Ohio Caps What It Costs to Transfer a Deed, and Puts Most of It on the Seller
Program and regulatory figures verified October 10, 2026. Details change; confirm your scenario with us.
A VA loan removes the down payment. It does not remove the cost of transferring the deed, which is why the state you buy in matters more than most buyers expect.
The two charges
| Charge | Statute | Rate | On whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mandatory auditor fee | ORC 319.54(G)(3) | ★ $1, or 10 cents per $100, "whichever is greater" | ★ not named in the subsection |
| ★ Permissive county tax | ORC 322.02(A) | up to 30 cents per $100 | ★★ "levied upon the grantor" |
| ★★ Maximum combined | ★★ 40 cents per $100 = 0.40% |
★ Both read verbatim from the Revised Code. codes.ohio.gov serves the statutes to AI crawlers and to people, which is more than can be said for the Department of Taxation's own site.
★★ The detail almost nobody repeats: there is a one-dollar floor
ORC 319.54(G)(3) does not read "ten cents per hundred dollars". It reads "one dollar, or ten cents for each one hundred dollars or fraction of one hundred dollars, whichever is greater".
★★ So the mandatory piece is a floor-and-rate charge, not a flat percentage: below about $1,000 of value the $1 minimum governs instead. On an ordinary house purchase the ten-cent rate is what applies, which is why the floor is almost always omitted, but a site that calls it "a 0.10% tax" has not read the subsection.
★ Note also what it is: a fee the county auditor charges for "receiving statements of value and administering section 319.202", not a transfer tax levied on a named party. The subsection names no payer. The 50-cent transfer-and-entry fee at 319.54(G)(2) is the one that says "to be paid by the person requiring it", and that is a different charge from this one. Conflating the two is an easy mistake and we are not going to make it.
★★ "Not to exceed" means this is a ceiling, not a rate
ORC 322.02 authorises a county to levy "at a rate not to exceed thirty cents per hundred dollars". It does not set every county's rate at thirty cents.
★★ So 0.40% is the statutory worst case, not a quote. Each of Ohio's 88 counties sets its own permissive rate within that ceiling, and some levy less or none.
★ We publish no individual county rate, because we read none at a primary source. Your title company has the figure for the specific address, and it is worth asking for while you are under contract rather than at the table.
★★ The permissive tax is the seller's by statute
ORC 322.02(A) provides that "any county may levy and collect a tax" on deeds and then states it plainly: "The tax shall be levied upon the grantor named in the deed and shall be paid by the grantor."
★★ That is a real structural advantage for a buyer, and it is the opposite of Pennsylvania's position, where the Department of Revenue holds that "both grantor and grantee are held jointly and severally liable".
★ As ever, allocation can be negotiated in a contract. What differs is the default and the liability, and in Ohio both point away from the buyer on the larger of the two charges.
The arithmetic, which is all it is
- At the full statutory ceiling, 0.40% is about $400 per $100,000 of value.
- The mandatory fee alone, 0.10%, is about $100 per $100,000.
- On Columbus's typical value of $330,327, the whole ceiling comes to roughly $1,321.
★★ Compare Philadelphia: 4.578% on a typical $389,523 home is about $17,832. Same product, same federal loan, an order of magnitude apart on the transaction tax.
★ These are tax lines only, not a closing-cost estimate, and this site publishes no rate or payment figures.
★★ What the VA loan does and does not do here
It removes the down payment for a borrower with full entitlement, and for an exempt veteran it removes the funding fee. It does not pay the conveyance fee or the county transfer tax.
★★ But because Ohio's ceiling is 0.40% and the larger slice is the seller's, "nothing down" comes much closer to meaning "very little at closing" here than it does in a high-transfer-tax state. That is a genuine and under-stated reason Ohio suits a cash-light veteran buyer. The fee exemptions.
★ What the exemption does not touch: the homestead exemption reduces the recurring property tax, not the one-off transfer charges. Two different taxes with similar-sounding names. The homestead exemption.
Mike Certo, NMLS #260555. (480) 296-6513 · mcerto@cfmtg.com.
Frequently asked questions
How much is the Ohio conveyance fee?
Ohio Revised Code 319.54(G)(3) sets a mandatory county auditor fee of one dollar, or ten cents for each one hundred dollars of value, whichever is greater. Section 322.02 permits a county to add a tax at a rate not to exceed thirty cents per hundred dollars, so the statutory maximum combined is forty cents per $100, or 0.40 percent, above the one-dollar floor.Who pays the Ohio real property transfer tax?
Ohio Revised Code 322.02(A) states that the county permissive tax shall be levied upon the grantor named in the deed and shall be paid by the grantor, so the larger of the two charges falls on the seller by statute. The mandatory charge under 319.54(G)(3) is a county auditor fee for receiving statements of value and names no payer in the subsection. Allocation can still be negotiated in a purchase contract.Is the Ohio transfer tax the same in every county?
No. Section 322.02 sets a ceiling of thirty cents per hundred dollars rather than a rate, so each of Ohio's eighty-eight counties sets its own permissive rate within that limit and some levy less. Your title company can confirm the rate for a specific address.Does a VA loan cover Ohio conveyance fees?
No. A VA loan removes the down payment for a borrower with full entitlement and, for an exempt veteran, the funding fee, but it does not pay the conveyance fee or county transfer tax. Because Ohio caps those at 0.40 percent and ORC 322.02(A) levies the permissive portion upon the grantor, the cash needed at closing is comparatively small.Mike Certo · NMLS #260555 · Cornerstone First Mortgage NMLS #173855 · Equal Housing Lender. Educational content about VA home loan financing, not a loan commitment and not legal, tax or financial advice. Cornerstone First Mortgage is a private lender and is not affiliated with, endorsed by or acting on behalf of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any government agency. VA entitlement, funding-fee exemption and disability ratings are determined by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Ohio homestead exemption for disabled veterans is governed by Ohio Revised Code sections 323.151 and 323.152 and is administered by county auditors, not by Cornerstone; the statutory amounts are adjusted annually by the Ohio Tax Commissioner and the tax effect depends on local assessment and effective tax rates. Figures here carry the date we verified them against primary sources. All loans are subject to borrower, property and program qualification.