What is the transfer tax in New Hampshire?
RSA 78-B:1 imposes a tax on “the sale, granting and transfer of real estate and any interest therein,” including transfers by operation of law. The rate is $0.75 per $100 of the price or consideration, or fractional part of $100, and the tax is rounded to the nearest whole dollar. Where the price is $4,000 or less there’s a $20 minimum.
The catch is that the $0.75 applies to each side. RSA 78-B:4 puts a separate duty on the buyer and on the seller to buy and attach the stamps showing the tax was paid, and says the rate applies to both. The Department of Revenue Administration describes the tax the same way: paid by both the buyer and the seller. Add the two halves and you get $1.50 per $100, or 1.5% of the price.
Every transfer is presumed taxable unless it fits an exception in RSA 78-B:2. On an arm’s-length apartment sale, assume the full 1.5% applies.
The fractional-part rule nudges the figure up on odd prices. On a $2,000,050 sale, the last $50 counts as a full $100, so each side pays for 20,001 units: $15,000.75, which rounds to $15,001. It’s a small amount, but it’s why the stamps on a deed rarely match a neat percentage of the price.
Who pays transfer tax in New Hampshire?
By statute, both parties pay equal shares. The seller owes $0.75 per $100 and the buyer owes $0.75 per $100. Unlike states where the law names one payer and custom fills in the rest, New Hampshire builds the split into the statute.
Parties can still negotiate who bears the economic cost. A buyer may agree to cover the seller’s half to win a deal, or a seller may give a credit for the buyer’s half. That changes who writes the check on the settlement statement, not who the state treats as liable, so put any shift in the purchase agreement in plain words.
How it’s paid and the CD-57 forms
The tax is paid at the registry of deeds when the deed is recorded, with the stamps attached to the deed. Your closing attorney or title company handles it from the closing funds.
Both parties also report the deal to the state. Under RSA 78-B:10, the buyer and the seller each file a separate declaration of consideration with the Department of Revenue Administration, stating the price, the tax calculation and the tax due. It’s due no later than 30 days after the later of recording or the transfer. The declaration is prima facie evidence of the price paid.
- Form CD-57-P: declaration of consideration filed by the purchaser.
- Form CD-57-S: declaration of consideration filed by the seller.
- Forms CD-57-HC-P and CD-57-HC-S: the purchaser and seller versions for transfers involving real estate holding companies.
- Returns and payments can be handled through the department’s Granite Tax Connect system.
Selling the LLC instead of the building
Many owners assume that selling membership interests in the LLC that owns the building avoids the transfer tax. In New Hampshire it usually doesn’t. RSA 78-B:1-a, V says transfers of interests in real estate holding companies are taxable “to the extent of the fair market value of the real estate.” A real estate holding company is an organization engaged principally in owning, holding, selling or leasing real estate that owns real estate in the state, which describes almost every single-asset apartment LLC.
The reach goes up the chain, too. Transfers of interests in an entity that holds an interest in a real estate holding company, directly or indirectly, count as transfers of an interest in the holding company to the extent of that entity’s ownership. Unlike the controlling-interest taxes in New Jersey or Maine, the statute doesn’t set a 50% threshold.
The definition of a contractual transfer also covers moves between owners and their entities: from a member to an LLC, from a partnership to its partners, from an entity to its owners. So restructuring before a sale can trigger tax on its own, unless one of the exceptions below fits.
Exemptions that matter to investors
RSA 78-B:2 lists the exceptions. Most are narrow, and a sale to an unrelated buyer fits none of them. The ones investors use most:
- Noncontractual transfers, meaning true gifts with donative intent, actual delivery and immediate relinquishment of control. Gifts still require the declarations.
- Transfers by will, by intestate succession or to a surviving joint tenant on a co-tenant’s death.
- A change in organizational form with no consideration, where assets, liabilities, owners and ownership percentages stay identical.
- Transfers between an entity and its owners with no consideration, unchanged ownership percentages and unchanged combined assets and liabilities apart from the real estate.
- Transfers between spouses under a divorce decree.
- Leases with a total term, including renewals, under 99 years, and assignments of them.
- Mortgages and discharges, corrective deeds and tax collector’s deeds.
Foreclosures, deeds in lieu and 1031 exchanges
There’s no exception for foreclosures or deeds in lieu. For a deed in lieu, RSA 78-B:1-a, IV sets the taxable consideration as the amount by which the owner’s secured debt is reduced, plus any debt the new owner assumes. That can produce a tax bill even when the owner walks away with nothing.
A 1031 exchange isn’t exempt either. The sale of your relinquished New Hampshire property is taxed at 1.5% split between you and your buyer, and if the replacement property is in New Hampshire, that purchase is taxed at 1.5% split between you and your seller. In a two-property exchange you pay $0.75 per $100 on each deed.
Worked example: a $2,000,000 and a $5,000,000 New Hampshire apartment sale
Take a 24-unit building in Manchester at $2,000,000. That’s 20,000 units of $100. The seller’s tax is 20,000 × $0.75, or $15,000, and the buyer’s tax is another $15,000. The total transfer tax on the deed is $30,000.
Now a 60-unit property in Nashua at $5,000,000. There are 50,000 units of $100, so the seller pays $37,500, the buyer pays $37,500, and the deed carries $75,000 in total.
If the buyer’s acquisition is structured as a purchase of 100% of the LLC that owns the Nashua property, the result is generally the same: the transfer is taxed to the extent of the real estate’s fair market value, and both sides file the holding company versions of the declaration.
| Line item | $2,000,000 sale | $5,000,000 sale |
|---|---|---|
| Units of $100 | 20,000 | 50,000 |
| Seller’s tax at $0.75 | $15,000 | $37,500 |
| Buyer’s tax at $0.75 | $15,000 | $37,500 |
| County or city add-on | $0 | $0 |
| Total on the deed (1.5%) | $30,000 | $75,000 |
New Hampshire compared with neighboring states
On total tax per deed, New Hampshire runs higher than Maine and Massachusetts and a little above Vermont’s general rate. Maine raised its rate on value above $1 million starting November 1, 2025, which narrowed the gap on large sales. Figures below come from each state’s statute and leave out local add-ons.
| State | Rate on a commercial deed | Total on a $2,000,000 sale |
|---|---|---|
| New Hampshire | $1.50 per $100, split evenly (1.5%) | $30,000 |
| Vermont | 1.25% of value | $25,000 |
| Maine | $2.20 per $500, plus $3.80 per $500 above $1M; split evenly | $16,400 |
| Massachusetts | $2.28 per $500 outside Barnstable County (0.456%) | $9,120 |
How transfer tax fits into your selling costs
For a seller, the 0.75% half is one of the larger state-level costs of a New Hampshire sale. New Hampshire doesn’t tax individuals on wages, but federal capital gains tax and depreciation recapture, taxed at up to 25% as unrecaptured Section 1250 gain, still apply. If you hold the building in an LLC or partnership, ask your CPA whether New Hampshire’s business taxes reach the gain at the entity level.
A 1031 exchange defers the federal gain but, as noted, not the transfer tax on either deed. Seller financing can spread your gain over the years you’re paid. Price your building with both in mind, and get your half of the transfer tax in writing before you sign.
Selling your New Hampshire apartment building to Skyline
Skyline Capital Investments buys apartment buildings with five or more units across New Hampshire as a direct buyer, from Manchester and Nashua to the Seacoast and the Lakes Region. We can offer seller-carry terms and we work inside 1031 exchange timelines.
Send the property address and unit count through the form on this page or call (469) 660-2977. We typically respond within 48 hours, and our offer will spell out how the buyer’s and seller’s halves of the transfer tax are handled.
