The PT-61 is Georgia's real estate transfer tax return. You fill it in online, free, on the Clerks' Authority website before the deed is recorded, and the clerk cannot record a deed until it has been filed and any tax paid.
File it even when you owe nothing. A gift to a relative is exempt from the tax, but the exemption is claimed on the PT-61, so a deed that passes title without one does not get recorded. One PT-61 goes with each deed, and the map and parcel number is required.
What the PT-61 Is and Where It Came From
Georgia taxes the transfer of land. The Department of Revenue describes the real estate transfer tax as an excise tax on transactions where title passes from a seller to a buyer, and the law says that before a deed can be recorded in the clerk of superior court's office the tax has to be paid. When it has been, the clerk attaches a certification to the deed saying so. The PT-61 is the form on which the tax is declared, and it does a second job at the same time: it tells the county tax office who now owns the property, so the property tax bills go to the right person.
It used to be a paper form. The paper version was discontinued in late 2004, and since then the PT-61 has been filed online through the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority, the body the Legislature set up to run the clerks' records systems. The Department of Revenue decides what the form asks; the Clerks' Authority built the system that asks it. Filing is free and needs no account.
What you end up with is a single printed page, the reference copy, with a reference number in its top corner. The information itself is already sitting in the Authority's database. When the clerk records your deed and enters that reference number in the county index, the form and the deed are linked, and the record goes on to the Department of Revenue and the county's tax officials.
When You Need One
A PT-61 is required whenever property ownership is transferred. That is the Clerks' Authority's own answer to the question people ask most, which is whether the form is needed when no money changes hands, for example to take a name off a deed. It is. A quitclaim deed transfers ownership, so a quitclaim deed always needs one.
Four kinds of document are excused from filing the form altogether: a security deed or any other instrument given to secure a debt; a release of a security interest; a lease, other than a lease for years; and an affidavit that does not transfer property. None of those is a quitclaim deed.
Two timing points are worth knowing. A transfer-on-death deed needs no PT-61 when it is recorded, because nothing passes at that moment; the form is needed later, when the beneficiary records the affidavit accepting the property after the owner's death. And where a single property lies in more than one county, a deed and a PT-61 are filed in each county, with the value split between them.
What the Tax Costs
The tax is $1.00 on the first $1,000 of consideration or value, and 10 cents on each further $100 or part of one, and it is charged only where the value passing is more than $100. On a $300,000 sale that is $300. The law makes the seller liable for it, though a sales contract can shift it to the buyer between themselves.
A mortgage already on the property is left out. The tax is worked out on the consideration or value "exclusive of the value of any lien or encumbrance existing prior to the sale and not removed by the sale". In several states an outstanding mortgage is what turns a family gift into a tax bill; in Georgia it is subtracted rather than added.
The filing system works the sum out for you once the value is entered, and sets the tax to zero when an exemption is chosen. The value still has to be entered: an exempt transfer is reported at its value with the tax at nothing, not left blank.
The other charge, paid when the deed is recorded rather than when the form is filed, is the clerk's recording fee. Since 2020 that has been a flat $25 for a deed in every Georgia county, whatever its length.
The Exemptions That Matter to a Quitclaim Deed
The exemptions are from paying the tax, not from filing the form. Each one is programmed into the filing system with its legal basis shown when you select it. The ones that reach the transfers this site is about:
- Deed of gift. Any deed that voluntarily transfers title for no consideration, meaning nothing of value is received in return. A transfer to a child or a parent for nothing is this one.
- Divorce-based transfer. A transfer between husband and wife in connection with a divorce case.
- Estate deed. A deed of assent or distribution by an executor, administrator, guardian, trustee or custodian, and other transfers to or from a fiduciary, provided there is no valuable consideration.
- Division between co-owners. A deed that divides property among joint tenants or tenants in common, where the only consideration is the division itself.
- Correction deeds. A deed correcting an error in an earlier filing, or confirming title already vested to clear a flaw in it, where no consideration is paid.
- You and your own company. A transfer between one or more individuals and a corporation, partnership or other entity in which those same individuals hold a majority interest, in either direction.
Pick the exemption that actually describes the transfer. The wording of the deed and the exemption on the form should say the same thing, because both end up in the county's records side by side.
Filing It, Screen by Screen
The filing walks through five tabs, and each field has a question-mark button with its own help text. In order:
- Seller. The owner before the transfer, which for a quitclaim deed is the grantor. Only one seller's name is required even where there are several, because the PT-61 is a tax form, not the property record.
- Buyer. The person receiving the property, the grantee. Use the name exactly as it appears on the deed.
- Property. The county is always required, and so is the city if the property is inside city limits. The map and parcel number is required by law on every filing; it is on the property tax bill. A condominium goes in by unit number in the lot-and-block field. Only one address can be entered.
- Tax. Enter the sale price, consideration or estimated value. If an exemption applies, choose it from the list and read the description that appears beneath it. The tax is calculated for you.
- Preview and accept. No signatures are needed. You check a box declaring that the information is true and correct to the best of your knowledge, then generate the PDF and print it. The Clerks' Authority suggests two copies, one to keep and one for the clerk.
If you find a mistake before the clerk has it, file a new form online and discard the old one. If the clerk already has it, tell the clerk's office so the filing can be corrected. Anyone without a computer can use one at a library or at the public terminal every clerk's office keeps.
Recording After the PT-61: the 2025 Change
Until the end of 2024, the next step was to take the reference copy and the signed deed to the clerk's counter. Since January 1, 2025, that is no longer how an owner recording their own deed does it. A law passed in 2024 requires anyone Georgia calls a self-filer to record deeds electronically through the Clerks' Authority eFile portal, after verifying their identity. A self-filer is any party to the deed who is not a Georgia attorney, a title insurance agent, a licensed real estate broker or agent, a bank, a mortgage lender or servicer, a licensed surveyor, or a public official acting officially. If you are recording your own quitclaim deed, that is you.
The portal asks for the PT-61 during the filing: you enter its reference number, and if you have not filed one yet there is a link to do it there and then. You upload the signed, witnessed deed as a PDF or TIFF, pay the recording fee online, and the clerk's office reviews the filing and accepts or rejects it. Our Georgia quitclaim deed page covers the identity check and the rest of that process in its recording step.
The PT-61 itself has not changed. It is still filed first, still free, still one per deed. What changed is that its reference number now goes into an online filing rather than being handed across a counter.
What This Means for Your Georgia Quitclaim Deed
- Find the map and parcel number before you start; the form cannot be completed without it.
- File the PT-61 online first, choose the exemption that fits if one does, and print the reference copy.
- Have the deed signed in front of an officer and one other witness, then record it through the eFile portal with the PT-61 number, unless you fall into one of the groups that may still file on paper.
Next step: our Georgia quitclaim deed page has the full sequence, from the witness rule to what recording costs.
Georgia PT-61 — Common Questions
What does PT-61 mean in Georgia?
PT-61 is the number of Georgia's real estate transfer tax return, the form the state uses to collect its tax on transfers of title and to tell the county who the new owner is. Since 2004 it has been filled in online, free, on the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority website. What you print at the end is a one-page reference copy with a number on it, and that number is what the clerk uses to tie the form to your recorded deed.
Do I need a PT-61 for a quitclaim deed when no money changes hands?
Yes. The Clerks' Authority is asked that exact question in its own FAQ and answers that a PT-61 is required whenever property ownership is being transferred. The only filings excused are security deeds and other debt instruments, releases of a security interest, leases other than a lease for years, and affidavits that transfer nothing. A quitclaim deed transfers ownership, so it needs the form, and a transfer for no money is simply one where you select the deed-of-gift exemption on the tax screen and the tax comes out at zero.
Where do I file the PT-61, and what does it cost?
On the Clerks' Authority website, where the PT-61 eFiling page is free to use and needs no account. You enter the seller, the buyer, the property and the value, choose an exemption if one applies, accept the declaration and print the reference copy. The transfer tax itself, if any, and the clerk's recording fee are paid when the deed is recorded, not when the form is filed. If you have no computer, every clerk of superior court keeps a public terminal you can use.
Is the map and parcel number required on the PT-61?
Yes. A 2006 Georgia law requires the map and parcel field to be completed on every PT-61, and the filing system marks it as required. The number is on the county's property tax bill or its online tax assessor records. If the parcel genuinely has no number yet, the Clerks' Authority says to enter "N/A"; for a lot just carved out of a larger tract, enter the parent tract's number.
What if the property lies in two counties?
You file a deed and a PT-61 in each county. The Clerks' Authority's instruction is to split the value between the counties in proportion to how much of the property lies in each, enter that share on each county's PT-61, and pay each county its share of the tax. An affidavit setting out the split has to accompany the filings.
Official Sources
Georgia's laws are collected in the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, and a citation such as O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1 is an address: the numbers are the title, the chapter and the section. You do not need any of them to follow this page.
The code sections below are listed by number rather than linked, and that is deliberate. Georgia does not publish its own code at a web address that stays put — the state's free access point hands each visitor a fresh address that stops working afterwards — so the numbers are given plain, for you or an attorney to look up. The front door does stay put: the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, published for the state by LexisNexis, opens in a new tab, and typing a section number into its search box brings up the wording. The agencies that do publish at fixed addresses are linked.
- O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1 — the transfer tax rate, and the rule that a lien already on the property is excluded from the value it is worked out on.
- O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2 — the exemptions, including deeds of gift, and the requirement that consideration be shown on the form in order to claim one.
- O.C.G.A. § 48-6-4 — no deed may be recorded until the tax is paid and the consideration is shown on the form.
- O.C.G.A. § 44-2-2 — who is a self-filer, and the rule that a self-filer's deed must be recorded electronically from January 1, 2025.
- O.C.G.A. § 15-6-77 — the clerk's fees, including the flat fee for recording a deed.
- Clerks' Authority — PT-61 eFiling — the Authority's own description of the tax and the filing, and the way in to the form.
- Clerks' Authority — PT-61 eFiling FAQ — when a form is required, the filing exemptions, multi-county property, the map and parcel rule, and transfer-on-death deeds.
- Clerks' Authority — PT-61 Getting Started Guide — the screens in order, and the full list of tax exemptions with the wording shown for each.
- Georgia Department of Revenue — Real Estate Transfer Tax — the department's explanation of the tax, the rate, and who is liable for it.
- Clerks' Authority — eFile Portal — where a self-filer records a deed since 2025, with the identity verification notice and guides.
- House Bill 1292 (2024), as passed — the Act that created the self-filer rule and the identity requirement, on the Legislature's website.
Tax and fee amounts checked against Georgia's code and the Clerks' Authority's own instructions on September 3, 2026.