Long Island transfer tax calculator

New York taxes every transfer of real property at $2 for each $500 of the price, which is 0.4%. On a $650,000 house that’s $2,600. State law puts the tax on the seller, the grantor, and makes the buyer liable only if the seller fails to pay or is exempt (Tax Law § 1404). It’s paid with Form TP-584, normally when the deed is recorded.

The higher rates added in 2019, up to 0.65% on expensive sales, apply only in cities of a million people or more, which in New York means New York City. Long Island pays the flat 0.4%.

A buyer who pays $1 million or more for a one-, two- or three-family house, a condo or a co-op owes an extra 1% of the whole price, not just the part above $1 million. So a house at $999,999 owes no mansion tax and the same house at $1,000,000 owes $10,000.

New York City charges a graduated mansion tax that climbs to 3.9%. Outside the city, including all of Nassau and Suffolk, it stays at 1%. Vacant land and commercial property don’t pay it. On a $1.25 million house in Huntington, the buyer owes $12,500.

Take the price, subtract the town’s allowance, and multiply the rest by the rate. A $900,000 house in Southold owes 2.5% of $700,000, which is $17,500. State law gives the allowance only on residential sales of $2,000,000 or less, so a $2.5 million house in Southampton owes 2.5% of the full price, $62,500. Riverhead hasn’t updated its local law since before that rule, so for a Riverhead sale over $2 million, or any commercial sale on the East End, ask your title closer how the allowance is applied.

In East Hampton, Shelter Island, Southampton and Southold, a first-time buyer of a primary home pays nothing if the price and household income are within limits tied to the State of New York Mortgage Agency’s programs (Tax Law § 1449-ee). The application goes to the town before closing. Otherwise your title closer collects the tax at closing and files it with the deed at the Suffolk County Clerk.

The allowances are the ones title companies have applied since April 1, 2023. For Riverhead, state law lists a $200,000 allowance for houses, but title-company charts and local reporting through 2026 use $150,000, so the calculator does too. Confirm the figure for your sale with your attorney or title closer.

Nassau and Suffolk are in the Metropolitan Commuter Transportation District, so a mortgage recorded here pays 1.05% in three parts: a 0.50% basic tax, a 0.30% additional tax and a 0.25% special additional tax. On a one- to six-family home the lender pays the 0.25%, which leaves the borrower 0.80%; on other property, including a lot that won’t have a home on it, the borrower pays all 1.05%. When the lender is a credit union or a person (a seller holding the mortgage, say) and the property is a one- to six-family home, the 0.25% isn’t charged at all (Tax Law § 253). On a one- or two-family house the first $10,000 of the loan is exempt from the additional tax, which takes $30 off.

A $520,000 mortgage on a Nassau house costs the borrower $4,130 and the lender $1,300. Loans for co-op apartments are secured by shares, not recorded as mortgages, so they don’t pay this tax.

When a seller’s mortgage can be assigned to the buyer’s lender, a consolidation agreement (a CEMA) lets the buyer pay tax only on the new money. It needs both lenders to agree and carries its own fees, so ask your attorney early if you want to try.