When a Massachusetts deed is recorded and money changed hands, the registry collects the deeds excise: $2.28 for each $500 of consideration, or any fraction of $500, which works out to $4.56 per $1,000. The figure it is charged on is what was paid less any mortgage or lien that stays on the property, and no excise is due when that figure is $100 or less. In Barnstable County the state and county excises together are $6.48 per $1,000. The statute puts the tax on the person who signs the deed, the grantor.
This page explains how the excise is computed, what counts and what is subtracted, why Barnstable is different, the separate land bank fee on the two island counties, and how it is paid at the counter. Our deed excise exemptions page covers the transfers that owe nothing, and the Massachusetts quitclaim deed page has the deed itself.
The Rate, and How the Registry Rounds
The excise statute charges $2 for each $500 of consideration, or any fractional part of $500, on a deed by which real estate sold is conveyed to a purchaser. A 14 percent surcharge imposed by a separate act raises that to $2.28, and $2.28 per $500 is the figure every registry and the Department of Revenue collect, usually written as $4.56 per $1,000. Because the rate applies to each $500 or part of one, the registry rounds the consideration up to the next $500 before multiplying. A price of $30,100 is taxed as $30,500, and $30,600 as $31,000.
The arithmetic, then, is: round the consideration up to a multiple of $500, divide by $500, and multiply by $2.28. On $400,000 that is 800 units, or $1,824. On $412,300 it is $412,500, 825 units, or $1,881. The excise is shown on the recorded deed by stamps.
What the Excise Is Charged On
The tax is on the consideration of the interest or property conveyed, "exclusive of the value of any lien or encumbrance remaining thereon at the time of the sale". Consideration is what the purchaser gives for the property, in money or anything else of value. The words after it are the part that matters to family deeds: a mortgage that the grantee takes over, or that simply stays on the property, is subtracted before the rate is applied. The Department of Revenue's directive on the point, which the registers' statewide standards repeat, says the outstanding balance of an assumed mortgage is deducted from the consideration when calculating the excise. It asks the drafter to state both figures on the deed: the full consideration, meaning the mortgage being assumed plus any money paid, and the amount of the mortgage.
That produces a deed with two numbers on it, and they are both right. The recital statute requires the deed to state the full consideration without deducting any lien the grantee assumes or that remains, so the recital says $250,000. The excise statute deducts the $200,000 mortgage, so the excise is charged on $50,000. A deed to a relative who takes over the loan and pays nothing else recites the loan balance and owes no excise.
The same directive settles a deed in lieu of foreclosure: when a lender takes the property back and cancels the debt, the consideration is the debt canceled plus any cash paid, and the excise is due on it. And a sale of a beneficial interest in a nominee trust for more than $100 is taxed like a deed, because the trust form does not change what was sold. The stamps go on the assignment whether or not it is recorded.
The $100 Line
No excise is due where the consideration, after the mortgage subtraction, is $100 or less. The statute starts the first $2 at a consideration that "exceeds one hundred dollars," so a deed for nominal consideration, or a gift with none, carries no stamps. The deed still recites what was given, because the recital statute wants the amount or the nature of the consideration on every deed. A registry that sees "for no monetary consideration" or "for consideration of less than $100" records the deed without stamps. What is taxed is a sale; a transfer that is not one has nothing to compute.
Barnstable County
Cape Cod pays more, for a reason written into both the statute and the county's charter. The excise statute sets the state rate in Barnstable County at $1.50 per $500 instead of $2, which with the surcharge is $1.71 per $500 or $3.42 per $1,000. Barnstable's regional government, created by charter in 1989, then levies its own county excise, which its ordinances have raised in steps to $3.06 per $1,000 since July 1, 2016. The two together are $6.48 per $1,000, or $3.24 per $500, and the Barnstable registry collects both at once, rounding the consideration up to the next $500 in the same way. The $100 threshold applies there too.
The registry's page states the combined rate as a single multiplier: the consideration, rounded up, times 0.00648. On $400,000 that is $2,592, against $1,824 anywhere else in the state.
Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard: the Land Bank Fee
The state excise applies on the islands like everywhere else, at $4.56 per $1,000. On top of it, each island has a land bank, created by its own act of the Legislature to buy open land. It is funded by a fee of 2 percent of the purchase price on every transfer of real property in Nantucket County and in the member towns of Dukes County. The law puts the fee on the purchaser, and says an agreement shifting it to the seller does not change who is liable to the land bank.
The fee changes the order of recording. The deed goes to the land bank first, with the land bank's form and either the fee, by bank or attorney's check, or a claim of exemption on the exemption form with its supporting papers. The land bank issues a certificate that the fee was paid or the transfer is exempt, and the register of deeds may not record a deed without that certificate attached. Both land banks will take the whole package by mail and walk the deed to the registry themselves, with the registry's own checks for the recording fee and excise stamps enclosed.
The exemptions cover most family deeds, but the buyer has to prove the claim. A gift without consideration is exempt, with a presumption that a below-market transfer to a spouse, child, grandchild, parent or grandparent is a gift to the extent of the difference; a transfer to anyone else, a brother or sister included, is presumed to have been paid for at full market value. So are a transfer into a trust in exchange for a beneficial interest, and a distribution out of one; a corrective or confirmatory deed with no new consideration; a division of marital assets in a divorce; and a transfer to the government. A first-time buyer is exempt on the first part of the price, which was $1,400,000 on Nantucket as of January 2026 and is set each year by the Martha's Vineyard commission. A first-time buyer who claims it has a lien recorded for the fee waived, which stays until the act's five-year conditions are met.
Who Pays, and How
The statute says the excise is paid by the person who makes or signs the deed, or for whose benefit it is signed, which means the grantor. In a sale that is the seller, which is why the excise is commonly called the seller's tax stamps. The parties may agree between themselves who bears the cost, but the registry looks to the deed for its stamps either way.
Payment is shown by stamps affixed to the deed, which the registry sells and applies at recording. A register may refuse to record a deed that does not carry the stamps the register determines it needs, so in practice the excise is paid at the counter or with the mailed package. Some registries take the excise only by attorney's or bank check, separate from the check for the recording fee, and will not take a personal check for it, and each registry's fee page will say which it wants. If stamps are affixed in error, the person who overpaid may apply to the Commissioner of Revenue for an abatement.
Three Examples
- A $525,000 sale anywhere outside Barnstable County. Consideration $525,000, already a multiple of $500. 1,050 units at $2.28: $2,394, plus the $155 recording fee.
- The same sale in Barnstable County. $525,000 times 0.00648: $3,402, plus the $155 fee.
- A parent deeds a house with a $180,000 mortgage to a daughter, who takes over the loan and pays nothing else. The deed recites $180,000 as the full consideration and states that it is the mortgage assumed. For the excise the mortgage is subtracted, leaving nothing over $100: no excise, and the $155 fee. If the daughter also paid $20,000, the excise would be on $20,000: $91.20.
Massachusetts Deed Excise Tax — Common Questions
How much is the Massachusetts deed excise?
$2.28 for each $500 of consideration or any part of $500, which the registries state as $4.56 per $1,000. The consideration is rounded up to the next $500 first, and nothing is due when it is $100 or less. Barnstable County's combined state and county excise comes to $6.48 per $1,000.
Is the excise charged on a mortgage the buyer takes over?
No. The statute charges the excise on the consideration exclusive of any lien or encumbrance remaining on the property at the time of the sale, and the Department of Revenue treats an assumed mortgage the same way: its outstanding balance is subtracted before the rate is applied. The deed still recites the full price including the mortgage, because the recital statute is written the other way, and the registries ask that the mortgage amount be stated as well so the excise clerk can subtract it.
Who pays the Massachusetts deed excise?
The person who signs the deed, by statute, which is the grantor. That is the seller in an ordinary sale, which is where the name seller's tax stamps comes from. The buyer and seller may agree otherwise between themselves, but the registry only cares that the stamps are on the deed.
Why is the excise higher in Barnstable County?
Because Barnstable is the one county in Massachusetts with its own excise. The state rate there is set lower, at $1.50 per $500 before the surcharge, and the county's regional government adds a county excise under its 1989 charter, raised by ordinance to $3.06 per $1,000 in 2016. State and county together come to $6.48 per $1,000, which the registry collects as one payment.
Is there an extra transfer fee on Nantucket or Martha's Vineyard?
Yes, and it is separate from the excise. Each island's land bank charges 2 percent of the purchase price, paid by the buyer, and the deed cannot be recorded until the land bank has certified that the fee was paid or the transfer is exempt. Gifts, a transfer into a trust in exchange for a beneficial interest, a distribution out of a trust, divorce divisions, corrective deeds and part of a first-time buyer's price are exempt. The buyer has to prove it, and a gift to anyone but a spouse, child, grandchild, parent or grandparent is presumed to have been paid for at full market value. The deed goes to the land bank first, and the land bank delivers it to the registry.
Official Sources
Massachusetts's laws are collected in the General Laws, and a citation such as chapter 64D, section 1 is an address: the chapter, then the section within it. Each links to the section on the Legislature's website, or to the office's own page, and opens in a new tab.
- Chapter 64D, section 1 — the excise: $2 per $500 or fraction, the $1.50 state rate in Barnstable County, the $100 threshold, the exclusion of liens and encumbrances remaining on the property, and the exemption for deeds to which the Commonwealth, a city or town, or the United States is a party.
- Chapter 64D, section 2, section 4 and section 6B — paid by the person who makes or signs the deed and denoted by stamps; abatement of stamps affixed in error; the register may refuse a deed without its stamps.
- Chapter 183, section 6 — the recital of full consideration on every deed, defined as the total price without deducting any lien the grantee assumes or that remains.
- Massachusetts Deed Indexing Standards, version 4.0, section 9 — the registers’ statement of the $2.28 rate, the treatment of an assumed mortgage and a deed in lieu of foreclosure under Department of Revenue Directive 88-18, partitions under Directive 89-13, and nominee trust interests under Directive 95-5. Cited without a link because the standards are posted on individual registry websites rather than on a state site.
- Chapter 262, section 38 and chapter 44B, section 8 — the $100 fee for recording a deed and $30 for a declaration of homestead; the $50 community preservation surcharge on recording fees, which does not apply to a homestead declaration. A separate $5 registry surcharge in chapter 9, section 31 brings a deed to $155.
- Barnstable County Registry of Deeds — Fee Schedule and Recording Procedures and A Brief History of the County Excise Tax in Barnstable County — the $6.48 combined rate, the 0.00648 multiplier and rounding rule, and the ordinances that set the $3.06 county share.
- Town and County of Nantucket — What is the deeds excise tax? — the $4.56 per $1,000 state rate as the Nantucket registry applies it, with its rounding example.
- Nantucket Islands Land Bank — Transfer FAQ and Land Bank Act, section 12 — the 2 percent fee on the purchaser, what to send, the exemptions, and the 2026 first-time buyer amount.
- Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank — the Land Bank Law and Processing a Transaction — sections 10 and 12: the fee, the certificate the register must see, and the exemptions; the documents the land bank needs with the deed.
Tax and fee amounts checked against the Massachusetts General Laws and the registries’ published fee schedules on September 4, 2026.