Florida Documentary Stamp Tax §201.02

Section 01Why this tax exists in a Canadian seller's life

If you bought a Florida property as a Canadian, you almost certainly paid no doc stamps yourself. Florida custom puts the deed doc stamps on the seller, so the seller you bought from absorbed them silently inside their net proceeds. When you sell, the position reverses: you become the seller, and unless your buyer has agreed otherwise in writing, the doc stamps come out of your closing statement. On a typical Florida resale this is not a trivial line. A $500,000 USD deed outside Miami-Dade carries $3,500 USD of doc stamps. That figure stacks on top of the 15% FIRPTA withholding, the broker's commission (commonly 5% to 6% in Florida), and your title and closing fees. Knowing the doc stamp number in advance lets you size the gap between gross sale price and net wire that lands in your Canadian account after repatriation.

Section 02The base rate: $0.70 per $100 of consideration

"Consideration" is the legal term for what the buyer gives up in exchange for the property. For a normal cash or financed sale, the consideration is the contract sale price. If the buyer assumes an existing mortgage, the assumed balance counts as consideration even when no cash changes hands. If the property is exchanged for other property, the fair market value of what the seller receives is the consideration. Doc stamps are due regardless of where the deed is signed; what matters is that the property is in Florida.

The tax base is rounded up to the next $100 before the rate applies. A $350,000 USD deed produces a base of $350,000 (already a multiple of $100), so the tax is $2,450 USD. A $350,001 USD deed produces a base of $350,100 (rounded up), so the tax is $2,450.70 USD. The "or fraction thereof" language in the statute is what creates this ceiling-rounding behaviour.

Section 03The Miami-Dade exception: two rates, not one

The first applies to a single-family residence. On a single-family residence in Miami-Dade, the rate is $0.60 per $100 of consideration, with no surtax. A Canadian selling a Miami-Dade single-family home pays slightly less in doc stamps than a Canadian selling the same priced single-family home in any other Florida county.

The second applies to everything else. On any conveyance in Miami-Dade that is not a single-family residence (condominium unit, duplex, multi-family building, vacant land, commercial property), the county adds a discretionary surtax of $0.45 per $100 to the $0.60 base rate. The combined rate is $1.05 per $100, materially higher than the statewide $0.70.

This is where the original positioning of the asset matters for the tax bill. A South Florida condominium in Brickell, Sunny Isles, or Aventura is not a single-family residence, even if a single owner occupies it. It is taxed at $1.05 per $100. A typical Canadian-owned Miami-Dade condo selling for $700,000 USD therefore generates $7,350 USD in doc stamps, compared to $4,900 USD on the same priced detached house in Boca Raton (Palm Beach County, $0.70 rate) or $4,200 USD on a single-family house in Coral Gables (Miami-Dade, $0.60 rate).

Section 04How the calculation works: worked examples

The formula is the same in every county. Take the consideration, round up to the next $100, divide by 100, then multiply by the applicable rate.

Section 05Who legally owes the tax versus who customarily pays it

These are two different questions. F.S. §201.02 imposes liability on the document, not on a specific party. The DOR is explicit: "All parties to the document are liable for the tax regardless of which party agrees to pay the tax." The buyer, the seller, and the deed itself are jointly exposed if the tax is not paid at recording.

By long-standing Florida custom, the seller pays the deed doc stamps. That custom is reflected in the standard FAR/BAR residential contract, which assigns deed doc stamps to the seller as the default. The custom is exactly that: a default, not a legal requirement. A buyer and a seller can negotiate a different allocation in the contract, and on commercial transactions or distressed sales the buyer sometimes absorbs them. For a Canadian seller, the practical assumption is that you will pay them, unless your contract explicitly says otherwise.

Section 06The full closing tax bundle: deed stamps are not the whole story

Florida imposes three distinct excise taxes on a real estate closing. They are often discussed together because they share the same statutory chapter and are usually collected by the same closing agent on the same day, but they are legally separate, fall on different parties by custom, and are not always all triggered.

Deed documentary stamp tax (F.S. §201.02). This article. Owed on the deed. Paid by the seller in the standard case. Always triggered when a deed is recorded and consideration is non-zero.

Promissory note and mortgage documentary stamp tax (F.S. §201.08). A separate doc stamp at $0.35 per $100 of indebtedness, owed on any mortgage recorded in Florida and on the underlying promissory note. Customarily paid by the buyer-borrower. The note doc stamp is capped at $2,450 USD per document; the mortgage doc stamp has no cap. Triggered only when the buyer finances the purchase with a Florida-recorded mortgage. A cash deal triggers no §201.08 tax.

Non-recurring intangible tax (F.S. §199.135). A second buyer-side tax on the same mortgage, at $2.00 per $1,000 of indebtedness (0.20%), with no rounding to $100. Customarily paid by the buyer-borrower. Triggered only if a mortgage is recorded.

For a Canadian seller, only the deed doc stamps under §201.02 are normally yours. The §201.08 mortgage stamps and §199.135 intangible tax are the buyer's problem and appear on the buyer's side of the closing statement. The reason this article mentions them is that the three taxes are often described in the same sentence by closing agents and online articles, which causes Canadian sellers to misread their own bill.

Section 07When and how the tax gets paid

The closing agent (a title company or a closing attorney in Florida; closing in Florida is rarely done by a notary as in Quebec) calculates the doc stamps from the contract sale price and includes the figure on the closing disclosure or settlement statement. At closing, the funds for the tax come out of the seller's net proceeds (or whichever party the contract has assigned them to). The closing agent then submits the deed for recording to the County Clerk of Court in the county where the property is located, and the Clerk collects the doc stamps as a condition of recording.

If a deed is signed and delivered in Florida but is never recorded, the tax is still due. In that case, the taxpayer files Form DR-225 directly with the Florida DOR, by the 20th day of the month following delivery.

Section 08Exemptions: limited and narrowly drawn

Florida doc stamps apply broadly. The list of exemptions is short and most Canadian-seller scenarios do not qualify.

The most commonly invoked exemptions are: transfers between spouses incident to divorce; transfers to or from the State of Florida or a political subdivision; tax deed sales conducted by the County Clerk; transfers of real property by a natural person to an irrevocable grantor trust as part of estate planning under F.S. §201.02; and certain transfers of unencumbered marital home interests between spouses. A pure inter vivos gift of unmortgaged Florida real property between unrelated parties produces a deed with "nominal consideration" and triggers a minimum $0.70 doc stamp on the deed, not zero. A gift of a mortgaged property triggers doc stamps on the mortgage balance assumed by the donee.

Section 09Canada to Florida: the closest comparators on the buyer side

There is no federal Canadian equivalent to the Florida documentary stamp tax. Canada does not impose a federal land transfer tax. The functional analogues live at the provincial and municipal level, and they fall on the buyer, not the seller. The comparison below is given so a Canadian reader can size the Florida figure against a Canadian benchmark, not because the obligation transfers between buyer and seller in the same direction.

Section 10Common mistakes Canadian sellers make

Assuming Miami-Dade is uniformly $1.05 per $100. It is not. Single-family residences pay $0.60 per $100. The $0.45 surtax applies only to non-single-family conveyances. A Canadian selling a Miami-Dade detached house should not budget the surtax. A Canadian selling a Miami-Dade condo should.

Forgetting the round-up rule. A sale at $400,001 USD does not trigger the same tax as a sale at $400,000 USD. The base rounds up to $400,100, adding $0.70 to the bill. The amount is small, but the principle matters when contract prices end in odd dollar amounts.

Confusing deed doc stamps with mortgage doc stamps. A Canadian seller who reads a closing statement showing "doc stamps - deed" of $2,800 USD and "doc stamps - note" of $1,400 USD on the buyer side may believe they are paying both. They are not. The note and intangible tax line items belong to the buyer and reflect the buyer's financing, not the seller's transfer.

Treating the FAR/BAR default as fixed. The FAR/BAR contract assigns deed doc stamps to the seller as default, but the parties can renegotiate this in Section 9 of the standard form. In a soft market or a distressed sale, a Canadian seller who fails to push back can end up absorbing the buyer's costs voluntarily.

Modeling doc stamps as deductible against US capital gains. Florida documentary stamp tax on the deed is a transaction cost of sale. It reduces the amount realized for federal US tax purposes when filing Form 1040-NR with Schedule D, but it does not generate a separate deduction or credit in either Canada or the US. For Canadian tax purposes, doc stamps are a cost of disposition and reduce the proceeds line on Schedule 3 of the T1 return.

Assuming a sale to a related party at a low price avoids doc stamps. It does not. The DOR can recharacterize consideration to fair market value when property is exchanged for property other than money, and assumed mortgages count as consideration. A nominal $10 USD sale of a mortgaged property to a child is not a $10 USD doc stamp event; it is a doc stamp event on the assumed mortgage balance.

Forgetting that the doc stamp is on top of FIRPTA, not inside it. The 15% FIRPTA withholding is calculated on the gross sale price at the federal level. The doc stamp is calculated separately at the state level on the same gross sale price. These are two distinct lines on the closing statement and do not net against each other.

Section 11Checklist for a Canadian seller before closing

1. Identify the county in which the property sits and confirm whether it is Miami-Dade. If it is Miami-Dade, confirm whether the property is, by deed and by tax-roll classification, a single-family residence.
2. Multiply the contract sale price by the applicable rate (0.70%, 0.60%, or 1.05%) to get a first-pass doc stamp estimate. Round up to the next $100 if the price is not already a multiple of $100.
3. Review the FAR/BAR contract (or the equivalent commercial form) and confirm which party is assigned the deed doc stamps. The default is seller; check whether your version overrides this default.
4. Read the seller side of the preliminary closing statement and find the "Documentary stamps - deed" line. Confirm the amount matches your calculation.
5. Distinguish the deed doc stamps (your line) from the note doc stamps and intangible tax (the buyer's lines). Do not include the buyer's lines in your net proceeds calculation.
6. Confirm with your closing agent that the doc stamps are included in the closing wire and that you are not paying them separately. Florida closing agents handle this in the standard case, but family transfers and FSBO closings sometimes break the standard case.
7. Keep the recorded deed and the closing statement. The doc stamp amount is an item of cost of disposition for your Canadian return and an adjustment to amount realized for your US 1040-NR return.

Section 12Frequently asked questions

Is the documentary stamp tax deductible on my US tax return as a non-resident? It is not deductible in the year of sale, but it reduces the amount realized when computing the gain on Form 1040-NR Schedule D. The economic effect is a reduction of US capital gains tax liability. Confirm with your cross-border tax preparer.

Is it deductible on my Canadian return? Doc stamps reduce the proceeds of disposition reported on Schedule 3 of the T1 return for the year of sale. They are not a separately deductible expense.

Can I recover the doc stamps if the deal does not close? No. Doc stamps are owed on the recorded deed. If no deed is recorded, no tax is owed. If you have already paid into escrow but the deal collapses before recording, the closing agent returns the funds.

Are doc stamps owed on a transfer of an LLC interest rather than a deed? This is a planning question. Florida applies a multi-year look-through rule to conduit-entity transfers. Transferring all or part of an LLC's membership interest within three years of the LLC's acquisition of Florida real property can trigger doc stamps on the proportional value of the underlying real estate. Canadian owners selling a Florida LLC rather than a Florida deed should obtain Florida-licensed counsel before structuring the deal as a membership-interest sale.

Does the buyer ever pay the deed doc stamps? Yes, when the contract assigns them to the buyer. This is unusual in Florida residential resales but more common in new construction (developer often passes them to the buyer) and in some negotiated commercial transactions.

Does Florida have a separate state-level transfer tax in addition to doc stamps? No. The documentary stamp tax under F.S. §201 is the entire state-level tax on the transfer of Florida real property. Miami-Dade adds the discretionary surtax under §201.02(1)(b). Counties outside Miami-Dade do not stack additional transfer taxes.

Are there homestead-related exemptions a Canadian could use? No. Doc stamp exemptions tied to homestead status do not apply to Canadians selling, because Canadians as non-residents cannot claim Florida homestead in the first place. The exemptions that do apply are spousal-divorce transfers, government transfers, and certain irrevocable grantor trust transfers, none of which are practical strategies for a typical Canadian sale.