Nevada Declaration of Value Form: Fields, Exemptions, and Filing

The Nevada Declaration of Value form must accompany every deed or land sale installment contract you present for recording at a county recorder’s office. The county will not record the deed without it. The form captures the parties, the parcel, and the value of the transfer so the recorder can calculate the Real Property Transfer Tax. A blank copy is available from the Nevada Department of Taxation at tax.nv.gov, on a template prescribed by the Nevada Tax Commission.¹

What to Enter as Total Value

The “Total Value” figure depends on the type of transfer. For a standard sale or land sale installment contract, value means the full purchase price paid or to be paid. For a gift, or any deed with nominal or no stated consideration, use the estimated fair market value instead.

Nevada defines estimated fair market value as the price the property would bring on the open market between a willing buyer and a willing seller. That figure can come from the county assessor’s taxable value or the prior purchase price, whichever is higher, as long as the prior purchase happened within the five years before the transfer date.²

Transfers worth $100 or less are not subject to the tax. Anything above that triggers both the form requirement and, unless an exemption applies, the transfer tax itself.

Completing Each Field

The form must be personally signed under penalty of perjury by the grantor, the grantee, or an authorized agent of either party.³ Gather everything before you start, because the recorder will not accept an incomplete form.

Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN). Find it on a prior tax bill or on the county assessor’s website. If several parcels are being transferred on one deed, list at least one APN on the form, write “see attached” beside it, and include a separate sheet with all parcel numbers.
Grantor and grantee information. Full legal names and current mailing addresses for the person transferring the property and the person receiving it. If a third party such as a title company is requesting the recording, that party’s name and address go on the form too.
Property use. Residential, commercial, agricultural, or other.
Total value. The full purchase price for a sale, or the estimated fair market value for a gift or a transfer without stated consideration.
Exemption claim, if applicable. The exemption number, the statutory basis, a written explanation, and whether the exemption applies to a partial interest.
Signature under penalty of perjury by the grantor, grantee, or their agent.

If the transfer is fully exempt from the tax, you do not need to declare a value, but you still have to submit the form and identify the exemption on it. The completed form is a public record and may be recorded or microfilmed by the county.¹

Claiming an Exemption

NRS 375.090 lists more than a dozen situations where the transfer tax does not apply. The exemption number matters, because you must cite the correct one on the form, and recorders regularly reject deeds when the exemption is identified or documented incorrectly. The ones that come up most often:

Exemption 1, change in business identity or form. Covers transfers between a business entity and its parent, subsidiary, or affiliated entity with identical common ownership. It does not apply if the receiving entity was created specifically to avoid the tax. County recorders require a Model Affidavit for Exemption 1, prepared by the Nevada Department of Taxation, before they will record.²
Exemption 2, government entity transfer. Any transfer of title to the United States, a state, or any political subdivision or agency of either.
Exemption 4, removal of a co-owner without consideration. When a joint tenant or tenant in common transfers their interest to the remaining co-owners for no payment. Expect the recorder to ask for a signed or certified closing statement showing no consideration changed hands.
Exemption 5, transfer to a close family member. Applies when the owner is related to the recipient within the first degree of lineal consanguinity or affinity, meaning parent to child, child to parent, or between spouses. State the relationship on the form, for example “from mother to son.”²
Exemption 6, divorce decree. A transfer between former spouses made in compliance with a decree of divorce. Bring a copy of the decree.
Exemption 7, transfer to or from a trust without consideration. Requires a certificate of trust at the time of recording. The certificate must identify the trust name and date, be signed by all current trustees with notarized acknowledgments, and include details about the trust’s revocability, the trustees’ powers, and the trust’s tax identification number.
Exemption 9, transfer to a wholly owned entity. Covers a conveyance to a corporation or business organization when the person transferring the property owns 100 percent of that entity.
Exemption 10, transfer-on-death deed. A deed that becomes effective only upon the grantor’s death under NRS 111.655 through 111.699, along with the related Death of Grantor Affidavit.
Exemption 11, bankruptcy reorganization. Transfers made to carry out a confirmed bankruptcy plan, as long as the conveyance is recorded within five years of the confirmation date. Provide the bankruptcy case number.

Documentation requirements vary by county. Clark County publishes a detailed exemption list specifying exactly which supporting documents the recorder wants.⁴ If you are not sure what your county requires, call the recorder’s office before you show up.

Submitting the Form With the Deed

Submit the completed Declaration of Value to the county recorder in the county where the property is located, along with the deed itself. The recorder will not accept one without the other. No separate fee is charged for recording the Declaration of Value; the statute specifically prohibits it.² You will pay the standard deed recording fee and the Real Property Transfer Tax at the time of recording, unless the transfer is exempt.

The transfer tax runs from roughly $1.95 to $2.55 per $500 of value depending on the county, with Clark County at the top of that range and rural counties at the bottom.⁵⁶ Buyer and seller are jointly and severally liable, so a private agreement about who pays does not affect the recorder’s ability to collect from either party.²

You can file in person or by mail. If mailing, include a check for the exact tax amount plus recording fees, and make sure the deed meets Nevada’s formatting rules: 8½-by-11-inch paper, single-sided, unbound, one-inch margins, no text smaller than 10-point Times New Roman, and a blank three-inch-by-three-inch space in the upper right corner of the first page for the recorder’s sticker.⁷

Why Filings Get Rejected

Recorders have discretion to reject documents that do not meet their standards, and some offices flag one problem at a time rather than listing every defect at once. The most frequent issues:

Incomplete or missing Declaration of Value. The recorder cannot calculate the tax without it.
Improperly documented exemption. Claiming an exemption without attaching the required supporting documents, whether a trust certificate, divorce decree, closing statement, or the Model Affidavit for Exemption 1, is one of the most common grounds for rejection.
Formatting violations. Wrong paper size, colored markings, missing margins, text too small, or no space for the recording sticker.
Date mismatches. Some recorders require the date on the deed to match the notarization date.
Entity signature problems. When someone signs on behalf of a business entity, the signer’s printed name and title must appear below the signature.
Notary block placement. The notary acknowledgment must appear on the same page as the notarized signature.
Missing legal description. Clark County now requires full legal descriptions on modifications to deeds of trust.⁷

If you are mailing documents, a rejection can delay recording by weeks. Double-check exemption documentation and formatting before it leaves your desk.

Penalties for a False Value

Anyone who willfully falsifies the value of transferred property on the Declaration of Value form is guilty of a misdemeanor and must pay the additional tax that should have been owed based on the true value. The form itself warns that the signer is declaring under penalty of perjury and may be asked to produce documentation supporting the stated figures.² Underreporting a sale price to reduce the tax is the fastest way to trigger that provision.

Fixing an Overpayment

If you overpaid the transfer tax because the value was stated incorrectly or the tax was computed wrong, file a refund claim with the county recorder where the tax was paid. The claim must be made on a refund request form available from that office, signed under penalty of perjury by the person entitled to the refund or their legal representative.⁸

Deadlines are strict. For unaudited claims, you must submit the request within six months of the recording date. If the overpayment is discovered through an audit, you have up to three years from the recording date. Once the recorder receives your request, the office must respond within 30 days.²

Attach supporting documentation showing both the original computation and the correct one. In Clark County, a refund request also requires a $42 cashier’s check or money order to cover the cost of recording the correction document.⁹ Other counties may charge their own correction-recording fee, so confirm the amount before mailing anything in.

1
Nevada Department of Taxation. Declaration of Value Form
2
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code 375 – Taxes on Transfers of Real Property
3
Legal Information Institute. Nevada Code NAC 375.180 – Declaration of Value; Claim for Refund of Overpayment; Date for Submission of Claim
4
Clark County, Nevada. Real Property Transfer Tax Exemptions
5
Clark County, NV. Land Documents
6
Lyon County, NV. Real Property Transfer Tax
7
Nevada Bar Association. Nevada Lawyer – Recording Documents
8
Nevada Legislature. Nevada Code NAC 375.180 – Declaration of Value; Claim for Refund of Overpayment; Date for Submission of Claim
9
Clark County, Nevada. Real Property Transfer Tax Refund Request Form