Marin County Transfer Tax: Rates, San Rafael Surtax, and Exemptions

The Marin County transfer tax is $1.10 per $1,000 of the property value that actually changes hands, collected by the Recorder’s Office when the deed is recorded. If the property is inside the City of San Rafael, add another $2.00 per $1,000 of the full property value for the city’s own transfer tax, bringing the combined rate to $3.10 per $1,000. By local custom the seller pays, and escrow deducts it from the sale proceeds at closing.

How the County Rate Is Calculated

California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911 authorizes counties to charge $0.55 per $500 of value, which works out to $1.10 per $1,000, and Marin applies that standard rate countywide.1California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 11911 – Documentary Transfer Tax Act2County of Marin Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. Fees

The tax runs on the equity actually transferred, not the sticker price. If a buyer takes over an existing $400,000 mortgage on a $1,000,000 home, the taxable amount is the $600,000 of equity, and the county tax is $660.1California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 11911 – Documentary Transfer Tax Act

The statute reads “$0.55 per $500 or fractional part thereof,” so taxable amounts that don’t land on an even $500 round up to the next increment. A taxable value of $501,000 is treated as $501,500 for the calculation. The rounding rarely moves the final number much on a Marin price point, but it does mean the bill is always a little above a clean percentage.

The Extra Transfer Tax in San Rafael

San Rafael is a chartered city, and it charges its own transfer tax of $2.00 per $1,000, stacked on top of the county’s $1.10 with no credit against it.2County of Marin Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. Fees On a $1,500,000 home in San Rafael the combined transfer tax is $4,650, versus $1,650 in an unincorporated part of the county.

Two mechanics matter here. First, Section 11911(b) lets general law cities impose only half the county rate and credits that amount against the county tax, so in those cities the total stays at $1.10 per $1,000. Chartered cities like San Rafael are not subject to that cap, which is why the San Rafael tax is additive.1California Legislative Information. California Code Revenue and Taxation Code 11911 – Documentary Transfer Tax Act Second, the San Rafael tax is calculated on the full property value, while the county tax is calculated only on the equity above assumed liens. In a sale where the buyer assumes an existing mortgage, that difference adds a few hundred dollars.

Other incorporated cities in Marin don’t add their own stacked tax under this statute, so unless the property sits inside San Rafael’s city limits, the $1.10 per $1,000 county rate is the whole bill.

Who Pays

California law lets the parties decide who pays, but in Marin County the seller customarily does, and escrow pulls the amount from the seller’s proceeds before issuing the net check. The same custom covers the San Rafael city tax where it applies.

Because this is custom and not law, the purchase agreement controls. Buyers sometimes offer to absorb closing costs, including the transfer tax, to make a bid more attractive. If you’re splitting costs in any non-standard way, put it clearly in the purchase agreement so escrow calculates it correctly.

Transfers That Are Exempt

Sections 11921 through 11930 of the Revenue and Taxation Code list the transfers that don’t trigger the tax. The ones that come up most often in Marin:

Registered domestic partners hold nearly all the same state-law rights as married spouses, and the interspousal exemptions apply to them on the same terms.

To claim any exemption, the deed must show the transfer tax as “$0” or “none” on its face and identify the specific Revenue and Taxation Code section that applies. Without that notation, the Recorder’s Office will require full payment before it processes the document.

What Has to Be on the Deed

Every deed submitted to the Marin County Recorder must include a Documentary Transfer Tax declaration, either on the face of the deed or on a separate transmittal form.9County of Marin Assessor-Recorder-County Clerk. Documentary Transfer Tax Transmittal The declaration shows the Assessor’s Parcel Number, the property address, whether the parcel is in an incorporated city or unincorporated territory, the total consideration, and the calculated tax. Payment is due at the time of recording; the office won’t record a deed without full payment or a properly noted exemption. In most sales, the title company handles the filing electronically as part of closing.

The Bigger Bill That Follows: Reassessment

The transfer tax is a one-time cost, but recording a deed triggers a property tax reassessment that can dwarf it. Under Proposition 13, the assessor resets the property’s assessed value to current fair market value as of the ownership change.10California Department of Tax and Fee Administration. Change in Ownership – Frequently Asked Questions In Marin, where many homes have been held for decades under the 2% annual cap, the jump can be large. A home last sold in 1990 might sit on the roll at $350,000 while the market value is $1,800,000; after the sale it resets to the market figure.

Buyers then receive a supplemental tax bill covering the gap between the old and new assessed values for the rest of the current fiscal year, which runs July 1 through June 30, prorated by month.11California State Board of Equalization. Supplemental Assessment A closing in October produces a bill for nine months. A transfer between January and May produces two bills: one for the remaining months of the current fiscal year and a second for the full upcoming fiscal year.

Supplemental bills arrive months after closing and are not covered by the escrow impound account, so plan for them separately. On a Marin property where the assessed value jumps by $1,000,000, a full-year supplemental bill runs roughly $10,000 to $12,000 depending on the local tax rate, with partial-year bills prorated from there.