured notes. A note secured by a mortgage recorded against Florida real property is taxed on the full amount secured with no ceiling, so a $2,000,000 loan owes $7,000 in stamps.
Do I owe doc stamps again if I refinance with the same lender?
Possibly not. Section 201.09 exempts a qualifying renewal note executed by the original obligor that extends only the unpaid balance, with proof the original tax was paid, and any new money advanced is taxed on the increase.
Does the Miami-Dade surtax apply to a condominium unit?
The $0.45 per $100 surtax applies to deeds transferring anything other than a single-family residence. Classification happens at the recording desk, so confirm your unit's treatment with the Miami-Dade Clerk before closing — the spread is $2,025 on $450,000.
What happens if the mortgage is never recorded in Florida?
Tax is still owed. Doc stamps on an unrecorded note are reported to the Department of Revenue on Form DR-225 or DR-228, and intangible tax becomes payable directly to the Department if recording does not occur within 30 days.
Does an assumed mortgage balance count toward deed doc stamps?
Yes. Florida counts any mortgage or lien encumbering the property as consideration, so a buyer assuming a $300,000 loan and paying $150,000 in cash is taxed on the full $450,000 of consideration.
Putting It Into Your Closing Budget
The buyer's side of these taxes is predictable to the penny once the note amount is fixed: round the loan up to the next $100, multiply by 0.0035, then multiply the exact loan amount by 0.002 and add the two results. On a 5 percent-down Miami-Dade purchase at $450,000 that is $2,351.25 — real money, and money a seller credit or lender credit can be negotiated to cover.
If you are assembling a full Florida closing budget, work through our Florida mortgage guide for the loan-side costs and Florida homestead portability for what happens to your property tax bill after you close. The affordability map shows how Miami-Dade's cash-to-close compares with other metros, and buyers weighing Florida against a high-transfer-tax market can see how Chicago splits its transfer tax between buyer and seller.
Bring the note amount, not the purchase price, to that conversation. It is the number Florida actually taxes.
This article is for informational purposes and is not financial, mortgage, tax, or legal advice. Confirm current rates with the Florida Department of Revenue and your county clerk, and consult a licensed professional in your jurisdiction.