San Francisco Transfer Tax Affidavit: Rates, Exemptions, and Filing

Every deed, lease, easement, or similar conveyance recorded in San Francisco must be accompanied by a San Francisco Transfer Tax Affidavit, even when no tax is owed. The affidavit tells the Assessor-Recorder whether a taxable event occurred, how much consideration changed hands, and whether an exemption applies. Without it, the Recorder’s office will reject your document and your ownership won’t appear in the public record.¹

When You Need to File One

The affidavit is required for deeds, leases, easements, assignments of leases or subleases, transferable development rights transfers, and unrecorded legal entity transactions involving San Francisco real property.¹ It is not optional when the transfer is exempt. The Assessor-Recorder still needs the form to confirm no tax is due.

Recording is not complete until the affidavit, the deed, the Preliminary Change of Ownership Report (PCOR), the recording fees, and any transfer tax due are all submitted together.² A missing or inconsistent affidavit stalls the closing.

Information You Need Before You Fill It Out

Have these items in front of you before you start the form:

The Assessor’s Parcel Number (APN), from your most recent tax bill or the Assessor-Recorder’s online parcel lookup.
Full legal names and mailing addresses for every grantor and grantee.
Total consideration, calculated the San Francisco way (see below).
The type of deed being recorded (grant, quitclaim, or other instrument).
The exemption provision under Article 12-C you’re claiming, if any.

Every entry must match the deed. A grantor name that reads differently on the two documents, or a consideration figure that conflicts with the deed’s recitals, will bounce the filing back. The affidavit is signed under penalty of perjury, so accuracy is not a formality.

How San Francisco Calculates Consideration

This is where filers most often trip. Under California Revenue and Taxation Code Section 11911, the state’s baseline documentary transfer tax is calculated on the price paid minus any liens or encumbrances remaining on the property at closing.³ San Francisco’s ordinance does the opposite. Consideration on the affidavit includes the value of any lien or encumbrance still on the property at transfer.

The practical effect: buy a property for $2 million and assume an existing $800,000 mortgage, and San Francisco taxes you on the full $2 million, not $1.2 million. Missing this distinction produces an underpayment, and underpayments carry penalties and interest.

By local custom the seller pays the transfer tax in San Francisco, though the purchase agreement can shift that. Whoever pays, the tax has to be satisfied before the deed records.

Current Transfer Tax Rates

San Francisco uses a graduated schedule under Article 12-C, applied to the full consideration rather than to amounts above each threshold:

$100 or less: no tax
$101 to $250,000: $2.50 per $500 (0.50%)
$250,001 to $999,999: $3.40 per $500 (0.68%)
$1,000,000 to $4,999,999: $3.75 per $500 (0.75%)
$5,000,000 to $9,999,999: $11.25 per $500 (2.25%)
$10,000,000 to $24,999,999: $27.50 per $500 (5.50%)
$25,000,000 and above: $30.00 per $500 (6.00%)

A $1.5 million residential purchase generates $11,250 in transfer tax. A $12 million commercial sale generates $660,000. Confirm the applicable rate with the Assessor-Recorder before closing on a high-value transaction, since the top brackets have been the subject of pending amendments.⁴

Common Exemptions

Article 12-C lists specific exemptions, and the affidavit is where you claim one. The most frequently used are gifts, transfers between spouses and domestic partners, transfers into revocable trusts, and proportional interest transfers.

Gifts and Transfers Between Spouses or Domestic Partners

A genuine gift, meaning no consideration paid by the recipient, is exempt. The affidavit identifies the transfer as a gift, and the Assessor-Recorder may ask for supporting documentation if the claim looks inconsistent with the circumstances.

Transfers between spouses or registered domestic partners are exempt regardless of value, whether during the relationship or as part of a divorce or legal separation.¹

Transfers Into a Revocable Trust

Moving property into your own revocable living trust is exempt as long as proportional ownership doesn’t change. If the trust’s name includes the grantor’s name, the affidavit and PCOR are enough. If it doesn’t, you’ll need to supply proof that the trust is revocable and that the grantor created it, such as a copy of the trust, a trust declaration, or a certification of trust.¹ Transfers into an irrevocable trust require documentation showing the grantor is the sole current beneficiary.

Proportional Interest Transfers

When each owner’s percentage is identical before and after the transfer, no tax is due. Two partners who each hold 50% of a property and move it into an LLC where they each hold 50% qualify.¹ Any shift in the percentages breaks the exemption.

Every exemption is claimed under penalty of perjury. A false claim can trigger a 50% fraud penalty on top of the unpaid tax, plus interest.

Entity Ownership Changes Can Trigger Tax Without a Deed

A note on scope, because this is a common blind spot: San Francisco’s transfer tax reaches deedless transactions too. When a company, partnership, or LLC holding San Francisco real property is sold, the transaction can trigger transfer tax based on the property’s fair market value, not the sale price of the entity.¹

If Party A and Party B each own 50% of a property and transfer it into an LLC wholly owned by Party B, Party B has gone from 50% to 100%. That change triggers transfer tax on the full fair market value, not just the shifted half, because the LLC is treated as a separate legal entity from the original structure.¹ A restructuring that looks like a paperwork exercise can carry the same tax cost as an outright sale.

Filing and Payment

The completed affidavit, the deed, the PCOR, and payment all go to the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder together. You can submit in person, by mail, or through electronic recording if you qualify.² E-recording is largely limited to title companies and other institutional filers who carry at least $1 million in general liability insurance and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding through an approved vendor. Individual property owners generally file in person or by mail.

Payments are by check or money order payable to the San Francisco Assessor-Recorder. Recording fees are separate from the transfer tax, so plan for both. Mail-in filings usually take several days to a few weeks to return. Recording is not final until every fee and tax is paid, and if the Assessor-Recorder determines you underpaid, you’ll receive a notice for the balance with penalties already running.

Penalties for Late or Underpaid Tax

Article 12-C, Section 1115.2 sets a steep and compounding penalty structure:

A 25% delinquency penalty attaches as soon as the tax becomes delinquent.
An additional 10% applies if the tax is still unpaid 90 days after the delinquency date.
A 50% fraud penalty applies on top of the delinquency penalties if the Assessor-Recorder finds the underpayment was intentional.
Interest accrues at 1% per month, or any fraction of a month, from the delinquency date.

Penalties and interest become part of the tax itself, and the Assessor-Recorder can collect on the combined amount.⁵ On that $1.5 million residential sale where $11,250 was owed, a delinquency that runs past 90 days already tops $3,900 in penalties before interest is counted. If a deficiency notice arrives, respond to it. Waiting is the most expensive move available in this process.

1
City and County of San Francisco. Learn About Transfer Tax
2
City and County of San Francisco. Recording a Document
3
California Legislative Information. California Revenue and Taxation Code 11911
4
SFGov Legistar. Business and Tax Regulations Code – Real Property Transfer Tax Rates and Penalties
5
City and County of San Francisco. San Francisco Business and Tax Regulations Code – Section 1115.2 Penalties and Interest