The Colorado documentary fee is a state charge on real property transfers, set at one cent for every $100 of consideration paid, collected by the county clerk when a deed is recorded.1Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed – Amount – To Whom Payable On a typical home sale it comes to a small dollar figure, but it is mandatory, it must be paid before the deed can be recorded, and misstating the price or refusing to pay is a misdemeanor.
How to Calculate What You Owe
The fee is one cent per $100 of total consideration. Consideration means more than the cash price. It includes any liens, encumbrances, and charges tied to the transaction. If the total leaves a remainder greater than $50, round up to the next $100 before applying the rate.1Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed – Amount – To Whom Payable
A $500,000 purchase produces a $50 fee. A $750,000 purchase produces a $75 fee. The math is small, but the obligation is not optional.
Two situations drop the fee to zero:
- No consideration passes between the parties.
- The total consideration, including liens and charges, is $500 or less.
When one transaction covers property in more than one county, each county clerk collects a share proportional to the consideration tied to the property located in that county. Whoever presents the deed is responsible for making that allocation.1Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed – Amount – To Whom Payable
Who Pays It and When
The statute places the fee on the person who presents the deed for recording. In practice that is usually the buyer or the title company handling closing, though the purchase contract can assign the cost either way.1Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed – Amount – To Whom Payable
Once the fee is paid, the county clerk marks the document with the words “State Documentary Fee,” the amount paid, and the date. That notation goes onto the recorded instrument and serves as proof the fee was satisfied.2FindLaw. Colorado Code 39-13-103 – Evidence of Payment of Fee
A deed subject to the fee cannot be recorded until the fee is paid and the notation appears. A clerk who knowingly records one without collecting the fee is personally guilty of a misdemeanor and faces a $50 fine.3Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-105 – No Deed Recorded Unless Documentary Fee Paid That is why skipping the fee is not an option in practice: the deed simply stays unrecorded, and most lenders will not close a loan until the transfer is on the public record.
Transfers That Owe No Fee
Colorado exempts a long list of transfers from the documentary fee, no matter the dollar amount involved. The exemption has to be claimed when the deed is presented.4Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-104 – Exemptions
Government, Gifts, Death, and Court Orders
A deed is exempt if the United States, a federal agency, Colorado, or any political subdivision is the buyer or the seller. The government entity still has to disclose the consideration, either by affidavit or by writing it on the document; the fee is waived but the price disclosure is not.4Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-104 – Exemptions
Gifts of real property owe no fee regardless of value or relationship. Transfers resulting from the death of an owner are exempt, and so are transfers made by court decree.
Documents That Don’t Transfer Full Title
Several instruments are exempt because they do not convey ownership in the way the fee is meant to capture:
- Corrective deeds filed only to fix an error in an earlier recording.
- Mortgages and deeds of trust given to secure a loan.
- Leases and lease assignments.
- Documents conveying a future interest.
- Rights-of-way and easements.
Forced-Sale Deeds and Other Specific Exemptions
Public trustee foreclosure deeds, tax lien treasurer’s deeds, and sheriff’s deeds are all exempt. So are cemetery lot transfers and short-term executory contracts for sale of real property running less than three years, where the buyer takes possession without receiving title. Assignments and cancellations of those short-term contracts share the exemption.4Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-104 – Exemptions
Penalties for Non-Payment or Misstating the Price
Colorado treats documentary fee violations as criminal matters. Two acts are unlawful under the statute:
- Failing or refusing to pay the fee when it is due.
- Knowingly telling the county clerk a consideration amount higher or lower than what was actually paid.
Either is an unclassified misdemeanor. A conviction carries a fine between $50 and $500.5Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-106 – Unlawful Acts – Penalty
The misstatement rule matters more than the dollar penalty suggests. Assessors use the recorded consideration as data when valuing other property in the area, so a knowingly inflated or deflated figure creates a false comparable in the public record. The savings on the fee itself are measured in pennies; the exposure is a misdemeanor and a flawed assessment record.
The practical consequence of simply not paying is that the deed is not recorded. An unrecorded deed leaves the buyer without public proof of ownership, which creates problems with title insurance, resale, and lender requirements.3Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-105 – No Deed Recorded Unless Documentary Fee Paid
Documentary Fee vs. Recording Fee
The documentary fee is not the same thing as the county recording fee, and both appear on a Colorado closing statement. Recording fees cover the clerk’s cost of processing and storing the document. Colorado standardized these at a flat $40 per document, replacing the older per-page structure.6Colorado General Assembly. HB24-1269 – Modification of Recording Fees
The documentary fee is on top of that. The statute states it is “in addition to any other fee fixed by law for the recording” of the deed, so the two charges stack: a flat recording fee that does not depend on sale price, plus the documentary fee scaled to consideration.1Justia. Colorado Code Title 39 – Section 39-13-102 – Documentary Fee Imposed – Amount – To Whom Payable
Federal Tax Treatment
You cannot deduct the Colorado documentary fee as a real estate tax on a federal return. The IRS classifies transfer and stamp taxes as non-deductible, and the documentary fee sits in that category.7Internal Revenue Service. Publication 530 (2025), Tax Information for Homeowners
It is not wasted at tax time, though. A buyer who pays the fee can add it to the cost basis in the property, which reduces the taxable gain on a later sale. A seller who pays it can treat it as a selling expense, which reduces the gain reported from the sale.8Internal Revenue Service. Publication 523 (2025), Selling Your Home