Action Center
BAAR Members,
Members of the BAAR Legislative Committee have met with several of Queen Anne’s County Commissioners. They are very seriously considering raising the recordation tax in the near future to nearly double its current level.
The explanations offered are that this would bring Queen Anne’s County in line with other counties who are already at $10 per thousand, and that it could provide needed revenue for various projects such as a PDR program or funding for the new courthouse.
While the Legislative Committee agrees that these are projects worthy of consideration, we are struck by the fact that these are projects that benefit all citizens of Queen Anne’s County and that funding should not directly affect only one industry or any select limited group of individuals (in this case only people buying, selling, or refinancing homes).
We wanted our membership to be aware that raising closing costs in Queen Anne’s county will absolutely not bring us “in line” with other counties. Only 6 counties in the state have a $10 or higher recordation tax and of those, 4 have zero local transfer taxes. The only Counties in Maryland that have both a $10 recordation tax and a transfer tax are Caroline and Dorchester. Due to the much lower average sales prices in Caroline and Dorchester, according to the SDAT website Queen Anne’s County is already raising far more money than either Dorchester or Caroline from our current recordation tax rate.
We strongly request that you take action by pressing the button below to send a message to our County Commissioners that Realtors oppose any increase in closing costs. If there is need for additional revenue for any purpose, it needs to come from everyone via the county tax rate so that everyone can share the burden fairly. Other groups in the County are lining up to oppose this as well, but politicians count numbers so we need to send as many emails as possible. Doing your part to help your clients and protect your industry will only take 30 seconds.