Sacramento transfer tax, worked out to the penny
Sell a house anywhere in Sacramento County and the county collects $1.10 for every $1,000 of the price when the deed records. If the house sits inside City of Sacramento limits, the city adds its own $2.75 per $1,000, which makes $3.85 per $1,000 in all. No other city in the county stacks a tax on top of the county's.
Those are small rates on big numbers. On a $500,000 house inside the city, the two together come to $1,925, and that is real money on a line most sellers never think about until the estimated net sheet arrives.
Where the county rate comes from
The authority is Revenue and Taxation Code section 11911. It lets a county board of supervisors adopt an ordinance taxing each deed that conveys real property, at "fifty-five cents ($0.55) for each five hundred dollars ($500) or fractional part thereof." Sacramento County has adopted one. The tax applies when the consideration is over $100, and the statute measures the value exclusive of any lien that stays on the property after the sale.
The county's own documentary transfer tax FAQ puts it in plainer terms: $.55 for each $500 or fractional part of the property's value, less any loans the buyer assumes, paid when the document transferring the property is recorded. In an ordinary sale where your loan gets paid off, nothing is assumed, so the base is the full price.
Note the words "fractional part." The county does not prorate a partial $500. It rounds up.
The City of Sacramento uses a $155,237 sale as its own example, so I'll borrow it. Divide by 500 and you get 310.474. Any fraction counts as a whole unit, so that's 311 units, and 311 times $0.55 is $171.05. The county's transfer tax declaration instructions add a rule that catches this kind of slip: the tax shown must be evenly divisible by $0.55. If an amount on a draft deed won't divide by 55 cents, somebody multiplied instead of counting units.
The City of Sacramento's separate tax
Inside city limits there is a second tax, and it works differently. The city's real property transfer tax page says the tax is imposed under City code 3.16, has existed since 1978, and is charged at $2.75 per thousand on the full value of consideration. It is a straight percentage, .00275, with no $500 steps. The city's own example: $155,237 times .00275 is $426.90.
So that $155,237 sale inside the city carries $171.05 to the county plus $426.90 to the city, $597.95 in total.
The county Clerk-Recorder collects both at recording. Its FAQ calls the city levy a separate transfer tax "above" the county tax, and adds that because of it the City of Sacramento does not receive any share of the county's documentary transfer tax revenue.
Does any other city in the county charge its own
No. The county FAQ says, "In Sacramento County, only the City of Sacramento has established a City Transfer Tax." The other incorporated cities are Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Galt, Isleton and Rancho Cordova.
There is a wrinkle that confuses people. Section 11911 lets a city adopt its own documentary transfer tax at half the county rate, and the county then gives a credit for it. The county says cities that opt in "receive half the amount collected for property in the city." That changes who gets the money. It does not change your bill. In Elk Grove or Folsom you still pay $1.10 per $1,000 in total, the same as in unincorporated Carmichael or Rancho Murieta.
What decides your rate is the city limit line, which a mailing address won't always tell you. California requires every taxed deed to show on its face both the tax due and whether the land is incorporated or unincorporated (section 11932), so escrow will have to answer the question before recording. Ask early.
A side effect of that rule: the tax amount on your recorded deed is public. Divide the county figure by 0.0011 and you have the sale price, give or take $500. Sellers at our counter were sometimes surprised to hear that, and a few were annoyed.
The math at six prices
The figure and table below use the county's per-$500 rule and the city's .00275 rate. All six prices are round multiples of $500, so the rounding doesn't change anything.
City rows include the county tax plus the city tax. County rows apply to unincorporated areas and to the other six cities.
| Sale price and location | Total tax |
|---|---|
| $300k city | $1,155 |
| $300k county | $330 |
| $400k city | $1,540 |
| $400k county | $440 |
| $500k city | $1,925 |
| $500k county | $550 |
| $650k city | $2,502.50 |
| $650k county | $715 |
| $800k city | $3,080 |
| $800k county | $880 |
| $1M city | $3,850 |
| $1M county | $1,100 |
Source: Calculated from rates published by the Sacramento County Clerk-Recorder and City of Sacramento, October 2026.
| Sale price | County tax ($0.55 per $500) | City tax (.00275) | Total inside city | Total elsewhere in county |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| $300,000 | $330.00 | $825.00 | $1,155.00 | $330.00 |
| $400,000 | $440.00 | $1,100.00 | $1,540.00 | $440.00 |
| $500,000 | $550.00 | $1,375.00 | $1,925.00 | $550.00 |
| $650,000 | $715.00 | $1,787.50 | $2,502.50 | $715.00 |
| $800,000 | $880.00 | $2,200.00 | $3,080.00 | $880.00 |
| $1,000,000 | $1,100.00 | $2,750.00 | $3,850.00 | $1,100.00 |
Inside the city, the total is 3.5 times what the same house would pay a mile outside it. That's why I always asked which side of the line a house sat on before I asked anything else.
Who pays it
Section 11911 doesn't say who pays. The county FAQ answers the question in nine words: "Either the buyer or the seller upon mutual agreement." The city's page says the same thing about its tax, that it can be charged to either side by agreement in the escrow, with one addition. If the city tax goes unpaid in the sale escrow, the city's policy puts the responsibility on the buyer, since the buyer now controls the property.
In practice the split is written into the purchase contract and repeated in the escrow instructions. I saw it go both ways, and I saw it split. It's a negotiating point like any other, worth $1,925 on a $500,000 city house, and worth raising before you sign rather than after.
Will the city rate change
Possibly, someday, but not on the next ballot. The county's list of measures for the November 3, 2026 election runs from Measure D through Measure M, and none of them touches a transfer tax. The city rate on its page today is $2.75 per $1,000. Check that page again the week you close. City councils have been known to change their minds.
Where it lands on your statement
On a seller's settlement statement the county tax and the city tax usually show as two separate debits, labeled something like "county transfer tax" and "city transfer tax." If you agreed the buyer pays, they belong on the buyer's side instead, and your column should show nothing.
A cash offer is no different. When a buyer such as Lorris Home Buyers, a Sacramento company that buys houses as-is and makes cash offers, puts a number in front of you, ask in writing who pays each transfer tax and whether the number you're quoted is before or after it. Reading their own page on how a cash offer gets calculated next to the table above makes the comparison easier.
A short checklist before you sign
- Confirm whether the parcel is inside City of Sacramento limits. Escrow has to state it on the deed anyway.
- Multiply the price by 0.0011 for the county and by 0.00275 for the city, if it applies. Round the county figure up to the next $0.55 step when the price isn't a multiple of $500.
- Read the purchase contract for who pays each tax. If it says nothing, ask your agent or escrow officer before you sign it.
- If the buyer is assuming a loan, ask escrow to show how the assumed balance was subtracted from the county tax base.
- Look at the draft deed. The tax amount should divide evenly by $0.55.
Transfer tax is one of the few lines on a seller statement you can check with a pocket calculator and no outside quotes. Do it. The errors I caught on this line over the years were nearly always rounding.