| Page 2 of 2 < |
Tax on Home Sales in N.Va. Is Soon to Go Up Fivefold
|
TOOLBOX
   Resize
COMMENT
 Discussion Policy
 CLOSE
Comments that include profanity or personal attacks or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. Additionally, entries that are unsigned or contain "signatures" by someone other than the actual author will be removed. Finally, we will take steps to block users who violate any of our posting standards, terms of use or privacy policies or any other policies governing this site. Please review the full rules governing commentaries and discussions. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Who's Blogging  |
"We're just trying to solve a problem by making everyone pay a little," he said.
A seller in Northern Virginia generally pays the grantor's tax, which is the equivalent of a transfer tax in other jurisdictions; settlement fees; and the modest cost of a termite inspection, in addition to the agent's commission.
Even with the fivefold increase in the grantor's tax, sellers in Northern Virginia still will be paying less at closing than their counterparts in the District or Maryland.
On a $500,000 house sale in the District, transfer taxes are about $7,250. In Maryland, taxes vary by jurisdiction; in Montgomery County, the state and county transfer tax on such a sale would be about $7,500.
(Buyers throughout the D.C. area generally pay another tax, the recordation tax. However, in this slow real estate market, more sellers are sharing or picking up that cost. In Virginia, the recordation tax is about $1,700 on a $500,000 sale, in the District about $7,250 and in Maryland about $3,450.)
The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority hopes to raise about $336 million annually through its tax and fee increases. It has estimated that the grantor's tax would bring in $171 million of that, although that figure predates the downturn in the real estate market.
That doesn't bother Chris Zimmerman (D), a member of the Arlington County Board and chairman of the authority. Such fluctuations are to be expected, he said. What matters to him is that the framework for raising transportation money for the region finally is in place.
"No one ever wants new taxes," he said, "but more people are recognizing that location is only valuable if you can get there."
