2015 Real Estate Laws: Purchase price is no longer a secret

This post is part of a series about new 2015 California Real Estate laws. Click here to see the series.

2015 California Real Estate Laws: Documentary Transfer Tax – Purchase price is no longer a secret

This law repeals the right of a principal buyer to request that the transfer tax be shown on a separate document, thus shielding it from public view.

Previously, a seller or buyer of real property could demand from the county that the documentary transfer tax (DTT) be stated apart from the recorded document.

This enabled principals to effectively keep the purchase price secret, since the amount of the transfer tax can be reliably used to deduce the purchase price.

Celebrities and high profile officers of public companies frequently hid their real estate purchase prices for security reasons.

Now every document subject to DTT when it is submitted for recordation must show on its face the amount of the tax due. See Revenue and Taxation Code §§11932 and 11933.

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