Most of a Manhattan seller’s closing costs are set by documents: the listing agreement, the payoff letter, the proprietary lease. The transfer taxes are set by law and change at specific prices. Every rate below was checked against City and State sources on October 21, 2026.

The law names who pays each tax, and a contract can move the cost

New York law names a payer for each tax: the seller for the City and State transfer taxes, the buyer for the mansion tax. A contract can shift the cost between buyer and seller, but it does not change who the City and the State can collect from.

The City’s Administrative Code, section 11-2104, says the Real Property Transfer Tax “shall be paid by the grantor,” the seller, and that the buyer “shall also be liable” if the seller does not pay or is exempt. In a 2011 determination, an administrative law judge of the New York City Tax Appeals Tribunal upheld additional tax assessed against the seller of a vacant lot, although the contract made the buyer responsible: “Any contractual liability is as between the parties to the Contract of Sale.”

The State’s rule is parallel. The Tax Department says the transfer tax is paid by the seller and “shall not be paid directly or indirectly by the grantee (buyer) except as provided in a contract between seller and buyer.” If the seller does not pay, the buyer must, and both become jointly liable. The mansion tax runs the other way: the buyer pays, and the seller must pay if the buyer does not.

In a Manhattan resale, custom follows the statutes. It departs from them in two places: new-development sponsor sales and the co-op flip tax, both covered below.

The New York City transfer tax is 1 percent or 1.425 percent of the price

For a house with one to three units, a condominium unit or a co-op apartment, the City charges 1 percent of the price at $500,000 or less and 1.425 percent above $500,000. The higher rate applies to the whole price.

The Department of Finance applies the tax to any transfer of more than $25,000 and names co-ops directly: the tax is due on “transfers of cooperative housing stock shares.” Finance dates the 1.425 percent residential rate to 1989 legislation, which also brought every co-op resale into the tax. So a $500,000 sale owes $5,000 and a $510,000 sale owes $7,267.50.

The return, Form NYC-RPT, and the payment are due within thirty days after the transfer, even when no tax is due. Both seller and buyer sign it, and every return is submitted electronically through ACRIS, the City’s online register. In practice the closing attorneys prepare it and collect the tax at the closing table.

The New York State transfer tax is 0.4 percent, and 0.65 percent on a NYC home at $3 million or more

The State charges $2 for each $500 of price, 0.4 percent, on every sale. In New York City only, it adds $1.25 for each $500, another 0.25 percent, when a home sells for $3 million or more, so the seller’s State rate on those sales is 0.65 percent of the whole price.

The State counts a co-op apartment as residential property, and its 2027 tax expenditure report confirms the transfer tax “also applies to conveyances of shares of stock in a cooperative housing corporation.” The New York City additional base tax applies to conveyances on or after July 1, 2019, as the Tax Department’s memorandum TSB-M-19(1)R explains. The State return for a City sale is Form TP-584-NYC, due no later than the 15th day after the deed or similar document is delivered. A seller who is no longer a New York State resident also files IT-2663, or IT-2664 for a co-op, unless an exemption applies, such as the sale of a principal residence.

The 2026 state budget did not change these rates

The 2026 revenue budget was signed on May 28, 2026 as Chapter 59 of the Laws of 2026. Its only transfer tax change, Part M, extends a reduced rate for certain real estate investment trust transfers to September 1, 2029. The Tax Department’s transfer tax page, updated June 1, 2026, carries the same schedule as its current TP-584-NYC instructions. The same law, in Part HH, created a separate surcharge on certain New York City homes that are not the owner’s primary residence.

The mansion tax is the buyer’s, and in New York City it rises in steps from $2 million

The buyer pays the mansion tax: 1 percent of the whole price on a home of $1 million or more anywhere in New York State, plus, in New York City only, a supplemental tax of 0.25 percent to 2.9 percent from $2 million. Together the New York City rate runs from 1 percent to 3.9 percent.

The 1 percent is Tax Law section 1402-a and applies statewide. The supplemental tax is section 1402-b and applies only to New York City homes, on conveyances since July 1, 2019. Both reach co-op apartments as well as condominiums and houses. The rate is set by the price of the entire conveyance and applied to the whole price, as the TP-584-NYC instructions state.

A common misreading is that the mansion tax is the same everywhere in the state. The 1 percent applies statewide from $1 million; only New York City adds the supplemental steps, from $2 million.

The buyer’s mansion tax shapes the seller’s price at each threshold

Because each step applies its rate to the whole price, the buyer’s tax jumps at $1 million, $2 million, $3 million, $5 million and each higher line, and buyers budget for price plus tax. The seller’s own taxes step up too, above $500,000 and at $3 million.

• $1 million: the 1 percent mansion tax begins. A buyer who pays $1,000,000 owes $10,000; a buyer who pays just under $1,000,000 owes none.
• $2 million: the buyer’s combined rate becomes 1.25 percent.
• $3 million: the buyer’s rate becomes 1.5 percent, and the seller’s State rate rises from 0.4 to 0.65 percent.
• $5 million and up: 2.25 percent, then 3.25, 3.5, 3.75 and 3.9 percent at $10, $15, $20 and $25 million.

That does not mean every price belongs below a threshold. It means the threshold belongs in the pricing conversation from the start, next to the comparable sales in your building. Our New York City apartment valuation request is a place to begin.

Co-op sellers pay the same transfer taxes, plus any flip tax the building sets

The City and State transfer taxes and the buyer’s mansion tax apply to a sale of co-op shares just as they do to a condominium. What a co-op adds is the flip tax: a fee paid to the co-op corporation when the shares are sold.

Despite the name, a flip tax is not a government tax. New York’s Business Corporation Law, section 501(c), provides that a co-op’s shares are not made unequal by “variations in fees or charges payable to the corporation upon sale or transfer of shares” that are provided for in “proprietary leases, occupancy agreements or offering plans or properly approved amendments” to them. A building may have no flip tax; a building that has one sets its own formula. The forms it can take:

• A percentage of the gross sale price.
• A dollar amount for each share allocated to the apartment.
• A percentage of the seller’s profit.
• A flat fee for each sale.

There is no standard rate, and this guide does not suggest one. To find your building’s rule, read your proprietary lease and every amendment to it, since a flip tax can be added by amendment; read the offering plan and its amendments if the building was converted under one; ask the managing agent for the building’s current sale package; and ask your attorney how the rule applies to your price.

No statute names who pays. The building’s documents say who owes the flip tax to the corporation, and the contract of sale can allocate it. In a Manhattan resale the seller customarily pays it, out of the proceeds at closing, once the board has approved the buyer; our guide to how long it takes to sell a co-op in Manhattan covers that process.

Sponsor sales are the exception to the custom, not to the law

When a buyer purchases a new condominium from a sponsor, the purchase agreement often shifts the sponsor’s transfer taxes to the buyer. That is contract practice: the statutes still name the seller, and the contract moves the cost.

The State’s rule allows for it, and on a residential sale, when the buyer pays the transfer tax under the contract, “the amount of tax shall be excluded from the calculation subject to tax.” How the City treats a buyer-paid City tax is a question for the closing attorneys. If you bought from a sponsor and paid its transfer taxes, IRS Publication 523 says a buyer includes them in the property’s cost basis, so keep that closing statement. On your resale, the transfer taxes are yours again.

The rest of a Manhattan seller’s closing costs come from your documents

Beyond the transfer taxes and any flip tax, each seller cost is set by the listing agreement, the attorney, the lender or the building, not by a rule of thumb.

• Brokerage compensation: set in your listing agreement, and negotiable.
• Your attorney’s fee: in New York City, both sides customarily close with attorneys.
• Your mortgage or co-op loan payoff. A co-op lender files a financing statement against your shares and proprietary lease under New York’s Uniform Commercial Code. At the closing, section 9-513(e) requires it, on your demand, to deliver a termination statement, usually form UCC-3, and the co-op documents it holds once paid, and lets it charge a reasonable attendance fee unless it agreed otherwise.
• Building charges: managing agent and transfer agent fees for a co-op; any fee for processing a condominium board’s waiver of its right of first refusal.
• The flip tax, if any, and any move-out deposit the building’s rules require.
• Anything the buyer’s lien or title search finds, such as a judgment, cleared at or before closing.
• Adjustments for maintenance or common charges and, for a condominium or house, real estate taxes.

A worked example with hypothetical numbers

On a hypothetical $2,500,000 Manhattan resale, the seller’s City and State transfer taxes come to $45,625 and the buyer’s mansion tax to $31,250.

The example leaves out every cost no rule sets: commission, attorney fees, building fees and any flip tax. To estimate your own transfer taxes, multiply your expected price by 1.425 percent (1 percent at $500,000 or less), add 0.4 percent, and add another 0.25 percent at $3 million or more; then add any flip tax from your building’s formula.

The federal home sale exclusion can shelter part of the gain

If you owned the apartment and lived in it as your main home for at least 24 months of the 5 years before the sale, and did not exclude gain on another home sold in the 2 years before, you may exclude up to $250,000 of gain, or $500,000 for a married couple filing jointly, under IRS Publication 523 (2025, for 2025 returns). A cooperative apartment can be a main home. Transfer taxes are not deductible, but a seller can treat them and the commission as selling expenses, which reduce the gain. Publication 523 also covers partial exclusions and renting before a sale. Confirm your own position with a tax professional before you sign.

If you are selling to move, or keeping the apartment

If the sale is paying for a house, the order of the two closings matters as much as the costs; see our guide to selling a Manhattan apartment and buying in Westchester at the same time. If you may keep the apartment, read our NYC pied-a-terre tax guide first. And a Westchester house sale has no New York City transfer tax or City-only State rate, but the 0.4 percent State tax and the 1 percent mansion tax from $1 million still apply, and your attorney will confirm whether your city or town adds a local transfer tax; our guide to selling a house in the Rivertowns covers the Westchester seller side.

Frequently asked questions