The seller's biggest closing cost is a tax both sides still owe.

A Florida seller's closing costs fall into two groups: the ones set by statute and the ones set by the purchase contract. The largest is almost always in the first group, and it is documentary stamp tax on the deed — 70 cents on each $100 of consideration in every Florida county except Miami-Dade, which is 60 cents plus a 45 cent surtax that the statute does not apply to a single-family residence or a condominium unit. The rest of the statutory group is any association estoppel fee and the seller's prorated share of property taxes.

Two things about that tax catch people out. The Department of Revenue holds every party to the deed liable for it, whatever the contract says about who pays. And property taxes prorate in arrears against a discount that steps down every month from November to March, so the date a deal closes is part of the arithmetic.

Which is the opposite of where the conversation usually goes. Ask what a seller pays and the talk turns straight to the negotiable items — who covers the owner's policy, whether the seller is contributing, what the commission looks like — while the larger numbers sit below them, fixed by statute and calculated differently here than in the rest of the state.

Two groups, and only one of them is negotiable

It helps to sort the seller's side into two groups before looking at any number.

Set by statute. Documentary stamp tax on the deed. Any association estoppel fee, which is capped by statute rather than set by the association. The seller's share of property taxes, which are assessed by the county and prorated. The amounts here are not something anybody at the table can negotiate down.

Set by the contract and local custom. The owner's title policy and the bundle of charges that travels with it, which in most Florida counties is customarily the seller's and in Miami-Dade and Broward customarily is not. That allocation is its own subject, and a bigger one than it looks, covered in whoever pays for the title policy picks the closing agent.

Everything below is about the first group. It gets far less attention and it is usually the larger figure.

Documentary stamp tax, and the Miami-Dade exception

Florida taxes the deed itself. The rate is 70 cents on each $100, or portion thereof, of the total consideration in every county in the state except one.¹

The exception is Miami-Dade, where the rate is 60 cents on each $100, or portion thereof, of the total consideration. Miami-Dade also has a surtax of 45 cents on each $100.¹ The surtax is a discretionary county levy, and the statute authorising it caps the rate at 45 cents for each $100 and requires the county to use the revenue only to help finance the construction, rehabilitation or purchase of housing for low and moderate income families.³

So Miami-Dade is not simply a cheaper county or a more expensive one. It has a lower base rate and a separate additional charge that may or may not apply, which is where the arithmetic goes wrong for people working from the statewide number.

The surtax does not apply to a condo, and the statute says so by name

This is the part worth carrying with you if you work in Miami, and the statute says it outright:

There shall be no surtax on any document pursuant to which the interest granted, assigned, transferred, or conveyed involves only a single-family residence.

Fla. Stat. s. 201.031²

And the statute does not leave "single-family residence" to interpretation. It defines the term to include a condominium unit, a unit held through stock or membership representing a proprietary interest in a corporation owning a fee or a long leasehold, and a detached dwelling.²

In a market built on condominiums that is a meaningful distinction and it cuts both ways. A straightforward sale of one condo unit sits outside the surtax even though it is not a house. Property that is not a single-family residence within that definition does not get the exception. Which category a specific transfer falls into is a question about that document and that property, and it is one to put to the closing agent handling the file before a net sheet goes out, not one to settle from a rate table.

The clause that assigns the tax does not move who owes it

Here is the finding that does not appear in the usual write-ups of this subject, and it is stated plainly by the taxing authority itself.

All parties to the document are liable for the tax regardless of which party agrees to pay the tax.

Florida Department of Revenue, on documentary stamp tax¹

Read that against how the charge is actually handled. The contract allocates it, the closing agent collects it from whoever the contract names, and the tax is remitted when the deed is recorded. In the ordinary case that is the end of it and nobody thinks about liability at all.

What the sentence tells you is what the allocation is and is not. It is an agreement between the parties about who funds the charge at the table. It is not a mechanism that removes the other party from the statute. That is a useful thing to understand about any deal where the tax is being treated as a bargaining chip, or where a deed is moving outside a conventional sale, and it is a reason the computation is worth getting right at the closing rather than arguing about later.

Property taxes prorate backwards, and the month changes the number

Florida property taxes are paid in arrears, which is the single most common source of confusion on a seller's statement.

Taxes are due and payable on November 1 of each year. They become delinquent on April 1 following the year in which they are assessed, or 60 days after the original tax notice was mailed, whichever of those two falls later.⁴ A sale that closes in the months before that bill is settled therefore leaves the seller responsible for their portion of a tax that nobody has paid yet, handled as a credit on the statement rather than as a payment to the county.

Then there is the discount schedule, which is where the calendar starts to matter. Florida Statute 197.162 sets it out month by month: 4 percent in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February, and zero percent in March.⁵

A proration calculated against a discounted figure is a different number in November than it is in February. Two otherwise identical sales a few weeks apart on either side of a month boundary do not produce identical statements, and that is the mechanism, not an error.

What this guide will not tell you is how your proration will be computed, because that is set by the purchase contract rather than by the statute. The contract chooses the method. The statutes above only explain why the inputs move. If the proration language in a contract is unclear to you, that is a question for the closing agent before signing.

The association charge, if there is one

Where a condominium or homeowners' association is involved, the estoppel certificate is a seller-side cost in the statutory group rather than the negotiable one, because Florida law caps what an association may charge for it, puts the association on a 10 business day clock, and provides that if it fails to deliver within that time a fee may not be charged for the preparation and delivery of that estoppel certificate.⁶⁷

The number to quote is not the one printed in the statute, which is a trap worth knowing about. That, the deadlines, and the certificate's expiry are covered in the estoppel has a clock, a cap, and an expiry date.

Where sellers get surprised

Almost always on the statutory side, and almost always for the same few reasons.

• A net sheet built on the statewide 70 cent rate for a Miami-Dade property, or built with the surtax added to a transfer the statute exempts.
• A seller who understood the tax proration as a payment rather than as a credit for a bill that has not been issued or paid.
• A closing that moves by a few weeks across a month boundary and lands on a different discount tier than the estimate assumed.
• An out-of-area seller or agent applying the custom and the rate from a county that uses neither.
• An association charge nobody anticipated because the estoppel was ordered late.

None of these are difficult when they come up while the net sheet is being prepared. All of them are awkward conversations when they come up at the table.

The short version

The seller's negotiable costs are set by the contract and local custom. The larger ones are set by statute. Documentary stamp tax runs at 70 cents per $100 of consideration everywhere in Florida except Miami-Dade, which is 60 cents plus a 45 cent surtax that the statute does not apply where the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence, a term that includes a condominium unit. Whatever the contract says about who pays that tax, the Department of Revenue holds all parties to the deed liable for it. And property taxes prorate in arrears against a discount that steps down every month from November to March, so the closing date is part of the calculation.

If you are preparing a seller net sheet and you want the statutory figures checked against the actual property and the actual document before it goes to your client, send it over. That is a quick review and it is the cheapest point in the deal to catch a wrong rate.

Common questions

What does the seller pay at a Florida closing?

The seller's costs fall into two groups. The first is set by statute and is not negotiable in amount, principally documentary stamp tax on the deed, plus any association estoppel fee and the seller's share of prorated property taxes. The second is set by the purchase contract and local custom, which in most Florida counties includes the owner's title policy but in Miami-Dade and Broward customarily does not. Only the second group is negotiable.

How much is documentary stamp tax on a deed in Florida?

The rate is 70 cents on each $100, or portion thereof, of the total consideration in every Florida county except Miami-Dade, where it is 60 cents on each $100. Miami-Dade also has a surtax of 45 cents on each $100. The tax is calculated on the consideration for the deed, not on the loan amount.

Does the Miami-Dade surtax apply to a condo sale?

No. Florida Statute 201.031 provides that there shall be no surtax on any document pursuant to which the interest conveyed involves only a single-family residence, and the statute's definition of a single-family residence expressly includes a condominium unit as well as a detached dwelling. A straightforward sale of one condo unit is therefore outside the surtax, while commercial property and multi-unit transfers are not.

If the contract says the seller pays the documentary stamp tax, is the buyer off the hook?

Not as to the state. The Florida Department of Revenue states that all parties to the document are liable for the tax regardless of which party agrees to pay the tax. The contract decides who funds it at the closing table and that is how it is handled in practice, but it does not transfer the statutory liability away from the other party.

How are property taxes prorated at a Florida closing?

Florida property taxes are paid in arrears. They are due and payable on November 1 of each year and become delinquent on the later of April 1 following the year of assessment or 60 days after the original tax notice was mailed, so a sale that closes before the bill is paid leaves the seller owing their share of a tax nobody has yet paid. The amount credited is calculated under whatever method the purchase contract sets, which is why the proration language in the contract is worth reading before closing rather than after.

Why does the month a Florida closing happens change the tax proration?

Because the statutory discount shrinks month by month. Florida Statute 197.162 allows a 4 percent discount in November, 3 percent in December, 2 percent in January, 1 percent in February and zero percent in March. A proration computed on a discounted figure is therefore a different number in November than in February, which is one reason two otherwise identical closings a few weeks apart do not produce identical settlement statements.

Sources

Every factual claim above is drawn from the sources below. Statutory figures and deadlines were read from the official source rather than from secondary coverage. Sources last checked October 29, 2026.

1. Documentary Stamp Tax — rates for deeds, the Miami-Dade rate and surtax, and liability of the parties Florida Department of Revenue Retrieved October 29, 2026
2. Florida Statute 201.031 — discretionary surtax, and the single-family residence exception The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026
3. Florida Statute 125.0167 — the 45 cent per $100 ceiling on the surtax and the housing use of the revenue The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026
4. Florida Statute 197.333 — when taxes are due and when they become delinquent The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026
5. Florida Statute 197.162 — the monthly discount schedule for payment of property taxes The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026
6. Fla. Stat. s. 718.116 — estoppel certificates for condominium associations, at subsection (8): the 10 business day deadline, the fee cap and the loss of the fee The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026
7. Fla. Stat. s. 720.30851 — estoppel certificates for homeowners' associations The Florida Senate Retrieved October 29, 2026