Florida Documentary Stamp Tax & Miami Closings (2026)

Last updated: July 2026

The Florida documentary stamp tax is a transfer tax the state levies on two separate documents at a Miami closing: the deed that conveys the property, and the promissory note or mortgage that finances it. On the deed, the rate statewide is 70 cents per $100 of consideration, but Miami-Dade is the exception. Here the deed rate is 60 cents per $100, plus a 45-cent-per-$100 surtax that applies to everything except a single-family dwelling [1]. On the note, the rate is 35 cents per $100 of the amount financed, and financed purchases carry a third line item, the nonrecurring intangible tax, at 2 mills (0.002) on the loan amount [1][2]. Custom in a Miami-Dade purchase assigns the deed stamps to the seller and the note stamps plus intangible tax to the buyer, though every term is negotiable in the contract. If you are underwriting a Miami purchase or sale, these three taxes are predictable, statutory, and worth modeling before you sign, because on a seven-figure price they move real money.

The three taxes, separated cleanly

People lump these together as closing costs, but they are three distinct charges under two chapters of Florida law. Keeping them separate is the only way to model a closing accurately.

1. Documentary stamp tax on the deed

This is the tax on the transfer of ownership itself. It is calculated on the total consideration, meaning the purchase price, and rounded up to the next full $100 increment (the statute reads "or portion thereof").

In 66 of Florida's 67 counties the deed rate is 70 cents per $100. Miami-Dade is the lone exception. The base deed rate here is 60 cents per $100, and the county layers on a 45-cent-per-$100 surtax on top of it [1]. The surtax is the part most people get wrong, so read the exemption carefully: the surtax is not due on a document that transfers only a single-family dwelling [1].

That single-family carve-out matters enormously in a condo-heavy market like Miami. A single-family house is taxed at the 60-cent base only. A condominium, a duplex, a vacant lot, a mixed-use building, or commercial property gets the full 60 plus 45, which is $1.05 per $100. On the same price, a condo deed can carry roughly 75 percent more transfer tax than a house, purely because of the surtax.

2. Documentary stamp tax on the note

Finance the purchase and you trigger a second documentary stamp tax, this one on the promissory note. The rate is 35 cents per $100 of the amount financed, again rounded up to the next $100 [1]. This applies to the obligation to pay money, so it is driven by the loan amount, not the purchase price. Note stamps on a written obligation are capped at $2,450 when the tax is on the note itself, though on a mortgage securing the note the 35-cent rate applies to the full amount secured with no cap [1]. A cash buyer with no loan pays no note stamps at all.

3. Nonrecurring intangible tax on the mortgage

The third charge is the nonrecurring intangible tax, imposed under Chapter 199 of the Florida Statutes at 2 mills on each dollar of the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property [2]. Two mills is 0.002, so the math is simply the loan amount times 0.002. It is nonrecurring, meaning it is paid once at recording, not annually. Like note stamps, it is a financing tax, so a cash purchase avoids it entirely.

Under the statute the lender is the taxpayer liable for the intangible tax and the note stamps, but the lender is permitted to pass both through to the borrower, which in practice is exactly what happens on a residential loan [2].

A worked example on a Miami purchase

Numbers make this concrete. Take a representative Miami-Dade purchase: a $900,000 condominium, financed with a $675,000 mortgage at 75 percent loan-to-value. Because a condo is not a single-family dwelling, the surtax applies.

Deed documentary stamp tax (customarily the seller):

$900,000 divided by 100 equals 9,000 taxable units
Base tax: 9,000 times $0.60 equals $5,400
Surtax: 9,000 times $0.45 equals $4,050
Deed stamps total: $9,450

Note documentary stamp tax (customarily the buyer):

$675,000 divided by 100 equals 6,750 taxable units
6,750 times $0.35 equals $2,362.50

Nonrecurring intangible tax (customarily the buyer):

$675,000 times 0.002 equals $1,350

The seller's transfer-tax exposure is $9,450. The buyer's financing-tax exposure is $2,362.50 plus $1,350, or $3,712.50. Together the transaction generates $13,162.50 in state and county stamp and intangible tax, before any recording fees, title charges, or the property tax proration.

Now change one variable. Make it a $900,000 single-family house instead of a condo. The surtax disappears, and the deed stamps drop from $9,450 to $5,400, a $4,050 swing driven entirely by property type. That is the single most consequential rule in Miami-Dade transfer tax, and it is why the deed classification on the closing statement deserves a second look.

Who customarily pays, and why it is negotiable

Custom in Miami-Dade is straightforward. The seller pays the deed documentary stamps. The buyer pays the note documentary stamps and the intangible tax, because those are financing costs tied to the buyer's loan. A cash buyer therefore pays neither note stamps nor intangible tax, which is one quiet advantage of an all-cash offer that rarely makes it into the headline price.

Custom is not law, though. Florida statute makes the parties jointly liable for the deed tax, and the lender is the statutory taxpayer on the financing taxes, so who actually writes the check is a matter of contract. In a buyer's market a seller may agree to credit some closing costs. In a competitive situation a buyer may absorb charges that custom would assign to the seller. If you are structuring an offer, treat these taxes as a line you can move, not a fixed cost. If you want help modeling how transfer tax interacts with your net proceeds or your cash to close, a buyer consultation or a conversation about selling your Miami home is the place to run the numbers before the contract is signed.

Why 2026 buyers and sellers should model this early

These rates have been stable, but the dollar amounts are not, because Miami prices are not. As consideration rises, every one of these taxes scales linearly with it, and the surtax question on non-single-family property becomes a larger and larger number. On a $2,000,000 condo, the surtax alone is $9,000. Modeling the tax at offer stage, not at the closing table, is the difference between a clean net sheet and a surprise.

Two practical checks. First, confirm the property classification, because the single-family exemption is binary and worth thousands. Second, if you are financing, remember that your note stamps and intangible tax follow the loan amount, so a larger down payment shrinks both. Neither of these is exotic. They are just line items that reward reading the closing disclosure the way an underwriter would.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Florida documentary stamp tax rate in Miami-Dade County?

On a deed, Miami-Dade charges 60 cents per $100 of the purchase price, plus a 45-cent-per-$100 surtax on any property that is not a single-family dwelling [1]. A single-family house pays the 60-cent base only. Every other county in Florida charges a flat 70 cents per $100 on the deed [1].

Does the Miami-Dade surtax apply to condos?

Yes. The surtax exemption covers a document that transfers only a single-family dwelling [1]. A condominium is not a single-family dwelling for this purpose, so a condo deed carries the full 60-cent base plus the 45-cent surtax, or $1.05 per $100 of consideration.

Who pays the documentary stamp tax and intangible tax at a Miami closing?

By local custom, the seller pays the documentary stamp tax on the deed, and the buyer pays the documentary stamp tax on the note plus the nonrecurring intangible tax on the mortgage. The statute makes the lender the taxpayer on the financing taxes but allows the lender to pass them to the borrower [2]. All of it is negotiable in the purchase contract.

How much is the Florida intangible tax on a mortgage?

The nonrecurring intangible tax is 2 mills, or 0.002, on the loan amount secured by Florida real property [2]. On a $675,000 mortgage that is $1,350, paid once at recording. A cash purchase with no mortgage owes no intangible tax.

Do cash buyers avoid these taxes?

A cash buyer still owes the deed documentary stamp tax, because that tax is on the transfer of ownership. But a cash buyer owes no note documentary stamps and no intangible tax, since both of those attach only to financing. Removing a loan removes two of the three charges.

Gabriel

Sources

Gabriel A. Moyers, PA. eXp Realty. Florida License #3407280. Equal Housing Opportunity. This article is general information as of July 2026 and is not legal, tax, or financial advice. Verify current figures against authoritative sources before acting.