Probate Judge Asking for "Deed Tax"

[Arnold Finkelstein]

In seeking to record a Perry County tax certificate, the Probate Judge there has told me I must pay a "deed tax" in addition to property taxes. I have never heard of a "deed tax," nor has any other county in which I have deeds/certs, ever asked me to pay one when I recorded a deed or cert. She confirmed that "deed tax" does not mean "recording fee."

In addition, the Probate office in Perry County seemed cloudy/unclear on other aspects of recording a tax certificate or deed and, from what I could tell, was incorrectly using terms like "redeem," at least once stating that I, the investor, had to "redeem" a tax certificate before they would let me record it.

To further cloud things, the judge told me she spoke with Shelley Tice, who reportedly confirmed that it was necessary to pay a "deed tax" in order to record a certificate.

[Denise Evans]

@Arnold Finkelstein, every county in Alabama charges a deed tax when every deed or mortgage is recorded. There is a recording fee based on the number of pages, which is minimal. Also an indexing fee. Then the deed tax. The tax is $1 per $1,000 of equity in the property when purchased, or based on the value if there was no (or reduced) consideration such as a gift from a parent or a deed from an individual to their LLC. Recorded mortgages have a deed tax of $1.50 per $1,000 of mortgage amount. In other words, if someone buys a property for $200,000 and borrows $160,000 to make the purchase, then the deed tax to record the mortgage is $1.50 x 160 = $240 and the deed tax to record the deed is $1.00 x 40 = $40.