"What Is Georgia's PT-61 Real Estate Transfer Tax Declaration, and Who Files It When I Buy a Home?"

Your deed does not go to the Georgia courthouse alone. It travels with a one-page form called the PT-61, the Georgia real estate transfer tax declaration. The Clerk of Superior Court will not record your deed until that form is properly completed and the transfer tax on it has been paid.

In Georgia, the PT-61 reports the price paid for your home and figures the state's real estate transfer tax. It is completed on the Georgia Superior Court Clerks' Cooperative Authority (GSCCCA) website, usually by the seller's side of the closing, and the seller owes the tax unless your contract says otherwise. Once the tax is paid, the clerk attaches a certification to your deed and records it.

I'm Jeff Moran, a mortgage broker in Bluffton, South Carolina, originating since 1996, licensed in fifteen states, including Georgia, NMLS #483943, through C2 Financial Corporation.

What is the PT-61 in Georgia?

The PT-61 is the form that figures Georgia's real estate transfer tax on your purchase. When you buy a home and the deed passes to you, the tax applies once the value of what you are buying is more than $100, as O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1 sets it out. Any loan or lien already on the property that the sale does not pay off is left out of that value.

Your deed can't be recorded at the Clerk of Superior Court's office until that tax is paid, and O.C.G.A. § 48-6-4 is the law that says so. The tax is figured from the actual price you paid, written on a Department of Revenue form, and that form is the PT-61. After payment, the clerk attaches a certification showing that the tax was paid, the date and the amount, and the certification is recorded with your deed.

If the form is not properly completed, the clerk sends it back, and your deed waits until a properly completed PT-61 comes with it. That comes from the Department of Revenue's own recording rule, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-2-.17.

Georgia used to do this on a multi-part paper form. The GSCCCA's PT-61 page explains that the form is now completed on the GSCCCA website, and a reference copy of that form is filed with the deed.

Who files the PT-61 when you buy a Georgia home?

The Department of Revenue's forms rule, Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-3-.15, says the PT-61 is completed by the seller or the seller's agent. So on most Georgia purchases you will not be the one typing it in.

The GSCCCA's PT-61 e-filing questions page describes how it moves. The filer completes the form online, prints it and takes it to the closing. If the closing goes through, that printed copy goes to the clerk's office with the deed package. Only then does the PT-61 information become active in the GSCCCA database.

In Georgia, the closing itself runs through a lawyer. The role of the Georgia closing attorney covers why the State Bar treats a residential closing as legal work and what that attorney controls from start to finish. You'll want to ask the attorney's office early who is preparing the PT-61, so nobody assumes the other side has it.

The information the Georgia PT-61 asks for

The GSCCCA's published copy of the form is laid out in a few short sections.

• The seller. The seller's name and address, along with an exemption code. The code reads "NONE" when no exemption applies.
• The buyer. Your name and address as the new owner. If two of you are taking title, each name belongs on it exactly as it will read on the deed.
• The property. The street address and county, plus the map and parcel number. The GSCCCA notes that a 2006 state law, SB 525, made the map and parcel field required on every PT-61 filing.
• The tax computation. A short worksheet that starts with the price the seller actually received and works down to the tax due.

The worksheet is where the tax gets figured. Line 1 is the actual consideration, and Line 1A takes an estimated fair market value if the actual value is not known. Line 2 subtracts the fair market value of any personal property included in the sale. Line 3 subtracts liens and encumbrances that the transfer does not remove. Line 4 is the net taxable value, and Line 5 is the tax at ten cents per $100 or fraction of $100, with a $1 minimum.

Once the attorney's office asks for your part, please provide the full legal name of each person who will be on the deed and the mailing address where you want mail about the property to reach you. Under Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. 560-11-2-.18, the clerk sends a copy of the form to the county's Board of Tax Assessors and to the county Tax Commissioner, so the details you give are the ones the county starts with.

Who pays the transfer tax in Georgia, the buyer or the seller?

The seller, unless the two of you agree otherwise. The Georgia Department of Revenue's real estate transfer tax page says the seller is liable for the tax, and that the parties frequently agree in the sales contract that the buyer will pay it. The GSCCCA's PT-61 help page puts it the same way: the seller pays unless otherwise agreed by contract.

If your contract is silent, the tax lands on the seller. If it moves the tax to you, it shows up on your side of the closing statement. The Georgia mortgage page covers the other Georgia line items a relocating client tends to meet for the first time, including who the standard contract expects to pay for title work.

The rate itself is set by statute. Section 48-6-1 charges $1 for the first $1,000 or fractional part of $1,000, and ten cents for each additional $100 or fractional part of $100. In practice that works out to about $1 for every $1,000 of taxable value.

Your loan is recorded on a separate document, a security deed, and the GSCCCA says a security deed does not need a PT-61 because Section 48-6-2 exempts any instrument given to secure a debt. The security deed carries Georgia's intangible recording tax instead, which the lender is legally responsible for. Georgia is one of the few states with a tax measured by the loan, and the mortgage recording tax comparison by state shows where it fits next to the others.

Which Georgia transfers are exempt from the transfer tax?

O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2 lists the exemptions. The ones a homeowner is most likely to run into are these.

• A security deed or other instrument given to secure a debt. That is your mortgage, and it is why a refinance with no change in ownership does not trigger the transfer tax.
• A deed of gift.
• A deed where the United States, the State of Georgia, or one of their agencies, political subdivisions or public authorities is a party.
• A transfer between a husband and wife in connection with a divorce case.
• A deed in lieu of foreclosure, where the purchase money security deed has been recorded for at least twelve months, and the deed from the debtor to the first buyer at a foreclosure sale.

An exemption means no tax is due, but the PT-61 still has to be filed, as the GSCCCA's help page explains. Section 48-6-2 also says the full price paid, for the real estate and any personal property, has to be shown on the form to claim any exemption. A deed of gift still goes to the clerk with a PT-61, just with an exemption code and no tax due.

A few documents never need a PT-61 because they don't transfer ownership of the property. The GSCCCA names security deeds, releases of a security interest, and affidavits such as an affidavit "In Aide of Title."

The steps before your Georgia closing

1. Please read the transfer tax line in your purchase agreement before you sign it, so you can see whether it follows the seller-pays default or moves the tax to you.
2. You'll want to ask the closing attorney's office who is preparing the PT-61. On most purchases it is the seller's side, and a clear answer early keeps the deed package complete.
3. Please provide the full legal name of each person taking title and the mailing address you want the county to use, as soon as the attorney's office asks.
4. You'll want to look over the price and the personal property figure on your closing statement, so the numbers on the PT-61 match your contract.

How the PT-61 connects to your property taxes

The Department of Revenue's property tax returns page covers the case of a property you acquired in the previous tax year. If a real estate transfer tax form was filed and the tax was paid, you are considered to have filed a property tax return on that property. The form handled at your closing takes care of the return for you.

It does not take care of your homestead exemption. That is a separate application you make with your county, with an April 1 deadline for the current year, and how to file the Georgia homestead exemption after closing walks through it. Your first Annual Notice of Assessment may also still carry the seller's name, and appealing a Georgia assessment notice as the new owner explains how the 45-day window works.

Common mistakes with the Georgia PT-61

Counting the furniture as real estate. If the purchase agreement puts a value on a refrigerator, a golf cart or outdoor furniture, that amount belongs on Line 2 of the worksheet, where it comes out of the taxable value.

Thinking an exempt transfer skips the form. A gift deed or a divorce transfer still needs a PT-61 showing the price paid and the exemption code.

An illustration, so the arithmetic is clear

Numbers below are made up to show the mechanism. They are not a real file and not a quote.

Say you are buying a Georgia home for $450,000 with a mortgage, and the purchase agreement says $3,000 of that price is for the patio furniture and a storage shed that is not attached to the land. The seller's existing mortgage will be paid off at closing, so no lien carries over. Your contract is silent on transfer tax.

The seller's side completes the PT-61 like this.

Line	Amount
1. Actual consideration	$450,000
2. Less personal property	$3,000
3. Less liens not removed	$0
4. Net taxable value	$447,000
5. Transfer tax due	$447

Because the contract is silent, the $447 lands on the seller's side of the closing statement. The PT-61 reference copy goes to the clerk with your deed, the tax is paid, the clerk attaches the certification, and your deed records. Your security deed records alongside it, with no PT-61 needed for that one.

Your next step

If you are shopping for a home in Georgia, you can see your own numbers before you write an offer. On the homepage, running your own numbers shows you rates for your scenario, your debt ratio, and closing costs built for Georgia rather than a national average. It works without a credit pull or an account, and nobody will call you.

I'm licensed in Georgia through C2 Financial Corporation. Once you want a letter a Georgia seller will take seriously, getting pre-approved for a Georgia mortgage is where your income, debts and credit get reviewed with your documents in hand. The full list of what lands on your closing statement is covered in closing costs explained.

Nothing here is a loan approval, a denial, a commitment to lend, or legal or tax advice. The transfer tax is set by Georgia statute, the PT-61 is prescribed by the Georgia Department of Revenue and filed through the GSCCCA, and your county's Clerk of Superior Court decides what it needs to record your deed.

Common questions

What is a PT-61 form in Georgia?

The PT-61 is Georgia's real estate transfer tax declaration. It reports the seller, the buyer, the property and the price paid, and it figures the state transfer tax owed on the deed. O.C.G.A. § 48-6-4 says a deed cannot be recorded with the Clerk of Superior Court until the tax is paid based on that disclosure, and the clerk attaches a certification of payment that is recorded with the deed.

Who pays the PT-61 transfer tax in Georgia?

The seller, unless the sales contract says otherwise. The Georgia Department of Revenue states that the seller is liable for the real estate transfer tax and that the parties frequently agree in the contract that the buyer will pay it. Your purchase agreement is the document that settles it for your purchase.

How much is the Georgia real estate transfer tax?

The rate is set by state law in O.C.G.A. § 48-6-1, and the section above on who pays the tax spells it out. The worksheet on the PT-61 does the math for you. The taxable value is the price paid, less the value of any personal property in the sale, and less any lien that existed before the sale and is not removed by it.

Do I need a PT-61 if the transfer is exempt from Georgia transfer tax?

Yes, in most cases. The GSCCCA says the exemptions in O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2 cover paying the tax, not filing the form, and the statute requires the full price paid to be shown on the form to claim an exemption. A gift deed or a divorce transfer between spouses still goes to the clerk with a PT-61 and an exemption code. Security deeds, releases of a security interest, and affidavits that don't transfer ownership of the property do not need a PT-61.

Does a Georgia refinance need a PT-61?

Not for the loan itself. A refinance records a new security deed, and the GSCCCA says security deeds do not require a PT-61 because O.C.G.A. § 48-6-2 exempts any instrument given to secure a debt. A refinance with no change in ownership therefore does not trigger the transfer tax.